Hi all, I'm looking at a ranger and would like to understand a few basic ideas.
If the beast is in the square next to me, can I use a bow without penalty? or do I need to trade my bow out for a sword?
With a long range I threaten a whole lot of squares. If a beast moves anywhere in that range do I get attacks of opportunity. Suppose 12 goblins attack the party, but don't move all the way to us. would that be 12 attacks of opportunity?
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1) Using a bow provokes attacks of opportunity so while you can fire it just fine at the baddie adjacent to you he will get a chance to hit you.
2) Ranged weapons do not threaten so, barring certain feats (snap shot), you cannot make AoOs with it nor do you qualify as a flanker.
Also, you only get 1 AoO per round unless you have the Combat Reflexes feat and then it is maxed at whatever your Dex modifier is.
Using a ranged weapon provokes Attacks of Opportunity against anyone in melee with you. So if you shoot an orc adjacent to you, he gets to hit you for free. That's why you take a 5 foot step away and THEN shoot him. There is a feat to get rid of this situation but it takes a few per-requisites.
You don't threaten anything with a bow. You can target anything with-in range but you do NOT threaten them. In fact, you don't even threaten adjacent squares, so an orc can walk up to you and then do a dance around your square. You won't be able to get any AOOs. There is, of course, a feat that lets you make AOOs with a bow, but again it is a relatively advanced one.
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If the beast is in the square next to me, can I use a bow without penalty? or do I need to trade my bow out for a sword?
If you are in an area threatened by the monster, if you use a bow against it, you will provoke an Attack of Opportunity unless you have the point blank master feat. It is usually better to switch to melee weapons when an opponent closes to melee range.
With a long range I threaten a whole lot of squares. If a beast moves anywhere in that range do I get attacks of opportunity. Suppose 12 goblins attack the party, but don't move all the way to us. would that be 12 attacks of opportunity?
You do not threaten with a ranged weapon unless you have Snap Shot feats, so you cannot make any attacks of opportunity. Even if you did, it's short range and you can only make one attack of opportunity per round unless you have combat reflexes.
thanks a lot guys, non flanking makes me ask,
If I send my pet into battle to the other side of the beast, there is no flanking by either the dog or me? as I am not flanking for the dog, and the dog isn't flanking for me since I am not threatening?
There is a feat that would allow you to provide flanking to your allies including your pet, but you will never benefit from flanking while using ranged attacks.
To follow up on this, it is the already mentioned multiple times feat Snap Shot (and its Improved and Greater versions).
It allows you to threaten and make ranged attacks of opportunity, however you never benefit from flanking as flanking is restricted to melee only.
Read up on "soft cover" for shooting through squares with creatures in them (including ALLIES, team play starts with movement.) And the penalty for shooting into melee.
Theres a combat trick that's part of the Skirmisher Archetype that acts like the snapshot feat. Not as powerful as the feat chain but a little less costly from a pre-req perspective.
Also, you only get 1 AoO per round unless you have the Combat Reflexes feat and then it is maxed at whatever your Dex modifier is.
Off topic, but Dex Mod + 1.
Alternatively, you could play a Zen Archer since the monk can make unarmed strikes while its hands are full (one of those are even empty while not shooting), he is considered armed, and so he threatens things inside his natural reach (presumably 5'), meaning he can make AoOs if anyone provokes them.
Although you will still eat AoOs if YOU shoot while in melee - At least until 3d level when you get Point Blank Master for free and no longer provoke AoOs.