Dumb questions about Ranged Attacks and Damage and ranged sneak attack

babinro · Jun 13, 2008

How do you determine a Ranged Basic Attack and Damage with a Longbow?

How do you determine a Ranged Basic Attack and Damage with a Light Thrown Weapon such as a Dagger?

If target A and B is flanking enemy x. Can Rogue (C) thrown a dagger/shoot a crossbow at enemy x from 20feet away and apply sneak attack damage? If not, why would you play a ranged rogue...they seem to have a hard time granting combat advantage from range.

Having looked through the books for about 20 minutes I've decided to take this to the boards. I've only been able to find that a heavy thrown weapon uses Strength for attack and damage. Also according the record on light thrown, its says it does less damage...this implies to me that when throwing a dagger, you would use Dext for Attack roles, and it would gain no damage bonus of any kind regardless of strength and dext scores. I thought I read that bows do apply Dexterity to both attack and damage rolls but I cannot confirm that.

Harr · Jun 13, 2008

babinro said:
How do you determine a Ranged Basic Attack and Damage with a Longbow?

How do you determine a Ranged Basic Attack and Damage with a Light Thrown Weapon such as a Dagger?

PHB page 287, Ranged Basic Attack action.

Dex vs AC to hit and [W] + Dex modifier to damage.

If target A and B is flanking enemy x. Can Rogue (C) thrown a dagger/shoot a crossbow at enemy x from 20feet away and apply sneak attack damage? If not, why would you play a ranged rogue...they seem to have a hard time granting combat advantage from range.

Having looked through the books for about 20 minutes I've decided to take this to the boards. I've only been able to find that a heavy thrown weapon uses Strength for attack and damage. Also according the record on light thrown, its says it does less damage...this implies to me that when throwing a dagger, you would use Dext for Attack roles, and it would gain no damage bonus of any kind regardless of strength and dext scores. I thought I read that bows do apply Dexterity to both attack and damage rolls but I cannot confirm that.

No, only the combatants actively flanking get combat advantage from the flanking.

The way for rogues to get CA from range aside from surprise or First Strike is to get behind cover or concealment and make stealth checks to hide. Sadly, this issue is very poorly explained in the books and has sparked many many threads with nobody including WotC Customer Service guys agreeing among themselves on the right way to do it; my advice is to simply play it how it makes the most sense to you, because the RAW ain't giving it up.