Ranged Options for All Classes

[Lord Twig]

Why don't any of the characters have ranged weapons, magic items that let them fly or otherwise cross the gap, and failing that why don't any of the casters in the group prepare spells like conjure animals, fly, dimension door, teleport, or the like? These are 11th level characters, not 3rd level, there are a lot of ways to cross a gap to engage an enemy in a fight. Exactly what to do will depend on the party makeup and magic item availability, but there are a lot of ways to get across the gap to engage the enemy in melee. And failing that, 11th level characters should at least be able to afford bows so that they can do something other than sit around after tossing javelins.

This was a bunch of young, new players. I am the experienced one in the group. So I really think it is my own fault (and the adventure designers ). And they were sealed in a dungeon for a long time and couldn't just leave to get new items.

And now that I think of it the rogue did have an item that let her summon animals. She summoned a few giant birds and flew the barbarian across. Which was when I decided it was a good excuse for the BBEG to teleport to the other side and summon a whole bunch of minions. The birds flew the barbarian back so he could get back in the fight.

 

[Eltab]

The Sun Monk gets to use his Martial Arts attacks at range almost from L1. It's like having a 'quickshooter smallbow' that never runs out of ammunition.
A Shadow Monk can teleport his way from any shadow into any shadow - if the lava lights up the room from below, the whole balcony floor will be in shadow (hint hint).

Ancients Paladin gets Misty Step on his spell list, and from your description of the scene, THAT would be my Horde of the Dragon Queen Paladin's move on Turn One.

Boots of Spider Climbing - no longer tied to the floor, run along the walls to engage enemies.

 

[Shiroiken]

ALL characters have some way of doing range, some simply don't do it exceptionally well. This is where group compatibility and tactics work. In a Thule campaign, I played a druid that would often shapechange into a Giant Eagle so that I could carry the barbarian (or he could ride, depending on the situation) very quickly into melee where he could do the most damage. Casting Fly on a melee character to get across the lava is a good strategy from your example. Generally speaking, in 5E a character cannot expect to be able to do everything well by themselves.

Oh, and if you want to be a Paladin, a level dip into Warlock for Hexblade and Eldritch Blast solves a lot of your problems.

 

[Xeviat]

I am still looking for solutions for barbarians, fighters and monks. Rangers have spells that I am sure would help them and Rogues, with their typical high Dex and sneak attack can probably do pretty well. So if you can think of something for those three classes I would be happy to hear about them.

Embrace action and adventure genres and make it possible for the melee characters to get into melee. The monk should be able to Wuxai their way over. The other melee characters should have something to do too.

 

[bedir than]

I am still looking for solutions for barbarians, fighters and monks. Rangers have spells that I am sure would help them and Rogues, with their typical high Dex and sneak attack can probably do pretty well. So if you can think of something for those three classes I would be happy to hear about them.

Monks have extensive movement options at tier 3/4. they can climb walls as if they the are normal land, as well as a few other functions to close distance.

A fighter that doesn't have a bow/crossbow/sling to do minor damage is a character that's made a mistake or an intentional weakness for roleplay.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

In addition, monks have super-high dex, a second attack at level 6 and are proficient in shortbows. They really have no excuse for sucking at ranged combat.

 

[Horwath]

I am still looking for solutions for barbarians, fighters and monks. Rangers have spells that I am sure would help them and Rogues, with their typical high Dex and sneak attack can probably do pretty well. So if you can think of something for those three classes I would be happy to hear about them.

barbarians can use thrown weapons, reckless attack will counter disadvantage for long range penalty and you still get bonus damage from rage.

also, wtf are paladins doint at lvl11 without 2 levels of warlock

 

[Blue]

A few months back I ran the climactic battle for an official D&D adventure path and found a fatal flaw. The BBEG appeared on the opposite side of the room filled with lava, up on a balcony. This is a great cinematic scene, but on the first turn it immediately became apparent that the only characters that were going to be able to participate in this battle were the spell casters and those martial characters that specialized in a bow. The barbarian, paladin and sword and board fighter were relegated to spectating after throwing their few javelins (at disadvantage because of range). I quickly changed up the BBEG tactics by having him summon a hoard of fodder and teleporting to the other side of the room. This was a stupid thing for the highly intelligent antagonist to do, but it made the game a lot more fun for the players.

Now I am deciding on a character to make for a game and I realized I didn't want to be useless at range. This makes playing a barbarian, paladin and monk almost out of the question. As well as a large number of fighter builds and even quite a few ranger and rogue builds.

So is there a way to make primary melee classes not completely suck at range strait out of the box? Or will it require house rules?

For a climatic battle for and official product I'm assuming the characters were 9th level or higher. D&D is a team game, assuming that the casters could cast fly, or dimension door, or in some way get the ground pounders into range is a reasonable assumption. Heck, flying creatures are not an uncommon foe, which has a large overlap with this. Being able to deal with it should be a common contingency.

Going easy on the party and rewarding their lack of planning ... well, I'd make the same choice to opt for player fun. Kudos, it's a hard choice to compromise what the intelligent foe would do because it would be a boring capstone for several of the players. But it would still steam me up that the party just ignored the possibility.

I would make sure not to reduce the difficulty in doing so - the ease of access to the big bad would be offset by the additional forces, at the least. Or maybe leave him on the far side but with less HPs so the melee characters need to protect the ranged characters locally while they had to deal with the still-inaccessible big bad.

 

[Dessert Nomad]

This was a bunch of young, new players. I am the experienced one in the group. So I really think it is my own fault (and the adventure designers ). And they were sealed in a dungeon for a long time and couldn't just leave to get new items.

Yeah, there are a lot of options for getting across barriers that don't take items, though usually some kind of flight item is the way to go. If the party is all martial then they need to prepare for ranged combat, and will probably hit barriers they can't cross unless you change published adventures. "You are dealing with an enemy who flies or is across a barrier" is a pretty common obstacle in T2 and higher content, so this is a decent learning experience for the parties.

Some spells that they should look at having:
Jump
Misty Step (only the person casting)
Spider Climb
Earthbind (Not good here, but in general)
Fly
Conjure animals, and conjure spells in general
Dimension Door (Can carry along one person)
Find Greater Steed
Animate Objects
Far Step (self only)
Wall of Stone
Wall of Force

And now that I think of it the rogue did have an item that let her summon animals. She summoned a few giant birds and flew the barbarian across. Which was when I decided it was a good excuse for the BBEG to teleport to the other side and summon a whole bunch of minions. The birds flew the barbarian back so he could get back in the fight.

Giant owls and giant eagles (standard conjurable big birds) are both strong enough to carry a regular PC, and two can carry a heavy PC. The rogue could have just taken the whole melee contingent across and solved the problem for you right there.

 

[Yunru]

Paladins get a few spells that have a range and can either take out an opponent or cause them to approach, plus they have Find Greater Steed (or w/e it's called) that can give them a flying mount.

Monks should have enough Dex to shoot bows, and at later levels can simply run up/across the walls to enemies (doesn't help with a chasm though).

Fighters and Barbarians... just gotta bring extra throwables I guess.