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Message: <blockquote data-quote="two" data-source="post: 2967369" data-attributes="member: 9002">I've been meaning to post this for a while.I've been keeping careful tabs over the last 54 combat encounters with my bard archer character.That's a lot of encounters of varied types.  On sea.  Underground.  On the plains.  City. Town.  Dungeon-esque.  Caverns.  Rooms, large and small.My GM is sophisticated, and varies tactics and monsters faily well.  He's not a master tacticion, but not a dimwit either.  I'm resonably adept at staying out of combat or making myself a non-target.It's a party of 5 PC's and sometimes a cohort.  Started at level 4 and been advancing since then.This is the statistical breakdown.Basic bard archer tactics:Round1:  Mirror Image or Inspire CourageRound2:  Inspire Courage or Full Attack (archery)Round3:  Full Attack (archery)/occasional spellUnless we had no warning, which was 20% of the time, I usually got a long-term prep spell up (MI) before battle was joined, and if lucky Inspire Courage as well.  After that, it was arrow after arrow with an occasional spell.  Sometimes we know an encounter is coming, so I had some buffs up minutes ahead of actual combat.In the first 5 rounds of battle (after initiative):10% of the time I could manage 5 full attacks (fully pre-buffed)55% of the time I could manage 4 full attacks20% of the tmie I could manage 3 full attacks15% of the time I could manage 2 full attacks or lessSometimes of course I didn't take a full attack when I could in order to cast a spell, heal a pal, or whatever.  These are full attack archery attacks actually TAKEN.Now that maybe sounds not so bad.  I mean, I was the archer and did stick in the back and do copious 5' steps and etc.And the GM did send monsters my way trying to grapple, and 2 times to sunder my bow (I dropped the bow and cast spells after escaping via tumble).  So he wasn't content to let me have it easy.That said.The full attacks numbers for the melee fighters are quite interesting.In the first 5 rounds of battle for the melee PC closest to enemy (after initiative), 40% of the time the pure melee fighter could full attack once.40% of the time the pure melee fighter could full attack twice.10% of the time they could not full attack at all.8% of the time they could full attack 3 times.2% of the time they could full attack 4 or 5 times.Now you see the very significant difference.Essentially, I was getting 2 times as many full attacks as the melee guys (minimum), and sometimes slightly more.  Hardly ever less.Add to this ability to deal lots of full attacks my relatively safety away from claws and swords (I was injured about 1/3 as often as the melee guys, thanks to Mirror Image and, of course, distance), I'm beginning to think melee types are, well, shafted.Melee:  attack much less, do more damage per strike, and get hit more.Ranged:  attack much more often, do a little less damage per strike, and get hit less.Anyone else have this experience?And if you are wondering, in the long run, my archer did far more average damage per round than the fighter or barbarian (simply to to the increased number of attacks via rapid shot and sometimes haste when buffing was a priority).  Plus, "inspire courage" did a lot to mitigate rather low arrow damage at times.While I know "tanks" are necessary (in part to keep the bad guys off archers like my bard), I actually feel that more classes should have a way to do full attacks, or "partial full attacks" in melee.  Like, you get 1/2 your full attack number of attacks after a charge a few times a day, or something.</blockquote>

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