Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cyber-Dave" data-source="post: 6976855" data-attributes="member: 82132">I've largely avoided this thread up until now. I have decided to come on and give 2 quick cents: melee is already hands down better than ranged combat from a pure numerical point of view. You get a better AC and more damage with a strength based melee set up. If you opt for a shield, you have the same damage but MUCH better AC. In return for this benefit, ranged attackers tend to act first. Ranged becomes MUCH better if the ranged combatants can somehow manage to attack their targets about 1/2 way between maximum range and point blank. I say 1/2 way, as if you attack from maximum range, the targets have an easy solution: run away. At the 1/2 way point, whether they close for melee combat or run away, the ranged attackers can pelt their foes with a ranged barrage for a short period of time. Melee is MUCH better if the ranged combatants are in 30 feet (id est, you can close melee in one round). The ranged attackers attack with disadvantage. The melee attackers don't, and they do more damage. In other words, the disparity between the two isn't a matter of numbers, it's a matter of tactics and scenarios. Thus, the solution to a disparity between ranged and melee attacks, in my opinion, is not the addition of house rules. The problem isn't the rules, it's your tactics and scenarios. The solution is a change of tactics and scenarios. Find ways to throw PCs into situations where melee combat cannot be avoided. Make those scenarios seem organic. if you are having trouble doing so, stop and think through the problem as a character IN THE WORLD would think through the problem: the PCs constantly send out scouts to plan ranged attacks? Ok. If you were a character in the world, and that was a regular tactic used in that world, how would you try and counter it? If you constantly send scouts out to find your PCs and plan ranged attacks against them, how would they react to try and foil your plans? Do that to them! What is good for the goose is good for the gander. If your NPCs are guarding a stationary location, why aren't they using stationary installments to twist ranged combat into their favor? A proper use of crenelations and machicolations would allow NPC archers to attack while making it virtually impossible for PCs to counterattack. I suppose the PCs could ready actions to try and attack when the NPCs pop out to take shots, but the NPCs would still have a +5 to their AC in that case. PCs won't want to fight in those conditions. They will look for ways to use stealth and close into melee range if you start throwing them encounters of that sort. Likewise, use stealth tactics to close in with PCs and try and force them into melee when the terrain favors their ranged tactics. I don't know if I have been lucky with my gaming groups, but I have never encountered the problems described here! The only time ranged or melee combat have been disproportionately effective is when the DM I have been playing with has allowed such tactics to become disproportionately effective, and the tables have always swung back and forth from encounter to encounter based on the tactical context of the encounter and its participants.</blockquote>

Verification