D&D 5E Are ranged attacks too good in 5e?

[Garthanos]

Move back half your move and shoot at half the rate of fire is actually very similar to firing with disadvantage in some sense.... but its more costly because it requires the move.

 

[James Gasik]

Move back half your move and shoot at half the rate of fire is actually very similar to firing with disadvantage in some sense.... but its more costly because it requires the move.

Basically, ranged combat used to be rough-to-impossible once groups got into close combat. Then each subsequent edition peeled away restrictive rules until now we have an edition of Dex-based archers firing bows at people in melee range with no fear, only disadvantage which is partially negated by Archery Fighting Style, and can be completely negated with a Feat, allowing an archer to fire as many attacks as they can with impunity at someone right in front of them waving a greatsword.

Hence the question I had for the thread. Is this too good?

As an aside, I found a rule in the 2e PHB that says you can throw up to 3 darts in a turn, while you can fire unlimited arrows. That seems consistent with the rate of fire for thrown weapons in 5e- one in each hand, and one free item interaction.

 

[GSHamster]

As an aside, I found a rule in the 2e PHB that says you can throw up to 3 darts in a turn, while you can fire unlimited arrows. That seems consistent with the rate of fire for thrown weapons in 5e- one in each hand, and one free item interaction.

2E rate of fire depended on the weapon. Bows were 2 arrows per round, while crossbows were every other round (fire, reload, fire).

 

[James Gasik]

2E rate of fire depended on the weapon. Bows were 2 arrows per round, while crossbows were every other round (fire, reload, fire).

Yeah sorry, I noticed the rule quickly while looking at other stuff, and I was thinking about the conversation about thrown weapons upthread, but you are correct, arrows are limited to 2 shots a round. Which I knew, so Gygax knows why I implied otherwise, lol.

And of course, dart specialists can get even more attacks per round, so I guess the real point of interest is how bows got better over the years, and thrown weapons got worse.

 

[Garthanos]

Basically, ranged combat used to be rough-to-impossible once groups got into close combat. Then each subsequent edition peeled away restrictive rules until now we have an edition of Dex-based archers firing bows at people in melee range with no fear, only disadvantage which is partially negated by Archery Fighting Style, and can be completely negated with a Feat, allowing an archer to fire as many attacks as they can with impunity at someone right in front of them waving a greatsword.

Hence the question I had for the thread. Is this too good

I guess my answer is only in comparison to martial melee types... I am ok with characters who hit level 10 feeling like paragons of their specialties someone on the verge of legendary... Robinhood and William Tell, or Hiawatha and Yu Fei

 

[Horwath]

There are actually decent ideas on keeping ranged combat under control in there if you want to bring it down (Darn I actually want to bring melee combatants up to snuff instead of imposing a bunch of realism nerfs on the archers)

increase all non finesse damage by one step.

that means longsword/battleaxe/warhammer is d10(d12 versatile)

2Handed, heavy melee weapons 2d8, to compensate not having 1+1/2 str mod.

power attack rescaled a little.

for onehanded, finesse weapons and ranged weapons:
-1 attack/ +2 damage
at 5th level -2/+4
at 11th level -3/+6
at 17th level -4/8

for 2Handed heavy weapons based on STR:
-1/+3
-2/+6
-3/+9
-4/+12

 

[Oofta]

I always hated the "miss when you fire into combat you hit an ally." First, I was always that guy in melee and the archer never seemed to give a ****. Second, my PC's AC never seemed to matter. Really?

While I enforce cover penalties in 5e, SS negates it far too easily. Better rules for firing into melee might help, but until then I'll just have the minions show up to pull in the melee types while the big bad flanks to get the ranged types now and then. Doesn't really fix anything of course, but running intelligent monsters means intelligent tactics now and then.