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Old 04-23-2017, 12:36 PM   #12
Railstar
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Default Re: Balanced games for archers

What environments are you fighting in that make it so easy to get into melee range? Environment is a huge factor. If every fight begins from 5 yards away or less, then it will be very difficult for ranged weapons to be competitive.

So the main difference is to make sure there’s ways to start fights from further away. If you know who the enemy is and can launch an attack then you should probably be choosing the distance that suits you. If the party is melee-heavy, then enemies who see them should probably notice their lack of ranged weapons (most ranged weapons are pretty noticeable) and so begin their fights from a safe distance.

This is true even of guys who are better at melee than at range, because it’s a chance to wound or disable a couple of enemies before the melee combat begins. The side with ranged superiority should never close the distance unless there is a clear benefit for doing so, because ranged superiority is “we can attack you while you can’t attack us.” We might be better in melee, but we’ll be just as good in melee if the melee starts after a few rounds of us shooting you or throwing things at you than if we move into melee range early.

Hopefully your party will notice and adopt some of those tricks – and give them a few melee-only opponents now and then so they can be the ones benefiting from those tactics.

If we have ranged weapons and our enemies don’t, then let’s put a fence in the way. Barricades, cover positions, caltrops, bear traps – anything to make it difficult to get into melee range. Plan around, “it’s about 30 yards to the fence (1 or 2 aimed shots in the time to cover that), about 5-10 seconds to tear through the barricades (another 1-3 aimed shots), then another 10-15 yards to where the archers are (maybe 1 aimed shot?).” However, if the players come up with clever countermeasures, let them.

Archers will shine in those circumstances, because they can do the counter-sniping. The melee guys will face some downtime though.

If one side gets to ambush the other, seeing the other side first, then they get to choose the range of the engagement. They also get to have crossbows loaded, and so on. Crossbowmen who shoot and then run. Melee PCs can try to chase them, but with no guarantee of catching them, and during the chase the melee guys might be facing downtime while the archers are able to draw and shoot. So much of the time spent loading and aiming for archers is spent chasing for the melee guys.

Essentially, remember opponents don’t want to get killed, so if the main threat is melee they will avoid melee. Sure the group can try to force them into melee, but time spent doing that will be time the archers can spend aiming and shooting without “missing” several rounds of combat.
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