A significant part of the ranged vs melee problem for 5e is because 5e chose to get rid of a lot of the penalties for being in close combat (no triggering opportunity attacks for merely trying to use a spell or ranged weapon), made it so a ranged build can pick up a melee weapon with no significant penalty (in 3.5e you needed a feat to use dex and even then you only got it on attack rolls, not damage rolls), and made it harder to actually close with a ranged build (no charge maneuver, you can move after attacking).
A significant part of the ranged vs melee problem for 5e is because 5e chose to get rid of a lot of the penalties for being in close combat (no triggering opportunity attacks for merely trying to use a spell or ranged weapon), made it so a ranged build can pick up a melee weapon with no significant penalty (in 3.5e you needed a feat to use dex and even then you only got it on attack rolls, not damage rolls), and made it harder to actually close with a ranged build (no charge maneuver, you can move after attacking).
That's as it may be, but one wonders: If ranged martials are so great, why are they still inferior to casters? Because they are, and not just in terms of being fun, but also in terms of power.
Also, since we know players respond negatively to nerfs, and since we want to stay away from fiddly stacks of bonuses and penalties, and keep things simple, how might we patch up these mechanics in a way that still fits 5e? I think the opportunity attacks thing is pretty simple, although one does have to keep in mind that 3.5e was packed to the gills with feats that would let you ignore those attacks if you built correctly, and that's not something that will fit well into 5e. It might be fine to make the sticky mechanics actually sticky, it's just worth noting that they were never as sticky as they seemed. Here's a rough draft:
Provoking an attack of opportunity -- hereby renamed "leaving an opening" for aesthetic reasons -- is now done any time someone's trying to fight you and you don't fight back. A giant has you within his 10ft reach and you try to swig a potion? You just left an opening, and he might use his reaction to attack you. Special moves will tell you if they don't leave an opening: for example, casting a spell that creates a weapon for you to attack with, probably isn't going to leave you open.
But I digress. The point isn't ranged vs melee, really -- and to better illustrate the martial vs caster issue, let's compare ranged martials to ranged casters, shall we?
A longbow has better range than most attack spells, particularly cantrips. You get to attack twice most of the time. You can get magic arrows. And yet, with all these upsides, it still sucks. Why? Well, it's already been said: You just don't have a toolkit. You have a hammer, and all the world's a nail.
That's as it may be, but one wonders: If ranged martials are so great, why are they still inferior to casters? Because they are, and not just in terms of being fun, but also in terms of power.
Ranged martials don't have the utility of spellcasters, but they're extremely powerful. Resourceless doesn't much matter when dealing with melee combat because if you've got enough enemies that the fight lasts more than three rounds you're probably dead, but no such limitation applies to ranged weapons; if you've got a ranged sharpshooter hailing arrows down on you from 600' away and you don't have comparable range, your only realistic choices are 'run' and 'hide'.
A significant part of the ranged vs melee problem for 5e is because 5e chose to get rid of a lot of the penalties for being in close combat (no triggering opportunity attacks for merely trying to use a spell or ranged weapon), made it so a ranged build can pick up a melee weapon with no significant penalty (in 3.5e you needed a feat to use dex and even then you only got it on attack rolls, not damage rolls), and made it harder to actually close with a ranged build (no charge maneuver, you can move after attacking).
That's as it may be, but one wonders: If ranged martials are so great, why are they still inferior to casters? Because they are, and not just in terms of being fun, but also in terms of power.
Also, since we know players respond negatively to nerfs, and since we want to stay away from fiddly stacks of bonuses and penalties, and keep things simple, how might we patch up these mechanics in a way that still fits 5e? I think the opportunity attacks thing is pretty simple, although one does have to keep in mind that 3.5e was packed to the gills with feats that would let you ignore those attacks if you built correctly, and that's not something that will fit well into 5e. It might be fine to make the sticky mechanics actually sticky, it's just worth noting that they were never as sticky as they seemed. Here's a rough draft:
Provoking an attack of opportunity -- hereby renamed "leaving an opening" for aesthetic reasons -- is now done any time someone's trying to fight you and you don't fight back. A giant has you within his 10ft reach and you try to swig a potion? You just left an opening, and he might use his reaction to attack you. Special moves will tell you if they don't leave an opening: for example, casting a spell that creates a weapon for you to attack with, probably isn't going to leave you open.
But I digress. The point isn't ranged vs melee, really -- and to better illustrate the martial vs caster issue, let's compare ranged martials to ranged casters, shall we?
A longbow has better range than most attack spells, particularly cantrips. You get to attack twice most of the time. You can get magic arrows. And yet, with all these upsides, it still sucks. Why? Well, it's already been said: You just don't have a toolkit. You have a hammer, and all the world's a nail.
Ranged martials don't have the utility of spellcasters, but they're extremely powerful. Resourceless doesn't much matter when dealing with melee combat because if you've got enough enemies that the fight lasts more than three rounds you're probably dead, but no such limitation applies to ranged weapons; if you've got a ranged sharpshooter hailing arrows down on you from 600' away and you don't have comparable range, your only realistic choices are 'run' and 'hide'.
I did something that worked for this. I gave martials two subclasses at once.