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<blockquote data-quote="Nullzone" data-source="post: 5558633" data-attributes="member: 97538">I try and get inside my monsters' heads when I consider marks. Mindless or instinctive creatures will almost always pursue the marking creature, unless a specific condition comes up that otherwise shifts their focus.Example: Ghouls with their Bite attack. Significantly more powerful than their MBA, but requires the target be dazed/stunned/immobilized; my reasoning then is that they really want to bite people and feed on them, but they're too slow to do it normally. So they get marked by the Fighter, and claw at him for a bit, when suddenly the Wizard nearby gets dazed. They realize this (undead in particular have some kind of nether-sense about them in my mind, or you could just argue for animalistic instincts of preying on the weak) and pursue the Wizard, despite the mark.Intelligent creatures, on the other hand, are highly contextual. I try to exploit their best tactically threatening move, even at the expense of a mark penalty or other OAs unless they're surrounded by a lot of powerful melee combatants; if their best tactic would consider the defender as a viable target, then they'll probably hit him if marked to avoid further penalizing themselves.Not only does this generally telegraph the conditions upon which the&nbsp; nastiest effects are based to the players if they're paying attention&nbsp; (which is my goal), but it really adds to the danger at the table and&nbsp; makes things more interesting for everyone, including/especially the defender and his mark punishment.With regards to the OP, monsters and PCs alike know if they are marked, but they do not know what happens if they violate that condition. &quot;Marked&quot; is an abstraction meant to signify &quot;I'm the walking tank in your face who is going to bash it in if you don't give me your full attention&quot;, so it's not really necessary in the strictest sense. (Caveat: Monster knowledge checks may tell PCs if something happens when they get marked by an NPC).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Nullzone, post: 5558633, member: 97538"] I try and get inside my monsters' heads when I consider marks. Mindless or instinctive creatures will almost always pursue the marking creature, unless a specific condition comes up that otherwise shifts their focus. Example: Ghouls with their Bite attack. Significantly more powerful than their MBA, but requires the target be dazed/stunned/immobilized; my reasoning then is that they really want to bite people and feed on them, but they're too slow to do it normally. So they get marked by the Fighter, and claw at him for a bit, when suddenly the Wizard nearby gets dazed. They realize this (undead in particular have some kind of nether-sense about them in my mind, or you could just argue for animalistic instincts of preying on the weak) and pursue the Wizard, despite the mark. Intelligent creatures, on the other hand, are highly contextual. I try to exploit their best tactically threatening move, even at the expense of a mark penalty or other OAs unless they're surrounded by a lot of powerful melee combatants; if their best tactic would consider the defender as a viable target, then they'll probably hit him if marked to avoid further penalizing themselves. Not only does this generally telegraph the conditions upon which the nastiest effects are based to the players if they're paying attention (which is my goal), but it really adds to the danger at the table and makes things more interesting for everyone, including/especially the defender and his mark punishment. With regards to the OP, monsters and PCs alike know if they are marked, but they do not know what happens if they violate that condition. "Marked" is an abstraction meant to signify "I'm the walking tank in your face who is going to bash it in if you don't give me your full attention", so it's not really necessary in the strictest sense. (Caveat: Monster knowledge checks may tell PCs if something happens when they get marked by an NPC). [/QUOTE]

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