I have a question regarding the rule for point blank range in melee. I am playing a devastor and last night we went up against a Brood Lord. I was wondering if the Devastor would be able to use the point blank range without the modifier to shoot the creature.

The reason why I was wondering is the melee combat rule says that when engaged in melee, characters can only make attack actions with the melee subtype. Yet in the point blank range rule, it says you don't get the bonus when engaged in melee combat but it does sound like you can still fire your long range weapon when in melee combat, you just don't get your +30 bonus.

I would think when you are going against a creature of the size of the Brood Lord, you would still be able to fire even if he is engaging you in melee just due to the size.

Any help clarifying this would be appreciated.

Thanks/

Unfortunately for you only Pistols and Melee weapons can be used in close combat. This has less to do with the size of the target and more with the fact that it is difficult to bring a large weapon (like a heavy bolter) to bear on your target while the monster is trying to rip your head off. So you can still make a ranged attack in melee, but only with a Pistol and you get no bonus for point blank.

Heres the thing, the system is unclear about what it takes to be in "melee combat".

Once a character is "locked in melee," they can only use melee or pistol weapons, and there has been some talk that pistols are limited to standard attack (no SA/FA attacks, as per the observation you make).

The rules also state that being "adjacent" and attacking results in being locked in melee. As far as I can read, there is no statement on what is "adjacent." I will assume, it means being within 1 m of a target. Point blank is 0-3 m. I personally would rule that if you stand at least 2m away, it is entirely acceptable to shoot at a target with a FA weapon (pistol/basic/heavy), and receive the point blank bonus.

Also, one other ruling I make is that characters are not in melee, until the first attack is made. This prevents the "locking up" of heavy weapons by simply running and being adjacent to them. In other words, its after an attack is made, do combatants suffer the "locked in melee" effect. This would allow a heavy weapons user to get off at least a devastating attack, as I find it cheesy that just standing next to them is sufficient reason to prevent them from firing (I view that the "swirling melee" needs to occur, and that requires an actual effort, read use of an action, to occur). Sadly, this does make suspensors rather crazy (I have generally applied this rule in DH and RT, hasn't been an issue in DW yet). Perhaps as a house rule to a house rule, just say that suspensors make the wielder take the range modifier of the distance they started the turn at, not ended the turn at.