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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kaldaen" data-source="post: 4404047" data-attributes="member: 69206">You know, this would have made Prime Shot a lot more useful than it is now.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/ponder.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":hmm:" title="Hmmm    :hmm:" data-shortname=":hmm:" />I see your point.  It doesn't seem fair for a Warlord to just pick up a bow and suddenly start making hard shots -- the arrow whizzing past the Fighter's ear and into the goblin's forehead -- just as well as the Ranger can.  It's practically automatic to apply a penalty when making such a shot, because it just makes sense.But the reason the penalty is gone in 4E is very simple: powers.  By the end of the Heroic Tier, most Rangers and Warlocks who've opted to focus on long-range combat will have a power suite comprised mostly or entirely of ranged attacks.  If there were a penalty for shooting into melee, these characters would face it in every encounter, no matter what they did.  Given how Defenders are supposed to handle the front line in combat, ranged characters would almost always be executing their powers with that -4 to attack, while the melee characters would be able to use theirs unhindered.  It would create a very unbalanced situation, one that would make ranged fighting a rather undesirable concept.To prevent that imbalance, the designers would have two options.  The first would be to give Warlocks and Archery Rangers an ability that lets them ignore the melee penalty.  However, players of other classes that wanted to make use of ranged weapons or powers would complain that there was no way for them to avoid the penalty.  The Wizard in particular has plenty of ranged powers -- why should he be left out?  The solution to that would be to reintroduce the Precise Shot feat, but then we're back to the situation where every Archery Ranger and Warlock takes that feat as a rule.Ultimately, I think there are just too many powers that would be screwed over by a "shooting into melee" penalty to make it worth including the rule in 4E.  If you're looking for a way to differentiate the snipers from the wannabes, may I suggest the following house rule:  allow certain classes to ignore cover provided by the target's allies.  This would apply to Archery Rangers, Warlocks and possibly Wizards using wands as their implements.</blockquote>

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