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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 4989528" data-attributes="member: 2011">I don't think it is a matter of rationalizing both.I think the DM should often run monsters to attack the biggest threat at the moment.The Fighter is closest at first, he is the biggest threat. The Fighter marks the foe, he again is the biggest threat. The monster attacks the Fighter. The Rogue comes up and does Sneak Attack and is successful, he is now the biggest threat. The monster switches to the Rogue and attacks him. The Fighter gets a free attack. If he hits, he is the new biggest threat. If he misses, he is not really the biggest threat again and the Rogue still is. Etc.In other words, monsters should both pay attention to marks and ignore marks depending on the outcome of the encounter.The monster has the Fighter bloodied and is starting to win and the Cleric heals the Fighter? The Cleric is now the biggest threat. The monster needs to kill the Cleric so that he can yet again, go kill the Fighter.And, this is a bit nebulous and each DM might rule differently.The point is to allow each player's PC to shine. The Fighter shined early on by marking foes and keeping them there. The Rogue shined by doing a lot of damage. The Fighter shined again by getting the free attack and the monster responded by turning its attention back to the Fighter again. The Cleric shined by healing the Fighting and then the Fighter shined again as the monster ignored him for the Cleric.Defenders don't only shine by keeping foes attacking them. They also shine by getting free attacks or doing damage or whatever to monsters that ignore their marks.Both should occur in the game since both abilities are in the game system.It's the extreme POV that shouldn't occur. The monsters should never "always ignore the mark" or never "never ignore the mark". They should be played somewhere in between and "sometimes ignore the mark". But, it should be based on what is happening around the monster and not just based on the DM's knowledge of the AC of other PCs. There should be incentives in both directions for the monster to make its decisions, but usually that incentive should be based on what appears to the monster to be the biggest threat. Now, that doesn't mean that the monster cannot decide to take care of the nuisance threat first if it thinks that this is better overall (one foe is often better to fight than two), it just means that the monsters thinking should not be to either attack the squishies every time, nor to pay attention to the mark every time.A balance should be maintained by the DM.</blockquote>

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