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View Full Version : D&D 3.x Other Melee and Range attacks - in the same combat round



nonsi
2018-06-25, 02:25 AM
.

Thinking of the scene in LotR where they battled all those goblinoids at the mines of Moria, I remembered the part where Legolas used arrows as stabbing melee weapons just before shooting them.

This made me contemplate combining melee and range attacks, in a way that would allow a warrior to execute both in a single combat round.



So, the obvious part would be a feat that would remove the part where using ranged weapons provokes AoOs:


Close Combat Shot
Requirements: BAB +6, Dex 13, Mobility, Shot on the Run, Balance 3 ranks
Benefit: You do not provoke AoOs for using ranged weapons while threatened.
Note: In many gaming groups, Dodge and Point Blank Shot (both are prereqs for Shot on the Run) are removed from the feats list and all prereqs. I take that as a given. Anyone that doesn't, simply doesn't care that fighters don't shine, so this fix is not for them anyway.



Now, the second part is actually where I was aiming at.
Now I want to talk about shooting and striking – all in a single round:


Melee-Range Interchange
You have learned how to exchange melee and range attacks to your heart's content.
Requirements: BAB +8, Dex 15, Close Combat Shot, Quick Draw, Sleight of Hand 5 ranks
Benefit: This feat grants two unique combat options:
You may stab with an arrow, dealing its normal damage as a piercing melee attack. You may pierce with an arrow and withdraw it, then fire it on your next attack.
You may make a range attack and then immediately draw a light or 1-handed weapon (melee or range, but not a missile device) and attack with it on your next attack.
Special: If you have Rapid Shot / Rapid Reload feat, you may also use your bow / x-bow to make a ranged attack after a regular melee attack with a light / 1-handed weapon.
Note: You do not gain the extra attack from Rapid Shot / Rapid Reload when interchanging between melee and range attacks.

Saintheart
2018-06-25, 03:23 AM
.

Thinking of the scene in LotR where they battled all those goblinoids at the mines of Moria, I remembered the part where Legolas used arrows as stabbing melee weapons just before shooting them.

This made me contemplate combining melee and range attacks, in a way that would allow a warrior to execute both in a single combat round.



So, the obvious part would be a feat that would remove the part where using ranged weapons provokes AoOs:


Close Combat Shot
Requirements: BAB +6, Mobility, Shot on the Run, Balance 3 ranks
Benefit: You do not provoke AoOs for using ranged weapons while threatened.
Note: In many gaming groups, Dodge and Point Blank Shot (both are prereqs for Shot on the Run) are removed from the feats list and all prereqs. I take that as a given. Anyone that doesn't, simply doesn't care that fighters don't shine, so this fix is not for them anyway.



Now, the second part is actually where I was aiming at.
Now I want to talk about shooting and striking – all in a single round:


Melee-Range Interchange
You have learned how to exchange melee and range attacks to your heart's content.
Requirements: BAB +8, Close Combat Shot, Quick Draw, Sleight of Hand 5 ranks
Benefit: This feat grants two unique combat options:
You may stab with an arrow*, dealing its normal damage as a piercing melee attack. You may pierce with an arrow and then fire it on your next attack.
You may make a range attack and then immediately draw a light or 1-handed melee weapon and strike on your next attack.
Special: If you have Rapid Shot / Rapid Reload feat, you may also use your bow / x-bow to make a ranged attack after a regular melee attack with a light / 1-handed weapon.
Note: You do not gain the extra attack from Rapid Shot / Rapid Reload when interchanging between melee and range attacks.

* You must use masterwork arrows, otherwise they automatically breaks upon impact and deal only 1d2 base damage.

(1) Haven't looked into it myself, but is there any way to obviously abuse this with Throw Anything or similar (Hulking Hurler etc) since we're talking about ranged attacks? Big lunky giant bounces rock off your head like a basketball and then hits you with it?

(2) Maybe reword the bolded bit - I think what you're looking for is "You may pierce with the arrow, withdraw it, and fire it on your next attack". On reading this I was thinking it was something like "Stab with the arrow, then nock your bow to it while it's still impaled in the dude and fire it again..."

rferries
2018-06-25, 03:24 AM
Nice. I'd remove the skill rank and masterwork arrow requirements; the former penalises classes without skill points or the proper skills and the latter penalises martials via $$$.

nonsi
2018-06-25, 04:04 PM
(1) Haven't looked into it myself, but is there any way to obviously abuse this with Throw Anything or similar (Hulking Hurler etc) since we're talking about ranged attacks? Big lunky giant bounces rock off your head like a basketball and then hits you with it?


IIRC, the War Hulk / Hulking Hurler combo was regarded to as a theoretical char-op, because it involved a very lenient stretch of the rules.
I believe that as-is the Hulking Hurler poses no particular problem.





(2) Maybe reword the bolded bit - I think what you're looking for is "You may pierce with the arrow, withdraw it, and fire it on your next attack". On reading this I was thinking it was something like "Stab with the arrow, then nock your bow to it while it's still impaled in the dude and fire it again..."


Done.

.

nonsi
2018-06-25, 04:15 PM
Nice. I'd remove the skill rank and masterwork arrow requirements; the former penalises classes without skill points or the proper skills and the latter penalises martials via $$$.

My intuition tells me that those requirements are the absolute minimum for someone to be able to develop that kind of agile yet controlled movements.

Since we're in the houserules/homebrew department, I'd like to note that half the Fighter fixes I've seen offer the option of adding one or two skills to the list of class skills and grant at least 4 skill points per level. A Fighter fix that doesn't at least grants those ain't worth the time making or looking at.
There are several other options of reducing the skill toll (Able Learner being one of them).


As for the arrows, I tend to agree that it'd be far less tedious and I could cut corners and stretch my suspension of disbelief here.

rferries
2018-06-25, 05:26 PM
My intuition tells me that those requirements are the absolute minimum for someone to be able to develop that kind of agile yet controlled movements.

Since we're in the houserules/homebrew department, I'd like to note that half the Fighter fixes I've seen offer the option of adding one or two skills to the list of class skills and grant at least 4 skill points per level. A Fighter fix that doesn't at least grants those ain't worth the time making or looking at.
There are several other options of reducing the skill toll (Able Learner being one of them).


As for the arrows, I tend to agree that it'd be far less tedious and I could cut corners and stretch my suspension of disbelief here.

Sure, fair enough! And maybe a simple Dex prerequisite for core 3.5?

nonsi
2018-06-26, 02:34 AM
Sure, fair enough! And maybe a simple Dex prerequisite for core 3.5?

Done :smallsmile: