Mixing ranged and melee attacks?

[skelso]

I'll give you the question first:

Is there any situation, feat combination or precedent for a character making both melee and ranged attacks in the same round?

In my campaign, I have a player (Dwarven Fighter 4) using two dwarven waraxes. He's taken the necessary feats to make doing so fairly successful: Weapon Focus, Two-weapon fighting, oversized two-weapon fighting, and weapon specialization. He has asked me if it's possible for him, when using the two-weapon fighting feat to make one of those attacks a ranged attack, if say, he drops the opponent in front of him and wants to use his second attack to throw the other ax at an opponent out of his reach.

At this point, I've said no. Throwing an improvised weapon is a standard action (with a -4 attack penalty) and therefore not really combinable with the full attack action. He then asked if there are feats that would let him accomplish it.

It seems to me that if he had both the two-weapon fighting and rapid shot feats, logically he could chunk the off hand axe with his other hand in the same round he meleed with his on-hand. The only reason he couldn't is because, well, it's against the rules.

I'd like to hear if there are some hard rules on this. Thanks for reading!

 

[Hypersmurf]

There's no reason you can't combine ranged and melee attacks in a single full attack action, but as you point out, throwing an improvised weapon can't be part of a full attack action.

If he fought with two daggers, for example, there would be no problem.

Two ideas occur immediately - one is the Throw Anything feat from Complete Warrior, and the other is the Throwing melee weapon special ability from the DMG.

Either of these would allow his waraxe to be considered a throwing weapon, rather than an improvised throwing weapon.

-Hyp.

 

[werk]

Is there any situation, feat combination or precedent for a character making both melee and ranged attacks in the same round?

Can absolutely do that as long as they can throw their weapon as part of their full attack. I've frequently dropped an enemy with my spear, then chucked it at another enemy becasue I didn't have any move to get there. In one group I play in, the dwarven barbarian enchanted his falchion so he can throw it and it returns...he'll often hit, drop, cleave, drop, then throw the falchion and drop another mook. It's very cinematic

 

[Darkwolf71]

I'll give you the question first:

Is there any situation, feat combination or precedent for a character making both melee and ranged attacks in the same round?

In my campaign, I have a player (Dwarven Fighter 4) using two dwarven waraxes. He's taken the necessary feats to make doing so fairly successful: Weapon Focus, Two-weapon fighting, oversized two-weapon fighting, and weapon specialization. He has asked me if it's possible for him, when using the two-weapon fighting feat to make one of those attacks a ranged attack, if say, he drops the opponent in front of him and wants to use his second attack to throw the other ax at an opponent out of his reach.

I actually played a character built around this exact concept. Dwarven Fighter/Deep Warden. TWF, Oversized TWF, and the key to it all, Throw Anything. (As mentioned already)

Sadly he died before fulfilling his vision. So, I recreated the vision with a Warblade/Bloodstorm Blade. Almost the same, but not quite as awesome as the original vision.

 

[green slime]

Of course, it is better to use the throwing magical weapon ability rather than waste a feat slot. But then you'll also be wanting the returning magical weapon ability as well. And then you need multiple axes, because it only returns once per round, and he has more attacks than that....

It gets very expensive, very quickly.

 

[Whimsical]

My high level dwarven barbarian/spirit shaman/earth dreamer had quick draw and brutal throw. Because of haste, whirling frenzy, and iterative attacks, she tended to have extra attacks after dropping an opponent with her greadsword. She would then quickdraw javelins then throw them using her STR instead of DEX for the attacks due to brutal throw.

 

[mvincent]

throwing an improvised weapon can't be part of a full attack action.

Yup. From the RotG (if desired):
"Throwing a melee weapon that's not suitable for ranged attacks requires a standard action if you can wield it in one hand. If you must use two hands to wield the weapon, throwing it requires a full-round action. Because you need a standard or full-round action to throw such a weapon once, you cannot make iterative attacks when doing so."

 

[Hypersmurf]

Yup. From the RotG (if desired):

You don't even need RotG - it's just rephrasing what's in the PHB under Thrown Weapons.

-Hyp.

 

[mvincent]

You don't even need RotG - it's just rephrasing what's in the PHB under Thrown Weapons.

You previously viewed sunder similarly. Illuminating writer's intent may not be important to you, but it could be for others.

 

[Hypersmurf]

You previously viewed sunder similarly.

Sunder was previously similar

-Hyp.