Come again - you can't shoot bows in melee while in melee?

[Dracorat]

I used to go to the archery range on a regular basis with my dad when I was growing up. I even owned my own longbow and compound bow. (Kind of the same as a composite)

An arrow has a weight at the front - the arrowhead. When fired, it drags the rest of the arrow behind it. That rest of arrow would be extremely wobbly if not for the fletching (feathers at the back). The Fletching forces the arrow to spin while in air.

It also does cause the arrow to slow down in its forward momentum.

Now, as for gravity causing an arrow to slow down or speed up, the only part that makes any difference is if you (the firing party) are at a different elevation than your target. If you are at the same elevation, gravity pays an almost zero sum difference to the final speed of your arrow and thus its firing range.

The only reason I admit that it pays some difference is that the further from your target you are, you have to fire at a higher initial firing arc, which means the measured flight path gets slightly and slighty longer, the farther out you go, over the already straight-line measured path. But the difference is again, negligable.

The larger factors of arrow flight are crosswind, fletching type, arrow tip type and overall weight (with heavier being BETTER, not worse, due to the rules of inertia).

So, to shorten this up as much as I can, arrow firing arc and the factor of gravity pays almost NO difference to the final speed of the arrow. The factors are really how far back you can pull the bow (in the case of a longbow - for compound, it is the weight class of the draw section), whether the arrow can be fully released and how far away your target is.

In a melee situation, the ONLY time an arrow would not have full effect is if for some reason, the arrow were knocked out of the bow or entered its target - before the full release. And from experience, I can tell you that is quite unlikely to happen. An arrow released from a bow releases at such velocity that you would not have time to even blink before it impacted, much less attempt to deflect it.

 

[Dracorat]

If your buddy across the room is adjacent to an opponent, and neither threatens the other, then they aren't in melee--even though they're adjacent to each other and they're enemies. Shoot at the opponent all you want; there's no penalty*.

Just wanting to clarify that if one does threaten, and the other does not, the rule is a bit unclear, but usually it is decided that one is in melee and one is not. The one threatening being the one in melee.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Just wanting to clarify that if one does threaten, and the other does not, the rule is a bit unclear, but usually it is decided that one is in melee and one is not. The one threatening being the one in melee.

No.

As he quoted: "Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other."

It's not unclear - if either one threatens, then both of them are engaged in melee, not just one of them.

-Hyp.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Yeah, melee is not a solo activity.

The only thing that comes close is combatants with reach/if the enemies are 10' away from each other.

If your target (or the part of your target you’re aiming at, if it’s a big target) is at least 10 feet away from the nearest friendly character, you can avoid the -4 penalty, even if the creature you’re aiming at is engaged in melee with a friendly character.

So you can avoid the -4 "firing into melee" modifier, even though the combatants are in melee.

But again: the AoO provoked by the bowman is caused by firing the bow, not by the fact that he doesn't threaten his opponent. And that opponent can only take that AoO if he himself threatens the bowman.

-z

 

[Dracorat]

No.

As he quoted: "Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other."

It's not unclear - if either one threatens, then both of them are engaged in melee, not just one of them.

-Hyp.

Twice in the same day I have been unequivocably smacked down.

Not a good day for me I guess. =)

 

[Zaruthustran]

It's not a smack down; it's learning rules that can sometimes be tricky.

-z

 

[Nail]

It's not a smack down; it's learning rules that can sometimes be tricky.

Amen.

 

[Dracorat]

Regardless, I have answered questions for years on the Wizards boards, all about rules. I arbitrate rules discussions all the time for two other groups that are local to my area.

My wrong factor is usually something like once in a blue moon. Three times on the same day.

Well, let's just say its been a strenuous day. =)

 

[taliesin15]

in this campaign, then, let's say a character with a bow already has it out, and is readying an action to fire his longbow at an opponent who is charging him from let's say 35' away--so that at the beginning of the next round the charging opponent (with a melee weapon out) engages the bow wielder--I'm wondering whether that would change the AoO and -4? Since the bow wielder already had the bow out, arrow notched, and was aiming, while the charger was running up, but not engaged until the archer was ready to fire?

 

[irdeggman]

in this campaign, then, let's say a character with a bow already has it out, and is readying an action to fire his longbow at an opponent who is charging him from let's say 35' away--so that at the beginning of the next round the charging opponent (with a melee weapon out) engages the bow wielder--I'm wondering whether that would change the AoO and -4? Since the bow wielder already had the bow out, arrow notched, and was aiming, while the charger was running up, but not engaged until the archer was ready to fire?

Was the readied action designed to work against the opponent charging?

If so what was the trigger?

If the trigger is met the readied action goes "before" the action that it was readied for - so there would be no AoO on the archer.