What's your take on this Tony? Do you think that the 5e system makes "Ranged>Melee"?
I'm not sure it matters in 5e, where such 'balance' is mainly in the DM's hands.
I do think the system is too easy on ranged weapons and casting in melee, this time around. Whether you judge Ranged > Melee in terms of offense or not.
[MENTION=996] You both seem to be laying on heavy caveats that these "well designed" ranged PCs can mitigate their melee issues through various means and/or resources. Do I read you correctly?
Nah. It's true that you can obviate the minimal downsides of ranged weapons & spells in melee with minor application of system mastery (and the DM can block some of those pretty easily, too), but it's not the whole issue. Even if you don't, disadvantage in melee for ranged attacks (not spells that don't use attack rolls) is still pretty minor. Disadvantage comes from many other sources, as well, and, even when staying melee means accepting disadvantage you wouldn't otherwise have and not cancelling it with Advantage, it's still only a reduction in offense, not a risk like AoOs for ranged attacks & spell casting in 4e & (trivial though they could be to negate) 3.5 were. A caster or archer in melee isn't so much in trouble as possibly inconvenienced.
Yet you don't give the same benefit of the doubt to a "well designed" melee PC spending similar resources and efforts to shore up their perceived ranged limitations.
The question doesn't strike me as STR build vs DEX build so much as melee options vs ranged options, FWIW.
5e seems decidedly easy on ranged options, whether using bows or spells, in melee, while also making them very effective options. Probably in the name of fast combat in that case, but it's been a trend the last several editions, really. I've long noticed that the game has gotten much easier on casting as it's evolved, while rarely pulling back the power thereof to match, but in retrospect, the same has been true of ranged weapon combat, if perhaps a bit less dramatically so.
At the expense dealing less damage (as a general rule, of course).
Not substantially less assuming similar focus. There are lower and higher damage options in both melee and ranged builds, I suppose. At the high end you have Archery style and Sharpshooter vs GWF&M. Both are quite high DPR. At the low end, I guess, hand crossbows vs knife fighters. :shrug:
