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<blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 5562385" data-attributes="member: 27160">Not to pick on Stumblewyk, his post is just an example to respond to out of several similar......but a reason I don't always have monsters respect marks as DM is because it would make the marks overpowered with clever players.&nbsp; If every monster never triggers a mark, the defenders should be manoeuvering the baddies into bad positions, locking them there and getting the rogue or ranger onto a flank and the cleric stood directly behind them healing them as they get hit.&nbsp; My players are getting pretty good at giving foes reasons why they might want to trigger a mark - tempting them to take &quot;just one little hit&quot;...As I mentioned when XP-ing above, I see all marks as deterrents, not traps, so the marked creature (or PC) knows whath they will be punished for and (roughly) in what way.&nbsp; In the fiction this manifests in several ways - lean as if to shift and the fighter twitches his weapon in an implied threat; the Paladin's challenge comes and you just know that the gods will punish you unless you focus on this guy...&nbsp; But all creatures will make risk-reward decisions; any hunter or scavenger will make such decisions every day of its life if it is to get food and stay alive.&nbsp; And if the gain seems worth the risk (hey, the fighter might miss, right?) or the pain (well, divine punishment didn't hurt much last time...) then they'll go for it and violate the mark.&nbsp; Clever players will put monsters in positions where violating the mark looks attractive - preferably when it won't be, really <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"&nbsp; class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil&nbsp; &nbsp; :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /></blockquote>

[QUOTE="Balesir, post: 5562385, member: 27160"] Not to pick on Stumblewyk, his post is just an example to respond to out of several similar... ...but a reason I don't always have monsters respect marks as DM is because it would make the marks overpowered with clever players. If every monster never triggers a mark, the defenders should be manoeuvering the baddies into bad positions, locking them there and getting the rogue or ranger onto a flank and the cleric stood directly behind them healing them as they get hit. My players are getting pretty good at giving foes reasons why they might want to trigger a mark - tempting them to take "just one little hit"... As I mentioned when XP-ing above, I see all marks as deterrents, not traps, so the marked creature (or PC) knows whath they will be punished for and (roughly) in what way. In the fiction this manifests in several ways - lean as if to shift and the fighter twitches his weapon in an implied threat; the Paladin's challenge comes and you just [I]know[/I] that the gods will punish you unless you focus on this guy... But all creatures will make risk-reward decisions; any hunter or scavenger will make such decisions every day of its life if it is to get food and stay alive. And if the gain seems worth the risk (hey, the fighter might miss, right?) or the pain (well, divine punishment didn't hurt much last time...) then they'll go for it and violate the mark. Clever players will put monsters in positions where violating the mark looks attractive - preferably when it won't be, really :devil: [/QUOTE]

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