this came up during my session last night, and I went with it because upon checking I didn't see anything against it, but I was under the impression that if you had a ranged weapon like a crossbow, you wouldn't be able to attack with it if someone was in melee with you, or perhaps you could but would take a penalty, but like I said, when I checked, I didn't find anything against, so if someone could explain to me the limitations that do exist for ranged combat if any, I would be happy with that, I already know about shooting into melee, but range rules also aren't very clear to me, cause the weapon will list range as like 80 feet, but then I read something that said maximum range is up to 5 times the weapons range or something like that, so any short detailed guides to anything involving ranged combat and the answer as to if you can shoot while in melee, either the person who is melee attacking you or another enemy within line of sight, would be appreciated, thanks.
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber
There is no prohibition on shooting if you are in melee. Doing so will provoke an attack of opportunity from whoever is threatening you (see table "Table: Actions in Combat"), if you don't have the proper feats to prevent that.
Well there a various things that effect ranged combat.
First, if there's an enemy right next to you he can make an Attack of Opportunity against you for EACH ranged shot you do. Easiest way to prevent this is to 5ft step before shooting.
Next it's possible that the enemy will be providing cover to your target, if so the target has +4 to their AC.
Range increment is how far you can shoot with no penalty, for each range increment you go into you take a -2 to your shot. So if your range is 100 you can shoot 100 away no penalty. If you shoot 101-200 you take a -2 to your shot. If you shoot 201-300 it's a -4 to your shot and so on. The max a ranged weapon goes is 10 increments, so 1000 for our 100ft weapon.
Chess Pwn wrote: Well there a various things that effect ranged combat.
First, if there's an enemy right next to you he can make an Attack of Opportunity against you for EACH ranged shot you do. Easiest way to prevent this is to 5ft step before shooting.
Next it's possible that the enemy will be providing cover to your target, if so the target has +4 to their AC.
Range increment is how far you can shoot with no penalty, for each range increment you go into you take a -2 to your shot. So if your range is 100 you can shoot 100 away no penalty. If you shoot 101-200 you take a -2 to your shot. If you shoot 201-300 it's a -4 to your shot and so on. The max a ranged weapon goes is 10 increments, so 1000 for our 100ft weapon.
alright, thanks, that helps a lot, so the attack of opportunity does still happen even if its a ranged weapon you are using against someone right in front you, like a melee attack but not because its a ranged weapon? or is it only if you use the ranged weapon to shoot at someone farther away? is the 5 foot step not something that provokes an attack of opportunity since you are moving away from an enemy?
Making a ranged attack, regardless of the weapon or target, provokes an AoO that anyone can take against them.
Making the free 5ft step, that everyone can do instead of moving, doesn't provoke. And if you step away from the guy, then he wont be in reach to take the attack of opportunity for your ranged attacks.
Chess Pwn wrote: And if you step away from the guy, then he wont be in reach to take the attack of opportunity for your ranged attacks. To put it more accurately, if you use a 5' step and are no longer within someone's reach, then you don't trigger an AoO to begin with.
Recent threads in Rules Questions
|
