D&D 4E SRM Marking Marked and Other 4Eisms

[hong]

(Consider, for instance, that Wally the Warlord is dominated by a mind flayer. Fred the fighter wants to make sure Wally doesn't go postal on Willy the Wizard, so Fred marks Wally to try to force him to attack someone who can take a swing or two. Saying "You can't do that!" deprives characters of an important option. Not to mention that roleplaying wise, PCs can and do come to blows. It would be a very odd thing to say a power can affect a PC when there's a debate over the ethics of orc torture which led to interparty violence, but not under other circumstances.)

In all of these situations the person with the green circle around their feet now has a red circle, and so your examples are moot.

 

[Lizard]

It answers the preexisting silly condition of being unable to defend your allies. I'll take that trade.

I think there's several ways of adding 'defend your ally' mechanics without marks. Zones of control, anyone? Classic old mechanic. Or any number of "I declare I am defending X, if anyone attacks X, I get a free swing at him which can do any number of things" powers. For example, a fighter declares he's defending the wizard. Anyone the fighter threatens who targets the wizard suffers a -2 to all attacks as the fighter gets in the way and otherwise interferes. If three people all decide to defend the wizard...the wizard is really well defended. So it goes.

Really, this is a good example of 4e being "OK...cool...that's nifty...I can dig it...SAY WHAT?"

"Marking",whether it's by 'keeping an eye on you' or invoking a magical bind or whatever -- cool enough. We can live with it. I can see a fighter saying "I'm making sure that orc on the right doesn't try anything...", or a Warlock saying "I shall lay my curse upon that orc, so that if he turns from my baleful gaze, he shall burn!". What I CAN'T see -- and this is the inevitable "SAY WHAT?" moment -- is how the warlock's curse stops the fighter's focus, or vice-versa. If stacking marks is unbalancing -- make marks weaker or impose conditions on their use.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Aww, my non-combat usage of marking got left in the dust.

Ainatan you were the one who brought it up so what do you think of this idea:

If marking in-game is how we have viewed it and the character is paying close attention to the person.

I would love to see that be usable out-of-combat as a manner of determining a person's mood, intentions, etc.

So you "mark" a NPC, as they speak because your paying close attention to the actual person not what he is saying, you notice he keeps toying with a scroll in his hand, or he shifts his weight to his left, etc.

*Shrugs shoulders* just a idea.

 

[Lizard]

Just so people can visualize it, THIS is what you see when you are marked by a martial character:

And this makes you MORE inclined to attack the person marking you?

 

[Incenjucar]

Lizard:

 

[Campbell]

Just so people can visualize it, THIS is what you see when you are marked by a martial character:

Bad example. Wolverine is obviously a striker.

 

[hong]

Wolverine is munchkin.

 

[Incenjucar]

Bad example. Wolverine is obviously a striker.

http://www.geocities.com/jonhulkholt/reviews/images/wwhulk1.big.jpg

Better?

 

[FadedC]

"Marking",whether it's by 'keeping an eye on you' or invoking a magical bind or whatever -- cool enough. We can live with it. I can see a fighter saying "I'm making sure that orc on the right doesn't try anything...", or a Warlock saying "I shall lay my curse upon that orc, so that if he turns from my baleful gaze, he shall burn!". What I CAN'T see -- and this is the inevitable "SAY WHAT?" moment -- is how the warlock's curse stops the fighter's focus, or vice-versa. If stacking marks is unbalancing -- make marks weaker or impose conditions on their use.

I don't think warlocks will mark people, from what they said it's only a defender power. Of course you could replace warlock with paladin and your example works fine (well with somewhat different flavor text), but I don't think they WANT to make marks weaker....they are supposed to be major class powers with dramatic effects.

 

[AZRogue]

Okay, I like the fact that a Defender has something in his arsenal to encourage enemies to attack him. They had to do this somehow and I wondered what they would do, but this seems as though it will work well, from a gameplay point of view, without being overbearing (it doesn't force an attack).

I'll have to digest how I will want to explain this from a fluff/description point of view. I'm not sure if I can, though I'm sure I'll come up with something. Just don't know if it will be satisfying.

But it's a useful power that will be helpful from a tactical standpoint. How to rationalize it is the major hurdle I can see, barring any strange loopholes the players can exploit.