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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Balesir" data-source="post: 6228017" data-attributes="member: 27160">Easier to hit a stationary, inanimate target at ten feet than a melee combatant "in my face"? Sure! But that's not really an applicable comparison. The situation, were it to be played out in the real world, would be a lot more complex than that, and would rely on a number of things, including but not limited to:- Is the archer also a trained melee combatant? If so, their instinct will be to attack in a way that will firstly block or nullify the enemy's attacking weapon and cause the enemy damage as a secondary effect. That would suggest something like shoving the opponent's weapon aside with his bow arm or dodging back away from the weapon simultaneously with loosing the arrow. To hit a moving target you have to move as you loose anyway - no big deal there.- Does the archer have an arrow nocked? If so, drawing and loosing is a matter of a split second of opportunity; if not then a new arrow must be drawn and nocked - an action at least as difficult as drawing a sword or other melee weapon. Given the choice between taking out a melee weapon or taking out an arrow when engaged in melee combat, I know what I'd do!- Is the melee combatant well trained in melee combat? If they are they will want to do just as the melee-trained archer, above. They would try to neutralise the archer's bow while secondarily striking the archer; this would suggest an attack on the bow or designed to deflect the bow from a potential attack on the melee combatant.How does all that map to "free attacks" or "penalties to the to hit roll"? I have no clue.A sword is a subtle and lethal tool for killing - you don't swing the ruddy thing like a wood axe!More prosaically, any serious melee attack should act to both block, deflect or evade the opponent's weapon and strike the opponent as part of the same fluid motion. Swinging a weapon in a big arc will serve to telegraph the path of attack and present an opening the size of a barn door for a counter. In other words, it will get you killed quite surely and quite quickly.</blockquote>

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