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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 7523038">I think one of the problems here is that you are (I believe) comparing &quot;melee heavy&quot; to &quot;ranged heavy&quot;, and I'm asking something simpler: if you've got the basic roles covered, is it more effective to go melee or ranged.&nbsp; Let's say we've got a fighter tank, a melee cleric, an archer rogue, and a wizard.&nbsp; I want to play a Ranger.&nbsp; Should I be a melee ranger or an archer ranger?&nbsp; From a pure optimization standpoint I think there is no question that I should go ranged.&nbsp; The only reason to go melee is just that I think it's more fun.&nbsp; (Which is plenty of reason, of course.&nbsp; But I shouldn't have to sacrifice effectiveness for that.)The &quot;spreading damage&quot; argument is an interesting one.&nbsp; And I can see that in some cases it might be a good idea.&nbsp; But it's by no means the default or even usual case.&nbsp; At most it mitigates the tactical superiority of ranged.Only if the ranged are silly enough to clump together.&nbsp; Unless constrained by terrain I can't imagine why they would, though.&nbsp; Even without AoE, as the DM I'd let my monster take the AoO's to go wreak havoc in a dense group of ranged squishies.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 7523038"] I think one of the problems here is that you are (I believe) comparing "melee heavy" to "ranged heavy", and I'm asking something simpler: if you've got the basic roles covered, is it more effective to go melee or ranged. Let's say we've got a fighter tank, a melee cleric, an archer rogue, and a wizard. I want to play a Ranger. Should I be a melee ranger or an archer ranger? From a pure optimization standpoint I think there is no question that I should go ranged. The only reason to go melee is just that I think it's more fun. (Which is plenty of reason, of course. But I shouldn't have to sacrifice effectiveness for that.) The "spreading damage" argument is an interesting one. And I can see that in [I]some cases[/I] it might be a good idea. But it's by no means the default or even usual case. At most it mitigates the tactical superiority of ranged. Only if the ranged are silly enough to clump together. Unless constrained by terrain I can't imagine why they would, though. Even without AoE, as the DM I'd let my monster take the AoO's to go wreak havoc in a dense group of ranged squishies. [/QUOTE]

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