D&D 5E Do you prefer to fight with melee or ranged weapons?

Melee. I want to brawl. Headbutt, kick, and eye-gouge. I love Grappling and shoving a foe to lock him down. Recklessly Attacking to put a bigger Target on my Back so my more vulnerable allies are safer.

All that being said, If my character has Martial weapon proficiency (which so far has been all of them in 5e) I always make sure I have a Longbow and a Quiver of arrows.

Ignoring mechanics I always tend to find myself drawn to either the sniper type character, or the ninja/assassin type where I sneak up slash a throat and dissapear before anyone ever knows I'm there. Ideally having a character that's actually both, sniping down characters from the shadows where I can then infiltrating and decimating them with an unseen blade when necessary.

However in D&D I've found myself creating and wanting to play lots of various Gish types as well recently, and in older editions casters -primarily sorcerors- were definitely my most frequent characters and there are still multiple different caster types I'm wanting to play (though I can basically guarantee you will never see me playing a straight sorceror this edition, gone from favourite to least favourite class). In fact basically all the characters I've created for 5e have a bit of magic as well, my arcane trickster (heavy reliance on mage hand and minor illusion), a celestial type bladelock, my offense through defense build warlock tank (built around completely minimizing damage taken [while still wanting to get hit and be a target] while maximizing auto damage enemies will take for hitting him, and reaction attacks if they try to move by or attack others), my Primeval Guardian ranger super control/tank build, lore wizard, illusionist wizard, psion- ahem, mystic, and more. The only one I've built/played for 5e so far without magic is a barbarian/swashbuckler rogue multiclass that still has plenty to do with various skills he's expert in, Cha based control effects, rages, etc. I really just can't play some basic champion fighter who only hits things with base attack til they die then repeat with no extra mechanics. I need options moving parts, various toggles, etc.

Oh, also something worth note: I find even with my tank type builds I frequently make them Dex based rather than Str, I just really am drawn to and prefer the deft acrobatic type characters over the mountain of muscle.

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I prefer to fight at range over melee. With many characters, spells > arrows.
I prefer to fast-talk my way out of trouble over fighting (more mental work and plan-on-the-fly involved).
I prefer to sneak around and avoid the enemies altogether than have to talk my way out of trouble.

So my ideal character would be a Shadow Monk / Arcane Trickster Rogue / Wilderness Archer Ranger, in some combination.

Something to think about, its hard to be good at both Melee and ranged. Without a generous stat generation method its better to pick melee or ranged then to try and do both. Doesn't mean you shouldnt have the other (ranged/melee) weapon type on hand just in case.

I personally like to get in the middle of things so mostly melee for me.

Sword of Spirit said:

So which do you prefer (ignoring issues of mechanical effectiveness)?

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Melee, because that means you are at the heart of the encounter.

Also, in a campaign that involves a lot of confined-dungeon adventuring ranged combat often isn't viable.

Yardiff said:

Something to think about, its hard to be good at both Melee and ranged. Without a generous stat generation method its better to pick melee or ranged then to try and do both. Doesn't mean you shouldnt have the other (ranged/melee) weapon type on hand just in case.

I personally like to get in the middle of things so mostly melee for me.

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If you go Dex build, you can do just fine. I have a battlemaster who is archery preferred (crossbow right now, because he picked up a heavy crossbow from an enemy; I'll either grab CE or switch back to longbow when I get extra attack), but he's not afraid to pull out his rapier when someone gets in his face. He loses +2 to attacking in melee, but that hasn't really stopped him. He's actually missed more with the archery than with the rapier. With longbow, it's 1d8 either way. TWF Dex build would also work. Strength switch hitters are more difficult, but not impossible, given thrown weapons, though making Dex a secondary stat is also viable.

I love me a good mix, however if I had to choose I would say ranged as it gives more variety in play.

It depends entirely on the character I'm playing.

Take my Sorcerer character: he much prefers to stay at range and shrapnel-bomb the bad guys with animate objects.

My Lizardfolk cleric on the other hand, well, even though he went Light domain, he much prefers to be up front so he can bite his enemies' faces off . . .

It depends on the character I'm playing. Right now, I'm playing a melee-focused EK. I'm having a blast with that.

KahlessNestor said:

If you go Dex build, you can do just fine. I have a battlemaster who is archery preferred (crossbow right now, because he picked up a heavy crossbow from an enemy; I'll either grab CE or switch back to longbow when I get extra attack), but he's not afraid to pull out his rapier when someone gets in his face. He loses +2 to attacking in melee, but that hasn't really stopped him. He's actually missed more with the archery than with the rapier. With longbow, it's 1d8 either way. TWF Dex build would also work. Strength switch hitters are more difficult, but not impossible, given thrown weapons, though making Dex a secondary stat is also viable.

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Yep. It's pretty easy to make a dex character that is great at range and still does good at melee. It's harder to make a PM, GWM, or grappler character that is still good at range. I gave up and keep dex at 14 on my melee characters and carry a longbow for those times I can't swing a melee weapon.