Edit: A lot of people say, that GWM needs a melee weapon attack, but they miss Jesses point: While GWM requires a melee attack with a heavy weapon, Sharpshooters only criteria is an attack with a ranged weapon (not a ranged weapon attack). Jesse bases his claim on the fact, that a crossbow is still a ranged weapon, even if used as an improvised weapon for melee combat. That’s why it deals 1d4(!)+20 damage. (It works with any ranged, heavy weapon btw., so Longbow qualifies too.) Of course Jesse is playing the devils advocate here and of course, no somewhat sane Walter will allow this in any campaign ever, as it’s obviously not the intention behind these feats. But you could read it that way and that’s Jesses (paperthin) point. Besides: he finds the image of a barbarian running around recklessly smashing a crossbow over everyone’s head to just be hilarious.
GWM specifies a melee attack iirc
The meme community hasn’t read the rules
RAR, Rules As (mis)Remembered
RAM sounds better.
…has seriously no one bothered to make a WinRAR joke?
Suppose I’ll just archive mine.
Literally every time someone posts with this Walter and Jesse meme format, it is the dumbest shit I’ve ever seen. It makes me lose brain cells instantly and desperately wish I had unsubbed from this community months ago
Reading in my ttrpg? Impossible. All that matters is the dm regurgitating the rules for the players.
It is a melee attack. Jesse hits people with the crossbow in melee. Jesse does read the rules. Thank you.
Then Sharpshooter wouldn’t trigger, because that counts as an improvised weapon.
Is smacking someone over the head with a Glock not an attack with a gun?
Is a bow no longer a ragend weapon just because I don’t use it as one?
Yes, it is an attack with a gun. That gun just isn’t a ranged weapon for the purposes of that attack.
Yes, using a bow as a melee weapon, in 5e, absolutely ceases to become a ranged weapon while you do so.
But sharp shooter doesn’t specify a ranged attack… right? Right?
(My source is wikidot)
even on that wiki it states that you need to make a ranged weapon attack. THREE TIMES, infact the same amount GWM states that it needs a melee weapon attack.
I’m one to rule with intent, and would rule against using it, but at the same time, it does say
" Before you make an attack with a ranged weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If that attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage."
Mhm yeah, but if you attack with a ranged weapon in melee, its no longer an attack with a ranged weapon as you use it as an improvised weapon instead.
Ah, the weapon changes type depending how it’s used, I’ll take that.
I won’t- per Jeremy Crawford, a thrown melee weapon isn’t an attack with a ranged weapon, so by the same logic a melee attack with a ranged weapon wouldn’t become a melee weapon attack.
Jeremy Crawford’s ‘rules clarifications’ are inconsistent dog shit.
Correct. It says an attack with a ranged weapon.
The DM omnirule applies: If it breaks the game, then no, just no. But if it merely makes the game more ridiculous without giving the DM a splitting headache or driving players away from the table, allow it.
I suspect something like this would trigger the headache clause, and if I were DM I’d probably ask the player to pick which one he would rather it apply to, but not both.
-10 to hit will mean this person is doing an average of 6 damage an attack across an arbitrary number of attacks. I think you’d be fine.
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My take on why this doesn’t work RAW is there’s a time that states “specific beats general”
When you use a crossbow as a melee weapon, it specifically belongs an improvised melee weapon for the attack, which trumps the general rule that a crossbow is ranged weapon.
I would even go so far as to say that means it doesn’t qualify for GWM either.
Heavy Crossbow
Heavy CrossbowWhat’s GWM?
Great Weapon Master
Thank you much
okay but if you’re using the crossbow as a melee weapon does it still count as ranged?
(also this is what I hate about the wargaming origins of most DnD systems, and have been really enjoying the PBTA derived Matryoshka I want my game to be more about collaborative storytelling and roleplaying and a GM that can make on the fly decisions as to what makes sense with the rulebook more as a basic outline than concrete mechanical rules like we’re playing a CRPG but with pen and paper)
PHB says “attack with a ranged weapon” which is not necessarily a ranged attack.
It’s an improvised melee weapon when you smack someone with it because you aren’t using the weapon as designed.
It just feels like rules lawyering and focusing on semantics, when the intent is clear.
Also I get why it is a meme but I stand by my pedantry.
Of course it is, that’s the joke - as explained by the headline.
Thanks! Someone finally got it.
idk what those acronyms mean.
RAW = Rules as Written
RAI = Rules as Intended
This is one of those situations where the context is clear but they switched the wording to be about the weapon in the context of proficiency for the third bullet point. Ranged attack description, ranged attack for first two bullet points, and then ranged weapon for the third.
So if you ignore all the context and expect them to repeat “ranged weapon making a ranged attack” in every single sentence then yes, it literally says ranged weapon in the third bullet and not ranged attack.
Of course. It is a joke, but also a valid commentary on the weakness of WotC’s meta rules system. This is an area Paizo excels at.
I have to say that so many of the complaints about WotC rules writing come down to willfully ignoring context and similar phrasing. Yes, they should be more consistent and clear and mot name general ranged feats with weapon specific names or contradict themselves in their rules “clarifications.”
A sentence out of context is not the gotcha that people seem to think it is though, and that joke is old and played out.
I’d disagree, for example in the specific case of the sharpshooter feat a thrown dagger is a ranged weapon attack, but not an attack with a ranged weapon- so, per Jeremy Crawford, the first two parts of the feat apply when throwing a dagger but not the third.
That doesn’t ignore the context of being a ranged attack though, and something being true doesn’t mean the inverse situation is automatically true.
My point was more that there is a specified difference between a “Ranged weapon attack”, a “ranged attack”, and “an attack with a ranged weapon”- the three things mean different things. Hitting someone with a crossbow is “an attack with a ranged weapon”, and thus the third point on the sharpshooter feat should apply, for the same reason throwing a dagger doesn’t apply it; if performing a ranged attack with a melee weapon doesn’t count as an attack with a ranged weapon, why would performing a melee attack with a ranged weapon count as a melee weapon attack?
Theres is a bug in the current Dwarf Fortress combat AI where soldiers equipped with crossbows will only shoot targets if they can’t path to the target. If they can, they will instead prefer to run up to it and melee with the crossbow.
I believe you have found their reasoning.
