Can You Flank With a Ranged Weapon?

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Out of curiosity... what do you feel "Your flanking allies retain their normal +2 bonus" does, if your 'flanking allies' are using ranged weapons?

They retain their normal +2 bonus which is a bonus that applies only to melee attacks.

Do my friends in the living room gain a +1 bonus to attack the opponent in the living room, if I'm asleep in the bedroom, my friend Bob's in the kitchen, and a line drawn between Bob and my centres passes through opposite borders of the opponent's square?

Yes. It's strange, but ...

FHR

Similarly, if your (F) invisible, silenced rogue friend (R) wanders by in the middle of fight with a hobgoblin (H), and pauses, briefly, in the above situation, you're suddenly better at fighting the hobgoblin, who doesn't even know the rogue is there.

Flanking's just weird, mang.

EDIT: It's like, we all kind of have in our head the idea of what flanking should be, but the rules just aren't there to describe it. So, we assume it works like we think it should, even if the rules don't specifically support that view.

 

[GorTeX]

Another quick aside, regarding the "Line Test":



Now, according to the line test, we draw a line from the center of Q to the center of F. If it passes through opposite sides of the hobbo, the dragon and the fighter are flanking.

You'll notice that, in this case, it doesn't - the line passes through the bottom of X and the right side of X. Thus, the dragon and the fighter aren't flanking the hobbo, unless the dragon steps one square north.

Odd, eh?

except for this:

Exception: If a flanker takes up more than 1 square, it gets the flanking bonus if any square it occupies counts for flanking

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

... Should have kept reading, I guess ...

That's how you can tell it's been awhile since I've discussed this one.

Okay, for another odd example:

This is a standard 5' square.

-----
|XYZ|
|.....|
|.....|
-----

X and Z are really small rogues - probably pixies or grigs or something. Y is the really small business man they're robbing. Now that combat has started, X and Z, unfortunately for them, can't sneak attack Y because:

Creatures with a reach of 0 feet can’t flank an opponent.

 

[Drowbane]

"Combat - Can You Flank With a Ranged Weapon?"

Sure, but you are going to look awefully silly swinging your longbow in melee...

 

[Tyrrell]

Apart from the Peerless Archer (3E PrC from the FR Silver Marches sourcebook), it's not possible to threaten with a ranged weapon. You also don't threaten with certain melee weapons - namely the whip and unarmed strike.
-Hyp.

There is also the Arrowmind ranger spell in the spell compendium (My ranger has been using this one like crazy)

 

[DungeonMaester]

Mechanic rules are compltly incomplte.

That said, The only reason one can not flank with a ranged weapon is becuase it is assumed that you only have a ranged attack on your turn, and unprepared for flanking and AoO. So the common sence rule is that range attack who take a ready action may take AoO and Flanking when presented with the chance. Its a effective rule unless there is some actually reason why a ranged attack wouln't get the bonus.

Sorry for any typos in advance.

---Rusty

 

[Hypersmurf]

There is also the Arrowmind ranger spell in the spell compendium (My ranger has been using this one like crazy)

Ooh, true - I'm still finding things in Spell Compendium

-Hyp.

 

[Goldmoon]

Ok, so to make things clear: By the RAW you can flank with a ranged weapon in 3.5?
Is that right?

 

[IcyCool]

Ok, so to make things clear: By the RAW you can flank with a ranged weapon in 3.5?
Is that right?

Maybe.

 

[Goldmoon]

Maybe.

Thanks for clearing that up for me