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::Because, "dude," a lot of enemies won't ever provoke opportunity attacks, or provoke them very rarely. Soldiers will be happy to avoid the Baneguard unless he can jump right in their face. Controllers and artillery can just avoid getting near him, and even if they can't, he still can't mark them until they do something to provoke - so they get one clean shot with whatever their worst attack is at the back row. Threatening Reach is the only thing that makes this kind of a mark viable, and only because threatening reach is itself overpowered for a PC. Look at the other defenders: fighters mark automatically on ANY attack, hit or miss. Paladins, wardens, and swordmages mark as a minor action. All of them, without exception, can mark at least one monster on their turn. Another issue with the baneguard's mark: all other defenders have a way to punish an enemy that ignores the mark, usually with an attack of some kind. With the baneguard, you suffer a -2 penalty to hit anyone else - and that's it. The other penalties occur regardless of who gets attacked. Furthermore, a marked monster can't save until the end of its turn, so another marking OA from the baneguard isn't much of a threat. They're better off running away. Sure, they may eat that OA, but they'll put some distance between themselves and the so-called defender (whose class features punish monsters that stay near them while marked), and maybe even get to a position where they can harass the squishy party members. Even if the baneguard follows, they have no incentive to stop harassing the squishies beyond a slight attack roll penalty, offset by the lower defenses on the people they'd be targeting. This means that a monster actually benefits by trying to avoid the baneguard EVEN WHEN MARKED. Does that clear things up? --[[Special:Contributions/75.21.170.64|75.21.170.64]] 05:15, October 8, 2009 (UTC)

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