Melee Vs. Ranged

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It seems Melee combat is useless. After dying a number of times I equiped my entire party with Ranged weapons and it seems easier. Is there a way to make Melee combat effective? My fighters miss too much and get kill quickly. I must be doing something wrong. Please Enlighten me, I am rather new to the game.

 

You do nothing wrong just get some exp. and gp. Spend the gp on better weapons and arming and you will make it. Nevertheless hold the enemies in distance if possible. Out of reach keeps you saver than any arming.

 

In the beginning, melle attack isn't easy, the fighters do miss too much, cause of the high THACO. Your THACO get lower when you get level up. Magic weapons do also lower the Thaco. When you fight with a weapon you're not specialized in,you get a penalty on Taco, with more profiency-slots on a weapons, the THACO is also lower and the damage more. With a lower THACO you also kick faster with a weapon. So get exprecience,reach a higher level, and become a good melee-fighter.

 

Thanx for your help.

 

One tactic that works for me is to arm each party member with both a ranged and melee weapon. That way, when they're attacking an enemy, they can needle them pretty bad with crossbows, bows and slings until the enemy reaches your party. Then switch to melee weapons for your fighters, while the rest continue with the ranged weapons. The enemy should be hurting pretty bad by then and shouldn't be too much of a problem, just make sure your characters have at least one star in the weapon slot for their chosen ranged weapon.

 

oh you can just get minsc and level him up and go send him to fight knolls and watch his THAC0 go as low as 7!

 

Interesting, I found the exact opposite occured in my party. Being a coward my first purchase was a nice big crossbow, but I invariably found that I could only get a couple of shots off before I had to resort to melee and the crossbow saw a lot less use than my hammer. As most NPC fighters seem to be melee oriented I never tried an all ranged party, though I did entertain the notion of 6 heavy crossbows at one point. Novelty pincushion anyone?

 

I also liked the damage the magic arrows did for longbows better than the magic bolts available. I was never a real range fan. I used it on occasion, and I did always have (and usually always will) have 2 archers in my party, with usually one or both that can enter into melee once it starts. Khalid was my tank, and at high levels (regardless of what everyone else says), he could handle most enemies singlehanded. Minsc, Coran, and myslelf were usefull backups. The only 2 archers I used were Minsc and Coran.

 

I agree about Khalid being a tank. I've read a lot of stuff about him being a wimp but he's the only good aligned figter who can max out in weapons. Once he levels up and gets those grand master bonuses he'll better than Minsc or anyone else. He gets +3 roll bonus and +5 damage bonus with five stars in long swords! That's quite an advantage. I use Minsc mainly as an archer.

 

I use minsc as a knoll killer and a target for the enemy; he's usually the leader to protect myself...i'm usually a type of mage.

 

Just a quick comment on the Crossbow post. Yes they are normally slower than longbows and there is less variety in ammunition. However, I saved up and got the light crossbow of speed (from Beregost I think, it was a long time ago) for Imoen to use. If you get it later in the game it's not hideously expensive (relatively speaking and assuming your reputation has risen) and it fire 2 bolts per round (or somrthing, long time ago). For Imoen it was a fantastic weapon.

 

Right, but you can get the eagle-bow, protector of the Dryads far in the game, and then your THACO is already much lowered.... For ranged attacks I love the Heavy Crossbow of Accuracy, with damage +2 and Thaco +5, it is really strong...