Not sure what you mean.
If what you're saying is "ranged was good in 3E too" I don't disagree.
I'm saying there was no need to play the 'popularity' card - especially given WotC's record of steadfastly asserting that each of it's editions is more popular than the last, as it undermines an otherwise valid argument.
Remember, 3rd edition was a huge success. And it had no less than eleven (11) checks and limitations on archers that 5E made the huge mistake of removing.
What I'm specifically pointing my finger at is how WotC for some reason thought it was a good idea to remove ALL of the following restrictions on the basic idea of picking up a bow and starting to shoot:
- ranged fire requires a different ability than melee
- ranged fire does less damage (no ability modifier to damage)
- penalty to shoot into melee (target is in melee)
- penalty to shoot from melee (archer is in melee)
- you can't move into position, shoot, then retreat out of sight - you're either stuck out in the open before or after your shot
- no "power attack" with ranged weapons
- no dual-wielding with ranged weapons
- archers gain penalties for cover
- archers gain penalties for range
- you can't stack a magic bow with magic ammunition
I've probably forgotten one or two, but these are the ten I could come up with from the top of my head.
You said 11+, you better come up with 11! ;P Of course, the obvious one you left out was the AoO for making a ranged attack in melee. Inability to make AoOs, yourself, was another downside, but 5e hasn't technically removed it, just made AoOs a lot less common and relatively less effective.
I mean, the main advantage of range is still there:
- Shooting at range means the monster can't claw your eyes out, because his arms can't reach you.
For a high-hp fighter with few means of preventing an enemy from closing, that's a fairly minor advantage (for casters it can be huge, of course). Being able to attack an enemy in spite of being unable to reach them (due to distance, intervening obstacles, effects that reduce or nullify your movement, etc), and thus able to attack the target of your choice, every round, focusing fire efficiently, is a pretty major offensive advantage.
Yet, removing ALL of these is what WotC decided to do.
you can now use Dexterity for both your melee and ranged needs
Since you seem to be including feats, yeah, you could do that in 3e or 4e via feats, too. And, you can make ranged attacks with STR, too.
no penalty to shoot into melee (even if you rule creatures can take cover behind your allies, this benefit is negated by the +2 from Archery Style)
Important because it makes it harder to focus fire on enemies engaged with your melee allies. Though, maybe a little too restrictive.
you're free to move both before and after your attacks, which is MUCH more useful for ranged fire than melee. Archers can stay completely out of line of effect except to readied attacks.
And you can move and make all your Extra Attacks, no Full Attack Action like in 3e, so kiting tactics don't need to accept reduced damage.
Without feats, the archer is at least vulnerable to getting caught in melee combat.
Meh, he can plink away without provoking, the disadvantage hurts, but, if there's already sources of advantage and/or disadvantage affecting you, that doesn't much matter.
Did I mention they removed ALL TEN of the checks and balances on 3rd Edition ranged combat...?
You did. Though, to be fair, I find two flaws with that statement: 1) you /are/ assuming feats, which are technically optional in 5e, and 2) you left out at least two such checks, one of them, the AoO, very significant, IMHO.
... Joe McPolearm, and Susan McCrossbow. If you check the numbers using a non-trivial to-hit chance (say 1d20 + 10 Vs AC 16 = 75%), ... conclusively, Susan does more damage per turn against Combat Dummies to the tune of about 1d6 per round. Case closed.
There's more to it than raw DPR. It's unlikely the melee guy gets to attack the target of his choice, every single round, since some rounds are spent moving into melee range, so that further reduces his damage potential, and it reduces his ability to focus all that damage on one target to burn it down to 0 hps. Ranged attackers more rarely face those problems, since an enemy must move a great distance to get out of bow or crossbow range.
Now there's another argument about AC here, in that all things being equal, Joe has an AC 1 higher than Susan at level 12.
That's not all things being equal, that's Joe wearing more expensive armor that brings it's own restrictions with it.
On an infinitely flat plane, Susan is now utterly badass. With her 120ft range, she's dropping every melee enemy before it gets a hit on her
Not quite that bad, in all likelihood - monsters tend to be faster than PCs, and kiting is hard without some blockers or something to keep them from just Dashing right up to you.
However, Move indoors and things change.
They don't change /that/ much. There's no AoOs for firing in melee, and terrain issues that can mean a ranged type is coping with cover or enemies that can get close before moving into LoS can often prevent melee attacks, entirely, as well. And 5e archers aren't melee-alergic like those of past editions - they can prettymuch stand and shoot you in the face. They're still fighters, still with d10 hps.
By contrast something can run at Susan, attack, then dart behind a door (or behind a tree in a densely packed forest).
That's just a silly tactic, and the need to resort to it, because the feat-optimized ranged character faces no downside in melee just makes it that much more laughable - and sad.
Susan doesn't want to be in melee
She doesn't /need/ to be in melee, but she can handle it.
It potentially gets worse for Susan if things are tight AND she's got allies - LoS becomes a bit of an issue, and she's relegated to just dealing damage.
Just dealing damage is all optimized DPR machines like these generally do, and what they should do. Allies just make it that much easier, with no cover penalties and in no danger, she can just pour the hurt onto whatever poor enemy is engaged with her blockers, focusing fire and burning them down fast. It's prettymuch ideal.
So, lets say, for a minute, that Mearls magically activates his time machine, sends himself back in time, and nerfs existing bow tactics.
Now, how does this solve the ranged issue? We still have eldritch blast snipers and other long distance magic users. How does one resolve this issue?
Very valid, larger point. The OP's topic may have been the balance between two types of weapon-user builds, but the removal of restrictions from archery is concurrent with an even more generous treatment of spellcasting, which is that much more significant in it's impact, so it would make sense to focus on solutions that also applied in that realm. AoOs for using ranged attacks (of any kind) in melee, for instance, would make it harder for both archers and casters.
Imbalances between builds (or even weapons) are just much easier to quantify when you're dealing primarily with DPR.