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The Guardian's Counter power from the Guardian theme has the following text:

Immediate Interrupt
Trigger: An ally within 2 squares of you is hit by an attack and you are not included in the attack.
Effect: You and the ally shift up to 2 squares as a free action, swapping positions. You become the target of the triggering attack, in place of the ally. After the attack is resolved, you can make a basic attack against the attacker.

Say Jhank the Paladin has this theme, and has an enemy marked with Divine Challenge. That enemy then chooses to attack one of Jhank's allies, and hits successfully, at which time Jhank decides to use Guardian's Counter to take the hit instead.

Does this count as the enemy defying Jhank's mark for triggering Divine Challenge, even though Jhank was the one who eventually took the attack?

(If the answer is specific to Paladins or Divine Challenge, please mention such, and under what conditions the answer would be different.)

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Divine Challenge works with Guardian's Counter, but most other non-Essentials mark punishment abilities don't.

From the PHB, p91:

Divine Challenge
... While a target is marked ... it takes radiant damage equal to 3 + your Charisma modifier the first time it makes an attack that doesn't include you as a target before the start of your next turn. ...

The key here is that Divine Challenge's mark punish is triggered when the foe makes the attack and requires no action, while Guardian's Counter is triggered later, when the attack actually hits.

All the other pre-Essentials defender class' mark punishments are likewise triggered when a foe makes an attack, but they pretty much all require an immediate reaction or interrupt, which means you can't both use their mark punishment and use Guardian's Counter. The Essentials defenders, on the other hand, use opportunity actions to punish foes who attack the defender's allies while within their pseudo-mark aura, so they can combo their mark punishment with Guardian's Counter.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ It's been a little while since I played 4E, but can you use an interrupt and an opportunity attack on the same turn? I thought you only got one? \$\endgroup\$
    – Ethan
    Mar 28, 2016 at 18:59
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Ethan You get 1 immediate action per round, and 1 opportunity action per turn (not 1 for each of your turns, one for each turn taken by anybody). You are allowed to use both on the same turn (though not your own turn; I don't believe either is allowed during your own turn). \$\endgroup\$
    – Oblivious Sage
    Mar 28, 2016 at 19:04
  • \$\begingroup\$ Ok, thanks. It looks like I just read a little bit extra into that when I saw that passage. You definitely can't use reactions on your own turn, I recall a story awhile ago of people readying attacks to hit a creature on its own turn, to avoid a powerful counter attack. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ethan
    Mar 29, 2016 at 14:32

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