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Message: <blockquote data-quote="takyris" data-source="post: 1238581" data-attributes="member: 5171">One question, Ledded: Your basis for upping the damage die on firearms is that you can up your damage on melee weapons pretty easily, but it's harder to do so on ranged weapons?  I haven't had a ton of trouble doing so, at least, not in my opinion.Point Blank Shot: +1 to damage, IIRCDouble-Tap: -2, +1dieBurst Fire: -4, +2dice (these two serve as Power Attack for firearms, IMO)Soldier levels: Up to +4 specialization bonus to damage (just like for melee)I suppose it's unfortunate that there's no "Melee smash for Guns" option, but I don't see that as nerfing guns as much as using Melee Smash to make the Strong Hero attractive and give players SOME reason to use melee weapons.  I wouldn't add a "melee smash for guns" option, because I don't see that so much as realism as "make guns more powerful than they already are".As it is, melee weapons are better than guns only if you've got the guy backed into a corner and have spent some feats to get a bunch of bonus damage, but in just about every other case, the guy with the gun wins.  He's less stat-reliant, needs less training, he benefits from cover without penalizing his own attacks, and if he DOES have feats, he can easily take out an opponent with one lucky (not even critical) hit (high-rolling double-tap to overcome MDT, for instance).  (At least the first two of those were your points, I believe.)  If you have a situation where mobility is an option, the ranged guy will almost always beat a melee guy of comparable point buy and level.  Which is, again, as it should be.  The melee guy should only win if he can get in close and keep his opponent there.In sum, since I wandered: Tacky's thoughts on Melee versus Ranged in d20M1) Right now, a normal handgun is as dangerous as a claymore2) Right now, guns are better than melee weapons for feat-by-feat expenditure3) Right now, both guns and melee weapons offer enough feats and class talents for a focused user to deliver bunches and bunches of damage4) This is generally a good thing, in Tacky's opinion, and the balance of simplicity, relative power, realism, and cinematic enjoyment is currently appropriate5) Ergo, changing of one element shouldn't happen without changing of another unless you're deliberately aiming to shift that balance (ie, if you want a martial artist game where guns are laughably useless, or if you want a blammo game when even a highly trained and focused melee guy stands no chance against a first-level dude with a Derringer) -- these are both legitimate games, but it should be up-front which kind you see yourself as playing6) Side-note: Players and GMs need to alter their flavor text, since most people say "Hit points mean dodging? But you can't DODGE bullets.  You should get automatically killed by a shot from a gun."  Make use of people moving, diving to the ground and rolling, firing quickly while moving themselves, and the fact that people are not five feet wide, so they ARE moving around a lot, even if they're not changing squares while doing so.</blockquote>

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