4e mark fights?

[SSGoW]

For the ones playing 4e.. Has there been any huge fights oer who gets to mark or hae things gone smoothly? So far every game i DM'ed there has been one defender (except for a while there was a swordmage and a warden). How has people been handling this with more than one defender?

[Duos Greanleef]

I've played in plenty of games with multiple defenders.
It's really not as big of a deal as it sounds.
The Big guys with swords (or skinny guys with Arcane blades) get up front, choose their respective opponents, and the fight goes on.
Rarely do the two end up trying to mark the same guy.
If they do, it's usually at the start of their turn and only to get an extra effect from a power.
If it turns into a huge fight, have the bad guys kill one of the defenders and make them play a different role.

[tcrudisi]

I've seen two Defenders at the same table a few times. Usually one of them is playing a more "strikerish" Defender while the other is the "tank" Defender. So when they are down to one target, the "tank" takes over.

At one table, however, both Defenders were of the "tank" variety. They usually switch off depending on who has the most hit points at the time. They realize that it is to their benefit to both stay alive. haha. It works out well, though.

[Kurald Galain]

For the ones playing 4e.. Has there been any huge fights oer who gets to mark or hae things gone smoothly?

A huge fight, well, no. I've seen a few cases of e.g. a paladin and swordmage overriding each other's mark for a while, yes. Overall it's no big deal, and usually they decide together which of the two "mark reprisals" is most useful in the situation at hand.

[Yakk]

Two defenders, one target is best done by having them delay their initiative to form a cycle. And blatantly provoking damaging defender marks (so that the monster is still marked with a 'fresh' mark on the monster's turn).

The monster doesn't always have to follow the provocation, but... in that case, you end up with lots of freedom to move around, or use ranged attacks in melee, etc (ranged attacks in melee can get flanking bonuses! And prime shot!)

[Mando Knight]

Has there been any huge fights oer who gets to mark

Why? It's pointless inter-party conflict. Unless there's only a single opponent remaining, you should easily be able to have a pair of defenders split up to take down the targets. Even then, defenders can work together to have one mark the target with extra rider effects (such as Certain Justice combined with Divine Challenge) while the other uses pseudo-marking effect powers like Booming Blade. False marks are especially potent in this situation, as you'll be able to force the target to eat the effect unless it's got burst powers.

[valadil]

If there's an advantage to one mark over another, both players will usually agree on the advantage. ie, fighters often trump my paladin marks because it does more possible damage. I have no reason to object to this. If the marks are identical, why overwrite one? You're better off having more marked enemies in this case.

[oxybe]

for a while, we were playing with 2 defenders, the paladin & my swordmage. we had an unwritten agreement:

i protect the squishies, IE: wizard and warlock, while the pally defends the front-line. my character was more mobile, so dropping the attack to help the others was less demanding from me then the pally.

should an enemy get past me & the pally, my job is to drop my current enemy and mark the guy who busted through, this way, should he ignore my swordmage and attack the other two, they take less damage. when me and the pally are working together against an enemy, i let his mark take over as it can deal more damage over time.

[Requiem Star]

Most players should be able to work this out. I had a group with one guy who wanted to be a 'barbarian tank'. What he ended up being was a workout for our warlord AND cleric. One day it caught up with him and he was sore about "Game Imbalance" when he made a frenzied berserker! ::Facedesk::

[Aron Times]

Marking is optional. You don't have to mark the target if you don't want to, that is, if someone already marked it and his punisher effect is stronger than yours.

[Katana_Geldar]

Swordmage marks are rather effective, as I don't think they have to fight their marks. A swordmage can just mark a mook and have another party member fight it.

[Person_Man]

Marking is probably my least favorite 4E mechanic. Does anyone know a good variant that could replace it?

[Arbitrarity]

How so, Person? You mean the -2 to hit, the riders, the concept, or something about the rules in marking? I can probably try to make something up.
A simple replacement for Paladins and Swordmages would be a "Divine/Arcane shield" or similar, which gives a bonus to defenses and retribution against enemies attacking a specific ally. Especially easy for shielding swordmages, actually.

[Aron Times]

Remember, 4E's mechanics shouldn't be taken literally. Marking basically represents the defender's ability to get in the enemy's face and keep him from hurting your allies. When you think of it this way instead of as a mere -2 to attack rolls, it makes much more sense.

[Mando Knight]

Marking basically represents the defender's ability to get in the enemy's face and keep him from hurting your allies.

Or a Swordmage's ability to arcanely seal the foe's strength, or the Paladin's ability to call down the power of the divine to take revenge on those who harm his foes...