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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 4455547" data-attributes="member: 743">A defender with the highest AC in the party is not as good at his job as he could be. If he's too hard to hit the enemies will target the squishier party members instead. They'll have -2 to hit when marked, but it won't matter because they'll still be as likely to hit.Fighter lock down comes from his ability to keep foes from moving away from him. The occassional ability to mark multiple people is nice, as it gives the rest of the party a pseudo-+2 to defenses, but it's the ability to get up to foes and keep them from moving away that helps. He doesn't just threaten OAs, his OAs stop them in their tracks.Paladins' lock down comes from their free damage if the enemy attacks anyone but them. It's not as good at defending as the fighter's abilities, but paladins make up for it with increased healing ability for others.Have you never seen a monster miss by one or two because of the -2 penalty for not attacking the one that marked them? Have they never taken any paladin challenge or the fighter's interrupt attack? An enemy dropping earlier and missing on attacks is a big difference in how many surges are spent and who might drop.They're not supposed to have higher defenses, they're supposed to defend others.Two hits is a lot.I'm confused. The defender is taking the most damage, but he's not defending the rest of the party?Why is the paladin trying to be good at everything? If he picks a single aspect of his class to focus on and just makes sure he's decent at the other, he should be fine. Each class (except Wizard) has at least two primary foci. Any character trying to do both well is going to suffer elsewhere.A level 30 soldier (advanced Efreet, since all level 30s are solos) does an average of 22 damage per strike. Not including his higher healing surges, that's 2 more attacks the fighter can take. When you factor in his 200 hit point advantage from having larger and more healing surges, the difference seems pretty huge (11 more attacks per day he can take, assuming all other factors are equal, which they won't be because fighters can easily get regeneration for an entire encounter or heal themselves without spending a surge, or that Cha focused paladin can be adding his Charisma Mod twice every time he lays hands on himself.Short restComeback Strike (daily on hit)Iron Warrior (daily minor action that gives more hit points and a save)Indomitable Strength (daily Iron Vanguard power)It's not a lot, but it's more than most get. Multiclassing Warlord or Cleric is a good bet for fighter's, and since they take a lot more damage than others, they spend more surges via the rest of the party;s healing powers as well.Short rests. If your fighter is worried about AC, he should use a shield. +3 to AC and Reflexes (+2 before Shield Spec) will put him even or ahead. If he wants to focus on damage, he has to accept the downside of that decision.Sure, at 1st level. At 30th (by your own numbers) it's a difference of 8. And that's again assuming the fighter is dumping Con, which given the regeneration stances, is a pretty bad idea.</blockquote>

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