Ruin Explorer
Legend
Yes I've been seeing exactly this - even with EK Lae'zel's insane mobility (and it is insane) it seems like ranged contributes to a lot of extra damage early in fights when it matters most, and often even Lae'zel is better off standing back and shooting/throwing with the team rather than advancing, this often forcing the enemy to waste actions on Dash or position badly to get us. Lae'zel does get an interesting trick later on where thanks to Cloak of Displacement, Blur or Protection from Evil she can have both the lowest AC (so is aggressively targeted) and yet also be extremely hard to hit, but I could work the same trick with Karlach probably (though without beautiful Shield to fill the gaps when it fails - I do have Cutting Words though) - and yeah at melee range I often see 90% chance to hit with a Throw (inc Disadvantage) where I only have 75% to hit with an actual melee attack.Are you using Tavern Brawler on Karlach? If so, you probably don't need a tank for her. TB boosts her accuracy so high that she can eat disadvantage for throwing in melee and still be over 90%.
In fact, I used TB/throw Karlach herself as my tank in my first Honor run. I went with an "all ranged" party and it was amazing. Really drove home how much damage you leave on the table while your melee fighters are Dashing and jumping to reach the enemy. It also gives you a better chance to escape a battle that goes pear-shaped; or turn a losing fight into a win by killing the archers and then kiting the melee monsters.
Welcome back Astarion, is I guess the message! Though he, Karlach and my Lore Bard will all be competing for a lot of the same items by L8 (at which point I will have two levels of Warlock on the Bard).
Thank you for the suggestions, this should be fun!