Marking/challenging

[Trellian]

Maybe it's a stupid question, but:

Does creatures know they are being marked by fighter's challenge / divine challenge etc.? And do they know the penalties for not attacking the marking character?

 

[Joker]

As I understand it, the target knows it is marked. It knows about the -2 penalty to attack. But it likely doesn't know about any other consequences unless they've fought the character before.

Now watch me be proven wrong.

 

[Ryujin]

The intent of marking is to draw the creature's attacks to the defender in question, so it would be rather pointless to NOT have the creature in question know. Other than that it depends on how open your campaign is about such things. The level of knowledge that you have about what is attacking you should also be available to your opponents, in most cases.

 

[Trellian]

Yeah, I thought the same. So unless the creature REALLY wants to attack someone else, he stays with the marker.

 

[RigaMortus2]

Creatures know what conditions and effects are affecting them. Marked is a condition.

What they don't necessarily know is any additional effects that could trigger off of those conditions. A creature will know when a Fighter marks them for example, but won't necessarily know that the Fighter's Combat Challenge will kick in should they attempt to move away.

 

[Turtlejay]

Well, a lot of the Defender's fun is in executing those marks. So don't get all metagamey and assume that the monster is going to conserve his HP at all costs, *you* know that the monster is going to lose, and what matters is that he does the most with his limited existance. So, if he has an opportunity to wreak some havok at the cost of a few of his HP's, he should take it. A mark should also not give your PC's carte blanche to walk all over the battlefield. Make them think before they move.

Jay