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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 6980198" data-attributes="member: 6785785">Opportunity attacks. Part of the point of melee is that you threaten enemies with opportunity attacks. There is a space that you threaten, and that threat can help prevent enemies from moving past you. Since you cannot make a ranged opportunity attack, there would be nothing at all preventing enemies from waltzing right past the crossbow expert to then attack casters or other more vulnerable party members.I am sure not everyone places priority on that aspect of the fighter's role (or any other melee combatant),but it is absolutely something that should be considered.Not really. I personally don't experience a great imbalance in the two fighting styles, but I can see how it could be a problem for some folks. For those that do find it a problem, I would say to first try and correct it in how encounters are designed and played; vary up the range at which combat is initiated, vary up the types of enemies encountered; vary the terrain and line of sight; vary up the monsters' tactics. I'd do all of that before even considering altering the mechanics. If none of that worked, then maybe a mechanical solution is in order. Having ranged attacks provoke an opportunity attack by adjacent enemies might be a good start. That may help to keep ranged combatants from being in the midst of melee. It'd give the advantage to melee folks who managed to close in on their ranged enemies. If that doesn't solve the problem, then perhaps apply disadvantage to any shots into melee? This is more severe than I think would be necessary, but since there won't be a consensus on how big the problem is, there need to be degrees of solutions. I'd personally apply cover to anyone engaged in melee, but the Sharpshooter feat would render that moot. The OP made a few other suggestions, and a couple of those may work. Some I think wouldn't help, or may actually make any disparity worse. Ultimately, the solution is going to depend on how the group views the situation and how severe they think the problem might be.</blockquote>

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