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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Clint_L" data-source="post: 8977896" data-attributes="member: 7035894">Here's what I mean about the game being built around a melee assumption, with ranged combat being limited so that you basically never have the option of just sitting back at 300' feet and shooting things from long range with your bow. Let's look at the archetypal 5e starting adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver (available for free!):Goblin ArrowsThe first encounter is set up specifically as an ambush with ranged weapons! Yet, the text specifies: "When the time comes for the goblins to act, two of them rush forward and make melee attacks while two goblins stand 30 feet away from the party and make ranged attacks." This is teaching players what to do in this situation, and note that the goblins are placed where a typical frontline fighter can reach them on their first turn and still get an attack.Cragmaw HideoutThis one starts with another ranged ambush, but now in a situation where the players should know what to do and be trying to approach stealthily: "Characters moving carefully or scouting ahead might be able to surprise the goblin lookouts."The rest of the Cragmaw scenario is close ranged fighting in tunnels and small rooms, designed for melee encounters.PhandalinThe main encounter in town is a bar fight. The Redbrand hideout is narrow passages and small rooms again.The Spider's WebHere's where you get most of the outdoor encounters. Yet all of them take place in areas with plenty of cover, like a building, ruined tower, or the abandoned town of Thundertree, which again more or less functions as a dungeon.Wave Echo CaveCaverns/Dungeon. Narrow passages, small rooms.This is typical of published material, and is how players are trained to imagine D&D. Battles simply do not take place across "a quarter mile of pasture." Ever. So an advantage in that situation is really irrelevant to D&D. This is a melee focused game, and any advantages ranged weapons might have does not seem to be changing that or making those characters overpowered. It's nice to have one ranged weapon specialist in a decently sized party. But only once you have 1-2 melee specialists, a strong caster, and a support class like a bard or cleric.So if we nerf ranged weapons, what happens to that secondary niche that they occupy?</blockquote>

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