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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    And the enemy isn't attacking at all when hiding. I'll take that trade any day of the week.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    Charge is one of the worst feats in 5E. You really aren't speaking from a perspective of anything resembling system mastery, here or anywhere in this thread.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    Sharpshooter feat ignores everything but 100% cover. Failing that, you can ready an action to shoot when they leave cover.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    Strangely enough, when looking at optimization at a party level, as opposed to character level a lot of the gap disappears. Ranged has the option to avoid enemy contact, but at a party level I find this is a net negative. The melee characters end up taking too much damage, get knocked below zero...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    Archery Fighting Style is also key. The +2 to attack rolls from it goes a long way to offset the -5 to attack from Sharpshooter. Polearm/Greatweapon builds have nothing like it.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    As I said, there is little penalty for spending all my resources there. Being in melee changes virtually nothing for me. Ammo? Our Fighter carries 3 or 4 cases of crossbow bolts on his person. Our Bard has a bag of holding, there are 10+ cases of bolts in that. The farthest he can shoot is 120...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    A variant Human Fighter with the Crossbow Expertise feat will out damage pretty much anything. A Variant Human Fighter can have Crossbow Expertise, Sharpshooter, and 20 Dexterity by level 8, while sporting 17-18 AC, second wind, and a mountain of HP. A Crossbow Expert can fire in melee without...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    If I'm a single classed Fighter using a hand crossbow with crossbow expertise, there is no penalty for putting all my eggs in that basket.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    My Paladin dealt 2d6+str, rerolling 1s and 2s once, with my greatsword and could add Paladin's Smite on a hit. With a javelin I dealt 1d6+str, and no smite.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    The main disadvantage to melee IMO is being subject to greater abuse from enemies. There really aren't a lot of personal resources to deal with that beyond the default(lay on hands, second wind, uncanny dodge, and such) and melee PCs are still at a disadvantage even when you figure those in IMO...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    Thrown weapons are a 2nd or 3rd tier option for any Strength based character. It's almost impossible in 5E to optimize both melee and ranged, one of them will usually be the lesser option.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    Disarm is very DM dependent. As written, it doesn't say where the weapon goes, and you can pick it back up as a free action. You also can't disarm a caster. As far as I'm familiar with grapple, I don't think it really offers any particular advantage against ranged that it doesn't also give...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    When playing a Paladin, I carried a bunch of javelins and I threw them. It was not as effective as smithing things with a greatsword. I was only at my best when engaged in melee playing that character. It was a case of taking half a turn, as opposed to losing my turn entirely.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    The moment a melee PC spends a turn without attacking they are at a disadvantage.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    A well built ranged character isn't at that much of a disadvantage in melee. Somebody with the Crossbow Expert feat doesn't care if an enemy is engaging them. Two levels of Rogue and you can disengage as a bonus action at will. A spellcaster has disadvantage with ranged attack rolls, but save or...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    That statement is part of #1, that being in melee is more dangerous to PCs than not being in melee. This is in large part because the 5E Monster Manual has an overall bias towards melee.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    A melee PC currently engaged with an enemy, barring some magic or class ability, has to provoke an opportunity attack to change to a target they are not currently engaged with. A ranged PC who is not in melee can change targets freely.
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    You are over complicating things. I will attempt to simplify: 1. It is generally more dangerous in 5E to be in melee than not 2. Melee PCs more or less have to be in melee, and therefore are exposed to more danger 3. Ranged PCs can avoid melee to some extent without any sacrifice, and this is...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    If the enemy is at standard encounter distances, the melee character must advance towards the monsters to be most effective, while the ranged character can move away from the monsters without sacrificing anything. Nothing says the ranged PCs need to advance towards the enemies or stand still...
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    D&D 5E Helping melee combat to be more competitive to ranged.

    The monster can react to PC tactics, but this is not an advantage for melee PCs. Ranged enemies are free to target either melee or ranged PCs, and melee enemies can move adjacent to and attack either melee or ranged PCs. Monsters can move towards ranged PCs, but ranged PCs can move away and...
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