D&D 5E there aren't enough slow Dwarves with Axes! ;)

[transtemporal]

I would've thought the simplest way to give the advantage back to melee would be to ban the Sharpshooter feat. You don't need all these other change IMO.

 

[Saeviomagy]

I will say - I think monsters can take the Dodge action and use cover as they close the distance, just like PC's can.

The dodge action is only useful if the extra 30ft of movement you lost wouldn't have got you to your foe 1 round earlier.

Cover is a total fail thanks to sharpshooter...

 

[hejtmane]

The dodge action is only useful if the extra 30ft of movement you lost wouldn't have got you to your foe 1 round earlier.

Cover is a total fail thanks to sharpshooter...

Do not forget spell sniper as while

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[Caliban]

The dodge action is only useful if the extra 30ft of movement you lost wouldn't have got you to your foe 1 round earlier.

Cover is a total fail thanks to sharpshooter...

False. Partial cover is useless, but total cover still works just fine. Same thing goes for Spell Sniper.

I also kind of doubt that every single character in the party would have sharpshooter or spell sniper.

 

[Jester David]

Range has always been a strong tactical choice.
Ranged strikers were great in 4e. Ranged was good in 3e but held back due to the feat taxes, but became very strong in endgame.

Melee is balanced by the assumed game style: dungeons. Blocking terrain, cover, and rooms where archers begin almost at melee range.

 

[Rod Staffwand]

I also feel they made ranged combat too strong in 5E. The fixes I'm trying out in my new campaign are:
1. Not included Crossbow Expert, Sharpshooter and Spell Sniper.
2. Ranged attacks have disadvantage if you've moved, are moving or are going to move on your turn. If you've already made ranged attacks without taking disadvantage you forfeit your move for the turn (you've spent too long taking aim).
3. Crossbows do not suffer disadvantage on attacks vs. opponents in melee [mainly because the crossbow needs a bit of love].
4. The Archery fighting style also allows you to BULLSEYE (effectively take 20) on any ranged weapon attack roll against inanimate targets (mostly a ribbon ability for Robin Hood types with some fun situational uses).

Those are some pretty easy and simple fixes.

I thought about ditching Dex to damage, but I thought it was a far more intrusive fix and I think it gimps archers too much against low-CR cannon fodder types (I mean orcs have 11hp avg for St. Cuthbert's sake--that's like 2-3 arrows!).

 

[Flamestrike]

I am glad this fix works for you.

It does not for me. Magically placing the foes that close without explaining how they weren't spotted or heard ruins the verisimilitude for us.

Sorry to break it to you, but the DM 'magically places' all foes where he wants.

DM: A few hours after breakfast, as you push through the forest towards your goal, you come upon a 40' clearing in the forest. A small stream running through the centre. In the middle of the clearing you see a [horrible monster]. It sniffs the air and glances over in the direction of your party howling a cry of anger and challenge! Roll initiative'

If that sounds alien to you, we're playing a different game.

A more representative range would be that the monsters ambush the heroes from 100-120 ft away. They get one round (the surprise round) before initiative is rolled.

100-120' away in any 'dungeon' is ridiculous (and dungeons are the default setting for the game, where the lions share of encounters are expected to happen, and thus more representative of encounter distances than wide open plains, or white rooms).

And there is no such thing as a surprise round. It sounds like you're granting your PCs a 'surprise round', and then requiring the monsters spens 2-3 rounds just getting into combat. Thats up to 4 rounds to close to melee.

Seeing as most encounters are over within 5 rounds in 5E, thats you (the DM) setting your monsters up to fail, and giving ranged PCs a massive leg up.

Outdoor encounters should be set up around 60' away on average, and surprise should be rare (unless one of the parties is making a concerted effort to be stealthy). Indoor encounters are usually around half that distance (open door, monster attacks).

 

[Flamestrike]

Hard to do outside of a dungeon, CapnZapp already covered this in pointing out you can't just keep yelling "Ambush!" at your players and it also does little to deal with the PCs seeing a monster 20' away and then just putting some distance between them and it and kiting it.

Its not a case of ambushing or surprising the party. Its a case of the DM gets to set the encounter distance for each encounter. If you're starting your encounters 100+ feet away you're granting a party of 5 PCs multiple rounds of volleying ranged attacks at your encounter before it even really starts.

That doesnt align with any published module I can recall, and it doesnt align with my own experience in over 30 years of roleplaying. You might get one round to lob in ranged attacks in the open, but the monsters are on you after that first volley.

I certainly dont have that problem in my campaign, generally using encounter distances of 30-60 feet. This allows ranged PCs who win initiaitve to [fire] and fall back, keeping distance, or melee PCs to engage on round one. Everyone gets something useful to do, and everyone gets to play to their strengths.

It would be boring as batshit otherwise.

 

[knasser]

FlameStrike. I'm simply not going to engage in off-topic discussion in this thread. Were you genuinely interested in discussing it, you would show some respect to the topic and start a new thread rather than keep attacking a thread that is explicitly 'find constructive solutions for people who have this problem' rather than insisting over and over that they shouldn't have the problem and that they're playing it wrong.

Your posts are unhelpful here and you wont listen to answers or accept other playstyles. So you can quote me if you want but unless you move it to another thread I'm not going to engage and help drown out discussion in this thread.

 

[KahlessNestor]

How is, "Then don't start encounters 120 feet away" not constructive advice for the problem? Who made you thread police anyway?

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