Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 9862536" data-attributes="member: 7020951">Archery in 5e is just fine, in that it's annoyingly over-optimal for many circumstances.  The Swashbuckler in my current game does just as well using Steady Aim with his bow as he does moving into melee despite having class features that aid melee and do nothing for ranged combat.  Archery also has the best combat style (+2 to hit), the Sharpshooter feat removes the range penalty entirely (at least in 5e, don't know about 5.24), and staying at a longer distance makes many monsters less threatening in addition to avoiding many short-ranged (30') spells.  Unless the DM works at it, there are more monster features and abilities which penalize melee attacks (Riposte, Parry, Heated Body & variants thereof) and almost none that penalize ranged attacks.For balance purposes, I don't think archery needs any help to be good.  In fact, my hot take for the day is that arrow lethality is probably too high both from a game balance perspective and from a realism perspective.  Chop a cantaloupe with an axe and it splits, shoot it with a bow and it falls over with an arrow in it but is probably still intact.Since removing +Dex to damage would cause all sorts of ripple effects, shortbows should have 1d4 base damage and longbows 1d6 base damage to make them slightly less great.</blockquote>