New From the Bunker now up at WotC: Snipers, Pro and Con

[jaerdaph]

Here's the link:

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20modern/article/20030227a

 

[Mistwell]

Well, it is an interesting arfticle. Unfortunately I think there is a serious flaw in the telescopic scopes discussion. He adds the far shot feat, but eliminates the increased range for using them otherwise. That conflicts with Charles Ryan's rulings for scopes, and suddenly the solution for everyones complaints about maximum range for scoped sniper rifles not being long enough (even with far shot) are back to having some credibility again. I think he should have increased the range rather than just the bonus to attack.

 

[Shadow64]

But he *did* increase the range. Every +2 on the scopes allow for another range increment to be tacked on w/o penalties. So between Far Shot (which any good sniper should have) and Dead Aim with even the HK PSG1 (90 ft range) you have a +2 to hit at 135' add in the +6 scope and you can multiply that to 540'. Throw the +2 from Dead Aim in and you are smacking someone at 625'. It gets worse if you use the .50 sniper rilfe (120' range increment). With Far Shot it makes the increment 180'. Toss in a +6 scope to negate distance and you can hit someone at 720'. Add in the +2 from Dead Aim and you can hit someone at 900' with no "penalties" (ie - they make a normal attack roll and don't subtract anything for range). If that isn't range I don't know what is.

 

[Mistwell]

He didn't change max range increment to allow for it to go beyond 10X. He just increased the attack bonus within those 10 range increments, as far as I can tell.

 

[ErichDragon]

Scopes don't change the maximum effective range of firearms, that is a function of the velocity and aerodynamics of the round. Just a quick look at the weapons table, and the real world knowledge I have of the weapons, tells me that realism was not concern when designing weapon ranges however.

Example: 5.56 Assault Rifle in the D20 Modern book has a range increment of 80 feet. This is a max range of 800'. The real maximum range of an M16A1 is about 460 meters. The more recent A2 is closer to 550 meters. The farthest target on the standard Army qualification range is 300 meters, still farther than the listed maximum for the book.

Now if you add in Far Shot the ranges come a little closer together. Close enough I think to preserve the semblance of reality (grammar Nazi's read verisimilitude).

 

[Mistwell]

All I am saying is that the book as it stands increases maximum range, and prior answers by Charles Ryan confirmed and expanded on this concept, and the new article seems to change all this. Rich is aware, and has already said he considers Charles Ryans prior answer as an expansion on his article - and I have asked for a clarification what this means exactly.