DM Q&A: Feat: Point Blank Shots

[sylarian]

My primary character (Damien Quicksilver) has Point Blank Shot as one of his feats (I think it was one of the first chosen during character creation), however, every time he gets into a melee situation with his bow, he is hit with attacks of opportunity. I thought Point Blank Shot was supposed to eliminate attacks of opportunity when using a bow in melee. Am I remembering incorrectly or is something squirrelly going on with Damien? Thanks.

[MTGPackFoils]

sylarian said:

My primary character (Damien Quicksilver) has Point Blank Shot as one of his feats (I think it was one of the first chosen during character creation), however, every time he gets into a melee situation with his bow, he is hit with attacks of opportunity. I thought Point Blank Shot was supposed to eliminate attacks of opportunity when using a bow in melee. Am I remembering incorrectly or is something squirrelly going on with Damien? Thanks.

PBS does eliminate that unless the difficulty settings on here are set differently. If memory serves me correctly those settings are currently set similar to PnP...where you would get hit with an AoO when using a bow in melee...

Suggestion:
quickslot a melee weapon and a small shield...

[Booze Hound]

Actually Point Bllank Shot has nothing to do with Attacks of Oppurtunity. WHat PBS does is remove the -4 attack penalty from using a ranged weapon in close quarters. It also adds +1 to attack and damage when within 15 feet. Trust me, I been an archer here forever

The thing that you need if you want to use a bow in melee combat is Mobility, though not negating AoO, you get +4AC against them. But you dont get +4 to regular atacks. So basically, just follow industrials advice. get a sword and shield, or 2 swords, or one real big sword and whack away when they get close.

Crap!! I always reply from the Top 10 thingy, and didnt even notice that it was here. my bad guys *punches self in the face repeatedly*

[DM the Usurper]

how bout a stick to poke em? *poke**poke*

[Retired DM Gallin]

First off... *Points up to the forum all the players seem to be responding in* -- enough said.

Second, I'd be inclined to believe our resident bow expert who shouldn't be posting here. Even in PnP (3.5) Point Blank Shot has nothing to do with attacks of oppurtunity.

~Gallin

[DM Justicar - Creator of FRC]

logandoug said:

Actually Point Bllank Shot has nothing to do with Attacks of Oppurtunity. WHat PBS does is remove the -4 attack penalty from using a ranged weapon in close quarters. It also adds +1 to attack and damage when within 15 feet. Trust me, I been an archer here forever

The thing that you need if you want to use a bow in melee combat is Mobility, though not negating AoO, you get +4AC against them. But you dont get +4 to regular atacks. So basically, just follow industrials advice. get a sword and shield, or 2 swords, or one real big sword and whack away when they get close.

Crap!! I always reply from the Top 10 thingy, and didnt even notice that it was here. my bad guys *punches self in the face repeatedly*

Actually, that is an excellent answer, so I will: *hand you a temporary pad of self-inflicted punch shield +2*

[sylarian]

Thanks for the clarification, all!

[Munroe]

On D&D Hardcore difficulty, which is what FRC uses, Point Blank Shot behaves correctly and allows for Attacks of Opportunity when a ranged weapon is used in melee. Mobility (+4 AC vs. AoO) is your best counter for these if you want to use a bow in melee (such as the case if you are an arcane archer or otherwise a bow specialist). Note that Mobility requires you to have Dodge (+1 AC vs. 1 attacker) first.

On normal difficulty, which FRC used to use, Point Blank Shot also prevented AoOs for using ranged weapons in melee combat. This is not correct by the D&D rules.