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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClaytonCross" data-source="post: 7518801" data-attributes="member: 6880599">As a rule if you have range and you ensure you have the distance to use it then you have the defensive advantage and as long as you can kite or keep enemies out of melee range the damage and AC of each doesn't matter because the melee does not get to attack meaning their Average DPR becomes 0. If on the other hand a fighter walks into a 10 x 10 room stands in front of the other door and your a ranged character in the at room... expect a bad day. So I am in no way saying melee doesn't have a place and do its job well. I am just pointing out any battle using a lot of melee "minions" my ranged attacker m is usually not in real danger because they stop to attack what they can actually hit and I continually move around ensuring they can't move to me in one turn and attack. I misty step to elevation without easy access, I keep at 80ft range, and I am able to do this the majority of the time... until a ranged enemy gets involved, then I target them first as my biggest threat. Even in dungeons, that are often "close quarters" you can stack ranged behind allies and still shoot enemy targets where in a 5 or 10ft wide hallway vs 6 melee enemies it results in a blockage waiting for the front enemies to die so the rear enemies to move forward. That alone means as a ranged character, I very rarely miss a turn attacking while our melee tanks is VERY important to me holding distracting enemies or blocking their path to me. Then we get flying enemies and the tank just twiddles his thumbs.The real proof of this is that if you have an all melee group your going to get ambushed from a higher cliff, flying enemies, or kitting enemies they just can seem to get to then they will have hard time fighting at all mush less winning. A group of entirely ranged can have Draconic Sorcerers AC18 + 5 for shield, Tortle with Bracers of defense for 19 AC, Fighters with Half-plate, defensive fighting style, & Medium Armor Master sporting AC19, Clerics some with plate armor, a shield, and shield of faith for AC22, Monks with Unarmed combat AC20 taking dodge as a bonus action for an "effective AC of 25. So not counting magic items its still very possible to make a descent AC group of ranged attackers... sure … that's not how it usually plays out. Usually, you get a melee or two in the group who shield their ranged allies by engaging and invoking the fear of opportunity attacks. Then Ranged focuses on damage not defense making them less divided on using resources between the two where melee know they need some level of defense because they are going to get attacked in melee. So this ranged group who can shoot flying and elevated targets back and who are difficult to kite because usually if you can shoot them … they can shoot you, can work more effectively then melee in a group containing only one or the other. If you were in an all ranged group you would see some taking a more defensive build which might not eliminate the gap but it would defiantly close it to point where its not a big deal.I mean this is all displayed in the real world were when guns became able to punch through armor, melee became a back up fighting style, and when we gained the ability to fire more than once without reloading it all but vanished with the exception of stealth... then we made silencers, making range preferred all around unless your trying to save precious ammo. If your still not convinced then consider one question... where are our melee plains and tanks? I know its a game but the tactical advantages are still their and to balance that the would have to make melee supper powered compared to ranged and they didn't.The only real advantage of melee is infinite reusability. When you fight large groups of 10+ you start running out of arrows, bolts, and spell slots. So if you want melee to shine, do continual waves of enemies however if your like my group everyone will get tired of "the grind".</blockquote>

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