D&D 5E What does it mean to you for a character/class to be "good in melee"?


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Aaron L

Hero
Good Hit Points, decent AC, decent damage, more than one attack per round (eventually.)

And the more than one attack per round is especially important to me; without more than one, I just feel like it's missing something (mo matter how much damage you accomplish in that one attack, just "one attack and done" feels skimpy to me.)
 

Tony Vargas

Legend
And the more than one attack per round is especially important to me; without more than one, I just feel like it's missing something...
... typically, the guy you're swinging at.

Seriously, if you make 1 attack/round, even if you hit pretty well (60-80%, say) you'll likely have at least 1 round in each combat where you miss and it feels 'wasted.' DoaM (or other miss effects) are one way around that, but multiple attacks mostly take care of it (it's unlikely you'll miss with all three attacks in any given round at 11th, for instance).
 
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The best developed PC has no defense against them. ;)

A high-level Armor of Agathys + spammed Blade Ward is pretty much invulnerable to the whims of the dice.

Ditto for a Mobile or mounted PC who is good in melee and excellent at ranged, against a typical MM foe.

A Diviner is also somewhat immune to the whims of the dice, in a different way.
 

Aaron L

Hero
One issue that I have with 5e is that all classes use the same to-hit modifier - your proficiency bonus. This means that, with the same ability modifier, a wizard is as good at hitting an opponent in combat as a fighter.

Really? Wow, I don't understated that attitude at all. This is something that I especially LOVE about 5E; it eliminates "Phantom Proficiency" and means that being Proficient with a weapon actually really means something. Sure, in 3E Elven Wizards were technically Proficient with the longsword, but did that "Proficiency" mean your Wizard would ever be able to actually hit anything with his sword? No, it didn't. That "Proficiency" was really nothing but a lie.

In 5E having Proficiency with a weapon means your character will be able to use the weapon competently and actually hit with it. Now being Proficient with a weapon actually means a character can use it effectively in combat, instead of just equating to a lack of a penalty. Does that mean your Wizard will be as good at combat as a Fighter? No, of course not, but it does mean that your Wizard's "Proficiency" isn't just a lie, either.

I love this. It means that if I want to play a Wizard who is proud of the fact that he is a fully trained swordsman and wants to use his sword to whack something, he can actually do it, and not be crippled by the fact that, although he spent years training to use a sword, he will still never really be able to hit anything with it just because he is "merely a Wizard" and all that training essentially means nothing because his overall attack rating is too low.

In fact, this is actually one of my favorite elements of 5E, that all classes are equally skilled at landing attacks in combat, while overall effectiveness in physical combat is the measure of a mixture of factors (AC, Hit Points, number of attacks, damage capability, etc), rather than just an arbitrary limit on the ability of "non-warriors" to be able to actually hit anything.
 
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