Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="vandaexpress" data-source="post: 6634590" data-attributes="member: 6790472">Right. PCs don't know that. They just see a wall of ice. Even so, at that level, with hunter's mark and sharpshooter, they're still going to have to waste their round to get through the wall of ice since their average damage output isn't high enough to take it down with a single arrow. The dragon lair was huge and the sorc was on the opposite side of the lair from the ranger and bard, thus the wall was far out of range for him, even with Fire bolt's excellent casting range.And at higher levels where they can shoot through the wall of ice, casters have access to better tools for countering range. An illusionist just creates the image of an adamantine wall, uses a bonus action for illusory reality to make it real for one minute, then drops conc for something else. Range characters are a lot easier to deal with when you see how many ways there are to break LoS, even without a physical obstruction. There are a zillion spells that provide heavy obscurement which will block LoS and effectively remove the ranged attacker's ability to effectively contribute in combat. And when you don't have spells, there are plenty of physical obstructions on most battlefields, just try to have as many enemies as possible end their turn without providing LoS to the archer and you'll see his effectiveness drop significantly. Your point is taken, though. It's possible for the archer to simply shoot down many walls, but even so, that's a round they're spending not damaging your monster, and it's far easier to do this to a ranged attacker than a melee'er in most cases, since IMC ranged characters tend to stay away from the thick of things, generally popping out 15 ft from cover, shooting off some arrows or a cantrip before retreating back behind cover. This frequently makes them more easily isolated by these kinds of terrain/battlefield/visibility control effects.</blockquote>

Verification