Need advice for marked monsters

[Evil DM]

Hi folks,

I have a little dilemma and would appreciate some advice from the more experienced gamers / DMs.

First of all I like the new game mechanic of the 4th Edition very much. In the previous edition the battle has been something like "stand-in-front-of-the-enemy-and-see-who-will-first-go-down-due-to-full-attacks"

Now there is a lot more dynamics. The characters are moving a lot due to their powers or even the monsters because of their special abilities.

BUT

If I look at the fighter now the whole conecpt returns to the previous edition. If the fighter markes a monster the monster would best do nothing else than standing the ground and attacking.
But from the first three evenings we played the DMG adventure and the KoTS there is not a single monster which stands best in front of the fighter and keeps simply attacking. All the kobolds and goblins have some nice features related to moving.
So even if the fighter misses the marked kobold and it shifts as an immediate action the fighter gets another attack for having marked the kobold.

It feels like: Get marked and stop moving.

Do I miss something or is this point of view related to my humble experience with the new edition?

Cheers, Evil DM.

 

[BeauNiddle]

The fighters whole purpose is to stop things moving past it. The paladins purpose is to get the biggest meanest threat in the room to focus on the paladin and the paladin alone.

Both of them are defenders.

If you want the fighter out the way check out monster attacks with push, pull and slide effects (watch out for dwarf fighters!).

The fighters combat challenge (or is it the other one, I get my names confused) is an immediate interrupt NOT an OA so they only get one a round so have lots of shifty enemies.

Have minions swarm the fighter and then have the other combatants move round behind the scrum.


If you have chokepoints on the map then fighters will have a massive advantage as they can block said chokepoint. It's their job after all. If you have larger open maps then it's much hard to form a frontline.

 

[Ginnel]

So even if the fighter misses the marked kobold and it shifts as an immediate action the fighter gets another attack for having marked the kobold.

It feels like: Get marked and stop moving.

Do I miss something or is this point of view related to my humble experience with the new edition?

Cheers, Evil DM.

Yah you missed a couple of things, you can't use interrupt abilities on your own turn so combat challenge is out, combat challenge isn't a Oppurtunity attack its just a basic attack, so it doesn't stop movement or get the wis bonus to attack roll.

Fixed now, but yeah marking is supposed to make it a disadvantage to move away from the fighter or not clobber him, also you can only use an immeadiate action once per round, so from your go to the next time its your go you only get one immeadiate action I believe (this is the only bit I'm not 100% sure on)

 

[Evil DM]

you can't use interrupt abilities on your own turn

Ah, I see. Thanks.


Another thing I think we did wrong last time.

A marked enemy has been one square away from the fighter. Thus on the enemy's round it shifted one square toward the fighter and the player called: "It is marked, it shifts...I attack!"

Afterwards I read again through the rules and found out: You can only attack a marked enemy which shifts if it is adjacent to you. Something like an OA for moving away even if you shift away, which would normally not allow a OA.
Do I get this right?

Cheers, Evil DM.

 

[abyssaldeath]

Afterwards I read again through the rules and found out: You can only attack a marked enemy which shifts if it is adjacent to you. Something like an OA for moving away even if you shift away, which would normally not allow a OA.
Do I get this right?

Cheers, Evil DM.

Correct.