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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 4691433" data-attributes="member: 82106">Ranged combat works OK. It is deemphasized to a certain extent, but it works fine. The difference is that combat is more exact than in earlier versions of D&D. Magic Users used to just toss AoE's around like candy and nobody ever really bothered to figure out if party members were in it or not. Players would invariably get a nasty surprise when they got to my game and tossed a fireball and all of a sudden the whole party was incinerated! I recall a now (in)famous gaming session where the Magic User TPKed the entire party, lol.In actuality 4e is a bit nicer to wizards since AoEs have exact areas specified and they are a LOT smaller than those of yore. You just have to get the party to work with you a bit. Defenders should not be rushing up ahead of the group into the midst of monsters and Strikers should deploy themselves such that they give the wizard a chance to chuck a nice daily or encounter AoE into the bad guys before they mix it up with them.Overall it USUALLY makes more sense for the party to deploy in such a way as to bring the monsters to them initially instead of leaping in. Strikers should move to the flanks and or take a ranged shot at the start of combat. Wizard spells also mostly have a pretty good long range, so unless the monsters are right on you from round 1 there should be a round or even two while the monsters move up where they are well within range and can be softened up.Sometimes DMs will set up terrain or other circumstances where that just isn't the case, and then the front line guys need to use some tactics and push monsters back or into a bunch. Then the wizard can drop an AoE behind enemy lines and should avoid catching party members. Worst case you DO have to hit one of your own people, but usually if the spell also catches several bad guys it is well worth it.In the group I DM for I actually don't recall a situation yet where a party member has been caught in the wizard's AoE. Sometimes she's had to leave one enemy out in order to avoid hitting the dwarf fighter, but it always seems to work out OK.</blockquote>

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