Level Up (A5E) Strength vs Dexterity imbalance cannot be solved without addressing the Melee vs Ranged Imbalance.

[Kozos]

There is a lot that can be said about the imbalance between Strength and Dexterity.
I am here going to raise a point about how much 5e favours ranged combat compared to melee combat and then conclude by going back to the Strength vs Dexterity discussion bringing some ideas of possible fixes in the fore.

Melee Combat vs Ranged Combat
The biggest advantage of Ranged combat is of course the ability to reach out and touch the majority if not all the hostiles at any given time especially if you take the relative freedom of movement in 5e.
There are two issues tied for the second biggest advantage ranged combat enjoys.
2a. Archery fighting style is arguably the best and it combines exceptionally well with Sharpshooter feat.
2b. There are 4 ways to counter ranged combat: i. Cover, ii. Extreme Range, iii. Melee Engagement, iv. Falling Prone. Sharpshooter practically negates i. and ii. and crossbow expert negates iii. Under most circumstances falling prone is BAD.
3. A few monsters or spells negatively affect melee attackers, either with debuffs the trigger based on proximity or by being attacked.
4. The damage is comparable, with certain ranged builds being able to outdamage melee builds. Plus we have stackable magic ammunition and magic weapons.
5. Better magical support. Yes swift quiver I am looking at you and the 10 lvl bards with 4 longbow attacks


Strength vs Dexterity
I am going to keep a more combat focused analysis.
Dexterity is a superior save.
Dexterity governs initiative.
Dexterity offers at worse a -1 ac towards strength builds (with no armor related disadvantages)
A dex build is far more versatile at it can do both ranged and melee combat. Compare that to the laughable performance of thrown weapons that strength builds are practically locked in.

Proposed Solutions
Increase melee weapon damage.
Make two handed melee weapons use 2*str_mod at damage.
Strength requirements for ranged weapons.
Bow damage should (optionally) use strength.
Full plate should have an ac of 19.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Now that you bring it up, I can’t believe I forgot to add “Nerf Archers” to the “what do you want in AD&D” thread.

• firing a bow or loading a crossbow within reach of an enemy should provoke OA, with a feat to negate it.
• sneak attack should not be usable beyond 30’ unless the target has not taken a turn

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Hot take: The ranged vs. melee imbalance exists for a reason, the same reason that no one in modern warfare uses melee weapons.

 

[Kozos]

Cold take: Dnd is not modern warfare. There was a reason bows and crossbows never turned melee weapons irrelevant.

 

[tetrasodium]

Hot take: The ranged vs. melee imbalance exists for a reason, the same reason that no one in modern warfare uses melee weapons.

d&d is not modern warfare & 5e removes virtually every drawback ranged combat once had while drastically increasing the range & giving it damage that is roughly the same if not exactly the same as melee before adding a feat that doubles the already obscene range & allows the shooter to ignore cover. shooting someone from 150 feet away should be dramatically more difficult than hitting them with a sword club or even fist from right beside them. The idea that doing it from 300 feet away through bushes or a crowd of people is equally easy is just absurd.

There's also the whole undeniable fact that dex is a massively better attribute than strength,

 

[RangerWickett]

From a game design perspective, you could try doing what Conan d20 did: you have a melee AC that is modified by Str, and a ranged AC that is modified by Dex.

The flavor was that if you're strong, you can parry better.

Maybe you could even make it so in melee you can choose to use Str or Dex. Armor caps your Dex mod, but not your Str mod. Say hello to full plate shield fighters with AC 25. (You'd probably want some way to mitigate that. Maybe bring back flat-footed AC? Make it so you can only use parry AC against one person per turn?)

Well, being more thorough, Conan d20 made armor grant DR, and Defense was basically 10 + a small level-based bonus + Str or Dex; and if your attack roll beat the Defense by an amount equal to the DR the armor granted, you were able to slip past the armor completely. But now we're getting more complicated than Level Up might want to be.

 

[Haldrik]

Maybe remove Dexterity damage bonus from the game. But keep the Dexterity attack bonus for steady aim, such as bow, crossbow, gun, or blowgun.



Because Strength is already agile (aim sword, aim throw, hand-to-hand grapple, etcetera), I wonder if "finesse" weapons are a legitimate concept.

 

[Haldrik]

• Strength − melee, finesse, throw; run, jump, fall, tumble, climb, balance, swim
• Dexterity − shoot; stealth
• Constitution − passive fortitude, health

• Intelligence − perception, deception, senses, intuition, lore, knowledge
• Charisma − persuasion, empathy, morale, self-expression, larger-than-life, artistic appeal, personal relationship
• Wisdom − passive willpower, sanity

 

[ThatGuySteve]

Some of the imbalance could be addressed by the introduction of martial maneuveres.

Create some stronger maneuveres for non-finesse weapons. Bigger damage, better effects, strong melee parry, etc.

Remove sharpshooter and create a sniping maneuver that is either situational or a limited resource.

Make finesse weapon maneuveres focus more on defence, maneuverability, utility, than pure damage.

 

[Horwath]

Just make every weapon and armor have minimum strength requirement and you can have all melee weapons finesse.

You want to use dex for greatsword attack? Sure, get 16 or 18 strength first.
Have only 8 strength? Here, you can finesse a dagger.

You want full plate without penalty? 18 strength.
10 strength? Padded armor(+1 AC) for you.