Magic swords are cool, but you have to be right next to the guy you’re hitting. Not so with these magic ranged items!
There’s a prevailing “wisdom” about 5.5E that goes something like: “Melee combat is so much stronger now, you don’t need ranged.” And while it’s true that melee characters are feasting, these days, ranged weapons are still plenty potent.
While it might be a little harder to churn out the damage numbers in the wake of the Sharpshooter nerf, a guy with a longbow vs. a guy with a sword has a key advantage, which is that the longbow has a range of up to 600 feet, while the sword has, at best, a range of 15 feet. And while, sure, most combats don’t take place with that much distance, you can often reliably keep 35+ feet between you and a target, making it hard for them to hit you, while you hit them.
And then there are magic items. The DMG is rife with new items that will power up your ranged combat. From magical ammo to what are effectively homing missiles, here are some ranged weapons that will let you slay from afar.
Energy Bow
Let’s start with one of the newer kids on the block: the Energy Bow. Ironic, because, as a concept, this has been around since the D&D Cartoon, as Hank the Ranger up there demonstrates. But it has actual rules in 5.5E, and just like in the cartoon, this magic bow never runs out of ammo because in addition to being a +1 long- or shortbow, it creates a magical arrow made of golden energy whenever you pull your arm back as though to shoot it.
These arrows emit light, and you can even create three different effects. Whenever you fire an energy arrow, you can use it to restrain a creature instead of dealing damage to them (so you can pin your enemies down from afar), you can use a Magic action to shoot an energy arrow and teleport a willing target (or unattended object) to within 10 feet of you (instead of doing damage), or you can create a magical ladder of arrows that you can climb up to 60 feet with.
Horn of Blasting
One of the other things that ranged weapons do well is deal with multiple opponents. As, sure, the occasional Cleave attack might let your Barbarian hit another guy as a bonus action, but compare that to the Horn of Blasting, say. This is like a big flamethrower or magical thunder shotgun – it hits everyone in a 30 foot cone for 5d8 thunder damage. If you need to deal damage to a lot of guys all at once, this is a great weapon to do exactly that.
Just be careful when using it, because sometimes it does blow up in your face. But surely that won’t happen to you.
Magical Ammunition
One of the underrated stars of the D&D magic item world, magical ammo of any kind is a boon. Sure you’ve got your fancy arrows of slaying, which deal an extra 6d10 to a creature that fails their save (or half to someone that succeeds), but even a humble +1 arrow adds its bonus to both your attack and damage rolls, and it stacks with the bonus that your weapon might have. So a +1 bow firing a +1 arrow has +2 to hit and damage. You just have to keep track of ’em. But hey, that’s where Artificers come in handy.
Oathbow
The classic magic bow: the Oathbow lets you have preternatural accuracy, turning every arrow into effectively a homing missile. Whenever you swear to defeat a foe with this weapon (which you can do whenever you make an attack roll, you don’t even have to hit), you gain several benefits. For one, you have Advantage on the attack roll. For two, your target can’t benefit from Half or Three-Quarters Cover. Three, you suffer no Disadvantage due to long range, and four, if you hit, your sworn enemy takes a handful of extra d6s as damage.
Ring of Shooting Stars
But you don’t even need weapons to be ranged. The Ring of Shooting Stars is proof of this. With this ring, you can create ranged attack drones in the form of magical lightning spheres that can attack targets up to 120 feet away, dealing either one big blast or several small blasts of lightning (as you see fit). Or you can send out magical spark blasts at creatures within 60 feet, effectively hitting them with a radiant damage barrage.
Happy Adventuring!
