Do Monsters know about a Fighter's Combat Challenge?

[Saeviomagy]

Monsters knowing the impact of a mark makes the mark more powerful.

As a fighter, I would want my foes to know the penalties for defying my mark - after all, it's what makes me do my job.

 

[Staffan]

It's pretty clear that the intent is that the fighter's opponent knows about the Challenge. The point of marking and the Combat Challenge isn't to be a "gotcha!" It's to tell the opponent "You wanna fight someone, fight me, or you'll be sorry."

 

[VannATLC]

Personally, I rule that most animals that aren't vermin are also aware.

My dog is cunning enough to know that when I'm watching her, she can't steal my food. She waits till I look away.

 

[shadowguidex]

Does the monster know that the fighter has marked it...lets think about it...

The fighter is harassing you, wont let you move, constantly in your face, and wont let you do anything within impeding your actions.

Yes, of course they are aware of it.

 

[On Puget Sound]

This reminds me of the question of whether an invisible creature gave flanking bonuses (3.5). Some argued that the flanking bonus was based on the target's having to divide its attention to defend in two directions, and if it was unaware of a threat, then it would not behave as flanked. Thus, the argument went, the visible opponent would receive no benefit, since the target would not be diverted by an unknown threat.

I think marking is normally obvious...the fighter is so threatening, so obviously aware of and responding to every move the foe makes, that the marked being knows it can't afford to ignore the fighter. However, if the fighter has a way of marking the target and then making them unaware of it (due to multiclassing in Psion, for instance), the target is still marked. Awareness is the normal state, but not required for the mark to work.

 

[Tuft]

The important thing is whether the monsters knows of the consequences of the mark:

(A) Do they know about the interrupt attacks?
(B) Do they know that the Wizard still is the squshier and more easilly killed target, even when the -2 of the mark is applied?

The thing is, I suspect that the DM's choice here will make a large difference in gameplay...

 

[Tuft]

Does the monster know that the fighter has marked it...lets think about it...

The fighter is harassing you, wont let you move, constantly in your face, and wont let you do anything within impeding your actions.

Yes, of course they are aware of it.

How about when the Fighter multiclasses into Wizard and marks everybody in a Blast 3 area with his at-will Thunderous Blast every turn? What differs that blast from the Wizard's one?

Or, come to think about it, a Web spell. Are the monsters subject to marking when they run into an already created Web thrown up by a Fighter/Wizard? They are subject to an attack...

 

[Danceofmasks]

Well, arcane casters usually appear to be squishier.
Whether they actually are is a different question altogether (infernal 'lock, for example).

 

[shadowguidex]

How about when the Fighter multiclasses into Wizard and marks everybody in a Blast 3 area with his at-will Thunderous Blast every turn? What differs that blast from the Wizard's one?

Or, come to think about it, a Web spell. Are the monsters subject to marking when they run into an already created Web thrown up by a Fighter/Wizard? They are subject to an attack...

The blast would just mark all the opponents for one round, and yeah, I'd say that gets their attention if the fighter is mocking and taunting them, and is a close and serious threat. They are aware of his intentions and it impacts their capabilities.

The web spell, aside from the initial burst, is a zone affect, and therefore IF it causes secondary attacks past the initial rolls, they would not mark the target. I know web doesn't have any secondary rolls, so it is a bad example, but Evard's Black Tentacles would be a spell where, since it's a zone, wouldn't mark the targets, because the fighter isn't actively pursuing and menacing the foe, they just happened to walk into a bunch of nasty black tentacles that tried to rip them apart.

 

[Danceofmasks]

A fighter attacks something, it gets marked.
If a fighter were the stealthy type, and manages to cap you one and blind you without you noticing, all the while stealthing, you're still marked.
If a fighter gets his hands on a nuclear weapon, with which to make attack rolls against everybody in the next country, they all get marked.
So how is an evard's repeat of an attack any different?