Balanced games for archers

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by lordabdul

At our table, Dodge with Retreat is always the most used defense. That's because generally there's no need to "hold a line" or something. Parrying is only ever use as an alternative when there's no room to retreat.

Two thoughts occurred to me as I read this.

First, did you catch Maz's point that you cannot Retreat and Dodge against ranged attacks? Even if the PC's rely on it when dealing with enemy melee attacks, it is an illegal defense for NPC's against your archer's shots.

Second, I am wondering what kind of scores were dealing with for your PCs and typical NPCs. The short version is thinking of the numbers I find typical for 4e (all my practical gaming experience is 3e), seems like Maz is right and the Parry would be as good or better than the Dodge... except (of course) against Ranged attacks.