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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ahnehnois" data-source="post: 6152733" data-attributes="member: 17106">Well, you've elicited an involuntary reaction.I seriously doubt that you or anyone else has the ability to force other combatants to attack you preferentially or exclusively during a fight (especially against their own best interests). That's hardly the same thing as getting people to briefly pay attention to you after you've made a sudden noise.I am unfamiliar with any specific ability that works in this way (except dominate effects, in which case I have no idea why the wizard would order dominated enemies to attack the fighter when they are effectively defeated). Also, as has been covered elsewhere, the DM most certainly does have a choice in any matter.Well, I think the rules for movement, initiative, and rooms cover that pretty well.I don't get this scenario at all. If there's any kind of space restriction, martial characters can pretty easily form a physical impediment to the casters. If not, there's readied actions, AoOs, trip, etc. if the fighter wants to prevent enemies from attacking spellcasters behind him.But yes, the bottom line is that most enemies will act rationally. Knowing that wizards are scary but have weak defenses, many intelligent enemies will target them preferentially. If a fighter wants to be the target, the best way of doing so is to establish himself as a threat, by harming and killing enemies, at which point they will target him because it makes tactical sense. None of this requires a mechanic for "aggro" or any special ability that forces enemies to behave a certain way. The point is that yes, people do ignore the guy with the weapon. Even a fairly dumb opponent like an orc should be expected to make an assessment of the tactical situation and act accordingly. The player's influence is through his character's ability to change that tactical situation, and that's quite enough IMO.IME, most fighters and their ilk are dangerous enough that opponents will attack them fairly often without any particular action on the players' part to induce that behavior.</blockquote>

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