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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tetrasodium" data-source="post: 9012772" data-attributes="member: 93670">There was another big 3.5 difference that impacted things positively for the melee types too.  There was[spoiler="attack"]AttackMaking an attack is a standard action.Melee Attacks: With a normal melee weapon, you can strike anyopponent within 5 feet. (Opponents within 5 feet are consideredadjacent to you.) Some melee weapons have reach, as indicated intheir descriptions in Chapter 7: Equipment. With a typical reachweapon, you can strike opponents 10 feet away, but you can’t strikeadjacent foes (those within 5 feet).Unarmed Attacks: Striking for damage with punches, kicks, andhead butts is much like attacking with a melee weapon, except forthe following:Attacks of Opportunity: Attacking unarmed provokes an attack ofopportunity from the character you attack, provided she is armed.The attack of opportunity comes before your attack. An unarmedattack does not provoke attacks of opportunity from other foes, asshooting a bow does, nor does it provoke an attack of opportunityfrom an unarmed foe. You provoke the attack of opportunity be-cause you have to bring your body close to your opponent.An unarmed character can’t take attacks of opportunity (but see“Armed” Unarmed Attacks, below).“Armed” Unarmed Attacks: Sometimes a character’s or creature’sunarmed attack counts as an armed attack. A monk, a character withthe Improved Unarmed Strike feat (page 96), a spellcaster deliveringa touch attack spell, and a creature with claws, fangs, and similarnatural physical weapons all count as being armed. Note that beingarmed counts for both offense and defense. Not only does a monkis deducted from the target’s current hit points. If the opponent’s hitpoints drop to 0 or lower, he’s in bad shape (see Injury and Death,page 145).Multiple Attacks: A character who can make more than oneattack per round must use the full attack action (see Full-RoundActions, below) in order to get more than one attack.Shooting or Throwing into a Melee: If you shoot or throw aranged weapon at a target engaged in melee with a friendly char-acter, you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll because you have toaim carefully to avoid hitting your friend. Two characters areengaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and eitherthreatens the other. (An unconscious or otherwise immobilizedcharacter is not considered engaged unless he is actually beingattacked.)If your target (or the part of your target you’re aiming at, if it’s abig target) is at least 10 feet away from the nearest friendly character,you can avoid the –4 penalty, even if the creature you’re aiming at isengaged in melee with a friendly character.Precise Shot: If you have the Precise Shot feat (page 98), you don’ttake this penalty.Fighting Defensively as a Standard Action: You can choose tofight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penaltyon all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC for the sameround. This bonus stacks with the AC bonus granted by the CombatExpertise feat (page 92).phb139/140[/spoiler][spoiler="and Full Attack"]Full AttackIf you get more than one attack per round because your base attackbonus is high enough, because you fight with two weapons or adouble weapon (see Two-Weapon Fighting under Special Attacks,page 160), or for some special reason (such as a feat or a magic item)you must use a full-round action to get your additional attacks. Youdo not need to specify the targets of your attacks ahead of time. Youcan see how the earlier attacks turn out before assigning the laterones.The only movement you can take during a full attack is a 5-foot step. You may take the step before, after, or between your attacks.If you get multiple attacks because your base attack bonus is highenough, you must make the attacks in order from highest bonus tolowest. If you are using two weapons, you can strike with eitherweapon first. If you are using a double weapon, you can strike witheither part of the weapon first.Deciding between an Attack or a Full Attack: After your firstattack, you can decide to take a move action instead of making yourremaining attacks, depending on how the first attack turns out. Ifyou’ve already taken a 5-foot step, you can’t use your move action tomove any distance, but you could still use a different kind of moveaction.Fighting Defensively as a Full-Round Action: You can chooseto fight defensively when taking a full attack action. If you do so,you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 dodgebonus to AC for the same round.Cleave: The extra attack granted by the Cleave feat (page 92) orGreat Cleave feat (page 94) can be taken whenever they apply. Thisis an exception to the normal limit to the number of attacks you cantake when not using a full attack action.3.5 phb143[/spoiler][spoiler="Move action"]MOVE ACTIONSWith the exception of specific movement-related skills, most moveactions don’t require a check. MoveThe simplest move action is moving your speed. If you take thiskind of move action during your turn, you can’t also take a 5-footstep.Many nonstandard modes of movement are covered under thiscategory, including climbing (up to one-quarter of your speed) andswimming (up to one-quarter of your speed).Accelerated Climbing: You can climb one-half your speed as amove action by accepting a –5 penalty on your Climb check.Crawling: You can crawl 5 feet as a move action. Crawling incursattacks of opportunity from any attackers who threaten you at anypoint of your crawlphb145[/spoiler]Plus reloading a hand/light crossbow was a move action & a heavy crossbow was a full round action.  The ranged character couldn't call for the group to kite back with them because it would only be 5 feet/round if they wanted to fire more than once per round.  So the melee types are moving forward at 120ft/round, the opponents are moving in at ~30-120feet per round & the two combine to somewhere in the 60-240feet of close per round.  Even if the archer is shooting at zombies or something with similar AC for <s>good</s>plausible odds on that -6/-15/-20/-25 for first second third or fourth attack at  the max 5 range increments it's probably only going to be a round or two before the martials are carving it up in melee & the odds at hitting with those max range penalties were so low it was pretty much nat20 or nothing.  Later in the session (or in the same combat even) the ranged character might need to drop to a single shot so they can take a move action & flee more than 5 feet to avoid provoking an AoO every shot so nobody felt too put out about that one round bob  got in a free shot that maybe connected while the group & opponents were closing.[USER=4533]@Reef[/USER] I have no idea where you got "<a href="https://www.enworld.org/search/2148668/?q=constantly&t=post&c[thread]=697472&o=relevance" target="_blank">constantly</a>" from in point one.  I tried a few synonyms like <a href="https://www.enworld.org/search/2148669/?q=regularly&t=post&c[thread]=697472&o=relevance" target="_blank">regularly</a>, <a href="https://www.enworld.org/search/2148673/?q=always&t=post&c[thread]=697472&o=relevance" target="_blank">always</a>, <a href="https://www.enworld.org/search/2148676/?q=repeatedly&t=post&c[thread]=697472&o=relevance" target="_blank">repeatedly</a>, & frequently but none of them are in posts from me unless they are someone adding those things in their own reply to a post that says nothing of the sort, me quoting one of those posts, or a coincidental match like a statement about regular & composite bows matching in the search.  points two and three are so linked to the mistake in point one that I don't think I can correct them.</blockquote>

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