Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 7519152" data-attributes="member: 2525">I find ranged attacking is overrated. First, let's assume you're using published adventures. Not everyone does of course, but it's one objective baseline to draw from, and we don't have sufficient data on homebrew campaigns to draw any objective data.  That said:1) Published adventures on average tend to emphasize dungeons, and in particular dungeons which do not offer the ability for everyone to stay outside of 30' from foes for very long without running into another room which is also occupied by foes. 2) Published adventures on average tend to emphasize magic weapons which are melee weapons, and in particular longswords. They also tend to have magic shields to be found in treasure. As the baseline of the game is that magic stores do not exist, the ability to use magic items you find is extremely helpful.3) Given the commonality of dungeon settings, and the commonality that someone in the party will be melee and often several someones, cover comes into play. A target with half cover has a +2 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws, and those targets gain that half cover by being next to a creature, even if the creature is a friend.4) Given the commonality of magical longswords and shields in published adventures, this tends to result in more frequent sword and board melee fighters. Which tends to lead to the Shield Mastery feat being used to knock foes down so that other melee combatants gain advantage against the foe and the foe cannot move as well...which also gives disadvantage to the ranged combatants. 5) Melee fighters tend to have better AC, since they can use plate armor and shield. AC will come into play regardless of your strategy - you will be attacked at some point, and your AC will be a target DC for the attack, and having higher AC will come into play in your game.The overall effect I find to be, in practice, ranged attacking is at a slight disadvantage to melee attacking. And I emphasize in practice. I know in theory, with white room planning, ranged looks better on paper. But after years of experience in many games involving published adventures, I find in actual practice melee comes out slightly ahead.</blockquote>

Verification