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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7223661" data-attributes="member: 12731">I can confirm our Crossbow Expert use no shield.Shooting at range is much more useful than having a shield anyway.Offense beats defense, especially in a game so heavily slanted towards the player characters winning as 5th edition. The overwhelming majority of encounters simply aren't nearly so hard that you need to focus on defense.Besides, the best way to not take damage is to kill off the monsters ASAP. I really recommend you to try an all-out offensive party sometime: you should find that the number of attacks made against you are so much lower when you can focus fire that it easily beats +2 in personal defense.Yes, focus fire. If every party member shoots at range, martials as well as casters, and aren't inconvenienced by melee, this nets frighteningly effective results.As a fighter there's no reason to attack the hulking brute slobbering in your face - instead you shoot across the room at the other monster that everyone else has already attacked.Bringing down wounded foes quickly gives far better results, with far less incoming damage, than the traditional way of fighting, where each fighter squares off in a duel with "his own" monster.PS At this time I probably should reiterate: I'm not really advocating this fighting style. It breaks the game, it even breaks the genre! Of course it's fun to play a slow dwarf with a big axe!It's just that, unlike every preceding edition before it, 5th edition has forgotten traditional melee-centric fantasy combat doesn't happen by itself!It happens because fantasy games are steeped in fairly unrealistic conventions. The most important is hit points in themselves: you need to de-emphasize the importance of hitting your foe first. But that is not enough! You must still actively nerf archery, or the inherent advantages of ranged combat and focus fire will still be used by power gamers.Sent from my C6603 using <a href="http://r.tapatalk.com/byo?rid=93205" target="_blank">EN World mobile app</a></blockquote>

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