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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7048243" data-attributes="member: 996">It does seem to be a stumbling block.  In 3e, there was Combat Reflexes, and in 3.5 the Knight got a feature that made the area around him 'difficult terrain' (which would theoretically cut down on the 5' steps).  4e only had one 'reaction' (Immediate action) per round, but one AoO per turn.  And defenders also inflicted the mark penalty which didn't just go away when they were pushed around. The Defender was very much a thing from launch.    In a way, that's a defender fail.  In another it's a matter of enemy (DM) attitudes.  The defender, done well, forces a catch-22 on the enemy:  either attack the very tough defender (sub-optimal) or suffer a penalty (sub-optimal) /and/ a 'punishment' (pure negative) for attacking someone else (who would have been the optimal target but for the defender's intervention).  If enemies consistently ignore the defender, he turns into a striker, looking like an offense-oriented badass, and his allies are slightly harder to hit.  If the enemy consistently attacks the defender looks like a tough-as-nails badass.  Either way, defenders are heroes of the battle.   If the DM doesn't want the interrupts, he can just consistently respect the aura (or consistently push/slide the aura-defender away).Overall, that might be advisable.  An exception in an optional class or sub-class wouldn't hurt, though.  And there could be alternatives, like the 3.5 & 4e Knights' that could go on 'auto pilot.' There were more than a few weaponmaster powers that attacked, and thus marked, more than one enemy at a time, and the -2 penalty remained whether he had a reaction or not, /and/ Combat Superiority still applied to trying to get away from him.  And, of course, it depended very much on the DM.  If the first marked enemy decided to respect the mark, well, the reaction was still there to menace the second, and if the first enemy hit, 'focus fire' demands he pile on, anyway... That's up to the DM, ultimately, as it depends on how enemies react to the threat of the feat. Something like the Knight's 15th level feature in UA?  I'm increasingly thinking that extra reactions, for specific uses, could improve for some sub-classes in step with extra attack.  It'd be logical enough, and easy enough to remember...</blockquote>

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