D&D 5E Sharpshooter

[FarBeyondC]

For whatever reason...

According to Sage Advice, they intentionally gave what they considered feats with narrow use (explicitly mentioning Great Weapon Master and Crossbow Expert) at least one benefit that could be applied more broadly. For Crossbow Expert, that would be the ability to make ranged attacks without disadvantage for being within 5 feet of a hostile. For Great Weapon Master, its the ability to make a bonus action melee attack when you critically hit or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with a melee weapon. For Sharpshooter, its the ability to ignore half and three-quarters cover with ranged weapon attacks and make said attacks beyond normal range without disadvantage.

 

[FarBeyondC]

The rules do say "a melee weapon is used to attack targets within 5 feet of you, whereas a ranged weapon is used to attack a target at a dislance." (PHB, 146)

Unfortunately, that rule alone does not tell the whole story. Otherwise, going only off that, you could technically argue for Glaives, Halberds, Lances, Pikes, and Whips being ranged weapons due to the fact that they are able to attack a target at a distance.

You can make a case that thrown weapons are ranged. They are melee weapons that become ranged weapons.

It would be a poor case to make, both because the thrown weapon property doesn't change a weapon's type and also because the dart (which has the thrown property) is explicitly not a melee weapon (outside of improvisation, that is).

So, the answer is "depends on your DM".

While this is undoubtedly true (the DM is at liberty to rule as they like at any table accepting of their rules and ruling), the expected answer for any table playing under default 5e rules is as follows:

The Sharpshooter Feat Benefits

1. "Attacking at long range doesn't impose disadvantage on your ranged weapon attack rolls." This applies to thrown daggers, darts, handaxes, javelins, light hammers, nets, spears, and tridents.
2. "Your ranged weapon attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover." This applies to thrown daggers, darts, handaxes, javelins, light hammers, nets, spears, and tridents.
3. "Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attacks damage." This applies only to thrown darts and nets, and technically does nothing for nets as nets do not deal damage.

 

[Jester David]

Unfortunately, that rule alone does not tell the whole story. Otherwise, going only off that, you could technically argue for Glaives, Halberds, Lances, Pikes, and Whips being ranged weapons due to the fact that they are able to attack a target at a distance.

That would fall under the rules for "improvised weapons".

If a character uses a ranged weapon to make a melee attack, or throws a melee weapon that does not have the thrown property, it also deals 1d4 damage.​

Would it be a ranged weapon then? DM's discretion.

It would be a poor case to make, both because the thrown weapon property doesn't change a weapon's type and also because the dart (which has the thrown property) is explicitly not a melee weapon (outside of improvisation, that is).

I disagree.
The table is just their for organisation's sake. No class is just proficient in "simple melee weapons". They couldn't have two entries for dagger. Daggers and darts are almost mechanically identical. There's no strong reason why you can use Sharpshooter with one and not the other.

While this is undoubtedly true (the DM is at liberty to rule as they like at any table accepting of their rules and ruling), the expected answer for any table playing under default 5e rules is as follows:

I like how you say "any table playing under default 5e rules" like there's some kind of magic table where DMs never have to make rulings or judgement calls on rules. Like there's a theoretical table where DMs has to abide by the strict lawyer reading of the rules.

 

[Colder]

You mean like AL?

Personally, I agree with the lawyery ruling. Ranged weapon vs Melee weapon is a categorical distinction rather than a functional one. The functional distinction is in the kinds of attacks they make. Doing it the other way leads to weird shenanigans like Tavern Brawlers throwing greatswords for 1d4+20 damage.

 

[Jester David]

You mean like AL?

Personally, I agree with the lawyery ruling. Ranged weapon vs Melee weapon is a categorical distinction rather than a functional one. The functional distinction is in the kinds of attacks they make. Doing it the jother way leads to weird shenanigans like Tavern Brawlers throwing greatswords for 1d4+20 damage.

AL is in maybe 500 to 600 stores in North America. It's a tiny fraction of the playterbase.

Throwing greatsword is weird. Darts being way more effective as thrown weapons than daggers? Also weird.

 

[77IM]

AL is in maybe 500 to 600 stores in North America. It's a tiny fraction of the playterbase.

For full credit, please show your work.

(Possibly on a different thread; I'm being a little snarky, but I actually think this could be a really interesting topic.)

 

[Colder]

AL is in maybe 500 to 600 stores in North America. It's a tiny fraction of the playterbase.

Throwing greatsword is weird. Darts being way more effective as thrown weapons than daggers? Also weird.

You make a fine point, but what little research I've done on the matter leads me to believe that the historical basis for D&D's darts have more in common with javelins than the bar game. I can live with that.

 

[Lucas Blackstone]

Ranged Weapons always seemed clear to me since they have ranged and melee weapons on the weapons table. A weapon used in a ranged attack does not make it a ranged weapon. Throwing a longsword at someone, for example.

 

[Jester David]

For full credit, please show your work.

(Possibly on a different thread; I'm being a little snarky, but I actually think this could be a really interesting topic.)

I used the Store Locator: http://locator.wizards.com/#brand=dnd
I filtered for AL and entered every State one by one, then counted the stores. For a few populous States I had to enter cities rather than States, picking locations and opposite sides.
(It'd probably be possible to turn it into a spreadsheet, but that was more work that I was willing to do.)

Utah was fun. There's this weird strip of stores right down the middle, likely following some highway. You could have a fun weeekend road trip going from store to store.

I like Organized Play. I had a LOT of fun with Living Greyhawk back in the day. But store play is small. Way more people play on Fantasy Grounds alone than in stores. 20k games are playing on FG each month. Even if each store has five tables and runs each week, that's half as many games as on that one VTT. And a I doubt most stores have five tables...
AL just isn't "the norm". It's cool and should be given some consideration, but it's not very representative.

 

[Jester David]

Personally, I agree with the lawyery ruling. Ranged weapon vs Melee weapon is a categorical distinction rather than a functional one. The functional distinction is in the kinds of attacks they make. Doing it the other way leads to weird shenanigans like Tavern Brawlers throwing greatswords for 1d4+20 damage.

Thinking on this, Great Weapon Master does specify "melee attack" so it wouldn't count with throwing a greatsword. But my player wanted to burn two feats to run around hucking greatswords for 1d4 + 10 + Str rather than using Great Weapon Master I'd probably allow it...