As the DM....suggestions on teaching BM xbox sharpshooter

[KyleG]

So what techniques do you employ to counteract ranged combatants? I didn't give my players (level 5) any restrictions so the optimizer has run with it. Id like to ensure he doesnt have the spotlight on damage all the time, nor do I want to target him, but I'd like to ensure combat different become a live fire target practice.

I had also planned on starting everyone with a wee perk (not necessarily feat) based on backstory. A tiefling paladin medic character to get the healer feat, the aasimar hexblade prodigy, the halfling battle smith bountiful luck. And the bm and elven evocation wizard were both indecided and now im not sure if I should proceed.

[J-H]

Full cover (walls, corners, pillars, large trees, dense vegetation)
Battlefield control spells (fogs, webs, walls, wind wall, darkness)
Spellcasting enemies
Enemy archers who also have sharpshooter abilities (occasional archer duel)
Enemies with high mobility (monk-like, teleportation, wall-running, flight) who force him into melee
Large mobs of enemies where high single-target damage is less useful than AOE melee damage
Enemies with resistance to non-magical damage, if his bow is non-magical

If he has 2 feats at level 5, he's probably vuman and lacking Darkvision. Enforce rules on vision and the radius of light spells, and his effective range (without disadvantage) shrinks.


Open-field battles and battles in a single square room or rectangular hallway are boring.

[MaxWilson]

So what techniques do you employ to counteract ranged combatants? I didn't give my players (level 5) any restrictions so the optimizer has run with it. Id like to ensure he doesnt have the spotlight on damage all the time, nor do I want to target him, but I'd like to ensure combat different become a live fire target practice.

I had also planned on starting everyone with a wee perk (not necessarily feat) based on backstory. A tiefling paladin medic character to get the healer feat, the aasimar hexblade prodigy, the halfling battle smith bountiful luck. And the bm and elven evocation wizard were both indecided and now im not sure if I should proceed.

Simplest technique is to drop prone. Anyone more than 5' away now has disadvantage. Either the Sharpshooter needs to come closer and be vulnerable, or he needs other characters to do it for him, or he needs more patience than most players have to just kill the creatures at disadvantage anyway.

Other than that, make sure enemies can shoot back, use some higher-AC enemies sometimes (AC 18+ like hobgoblins, or Spirit Nagas with the Shield spell), take advantage of total cover like doors, and don't be afraid to use swarms of small enemies (e.g. enough stirges for 2-4 stirges to be attacking every PC) so that AoE has a chance to shine too. Can also use monsters resistant or immune to nonmagical weapon damage, like werewolves and shadow demons. If you're really mean you can have enemies use the DMG Disarm maneuver to disarm and maybe take away his hand crossbow temporarily. DON'T do all of these things at once, and don't sweat it if he's doing more damage than anyone else a lot of the time--doing lots of damage is a fighter's thing. In general I'd say your best option is to just use 20-30% more monsters than you otherwise would, like 4 Onis instead of 3, so the Fighter has something to kill but so does everyone else.