Saeviomagy said:I've been blaming either an unimaginative DM, or unimaginative melee fighters for ConcreteBuddha's complaints ever since this discussion started, but with the severely limited information he's giving, it's pretty much impossible to work out who's actually in the wrong - given that he just keeps chanting the mantra "but they kill everything in 2 rounds" without any elaboration, I'm guessing that it's him as he appears not to be thinking about combat in a tactical way at all.
There are a lot changes that various people make to D&D to bring the game into what they consider the most fun. Look at harm and haste. There are also a number of people who believe that these aspects are just fine. Some poster has a sig of "Save the H spells". Neither side is correct for all groups, otherwise there wouldn't be much point to this message board.
In the case of the ConcreteBudda, I have a feeling that archers are more optimized than the melee characters. I also have a feeling that the DM uses tatics that favor the archers. And the concept remains that a lot of the rules favor archers.
ConcreteBudda, myself, and other get annoyed by this. To make the game more fun for us, we talk about the issues we face on these boards.
1.) Optimize the melee characters.
Sure it may well work. Some of us don't like putting the rules ahead of the character we envision. Is that such a bad thing? At very least, there might be a few more character ideas floating around.
2) Demand the DM change tatics.
Also might work. Again, this causes a person to change the way they envision the combat. Should every DM read up on all the tatics to stop the archers? What if I just want to play a simple game? Again a good thing to know, again a solution that may or may not be best.
3) Change the rules that favor archers.
The hard core solution many may not like. How many rules will you change? Didn't the designers do a good enough job for you? How is a new player ever supposed to get through all your house rules? But if it lets you play the game you want to play, then maybe you could just remember it is a game, pull out the red pen, and edit away.
Chose your solution. Many specifics have been posted. I think the specifics of ConcreteBudda's situation are irrelivent. This is a rant thread, and it is good to know how others deal with archers.