So, this is a very basic question, but it has caused some discention amongst my group. Can you make a ranged attack with a melee weapon? Obviously you wouldn't use any melee power dice. They claim that since the melee dice have range on them, all be it very little, you should be able to make a long attack.

I've been adamant that you cannot, as it defeats the purpose of melee attacks having to be up close, and would change the dynamic of the game. There are some silver and gold melee weapons that could potentially allow a hero to attack from 4+squares away. That seems silly to me. It also seems to defeat the purpose of the reach ability.

I'm looking for a little clarification and hopefully some validation that the notion of making ranged attacks with a melee weapon is ridiculous.

Thanks!

No you may not. The range appear on the Melee dice for other purposes.

The only melee specific die is the red die itself. The range result could add range to say a magic attack made by a chaos beast using the morph ability. Of course, it's risky to do this because you've now doubled your chance of missing, but the red die has the highest possible damage output (4) of any die in the game.

The red dies range is also used to determine distance traveled by boulders, and I think their may be another quest or two when it comes into play. Melee attacks ignore rolled range. You have to be adjacent to a figure, unless you have reach, where you can be effectively at a "range" of 2.

The rulebook explicitly states that you ignore range on a Melee attack, so no, there is no such thing as "range" on a Melee attack and you cannot use a Melee attack at a distance without the Reach ability (which still ignores range).

Page 11 of the rulebook:

Melee Attacks : Melee attacks can only be declared
against adjacent spaces . However, a melee attack only
misses if a miss result is rolled. Range results are
ignored during melee attacks . When a hero makes a
melee attack, he adds a number of power dice to his roll
equal to his melee trait .

(just in case you thought I was lying

-shnar

Awesome guys, thanks.

I must have glazed over that page in the rulebook. I'll bring that up for sure. My beastmen rejoice today.

According to the rules, no. Though I could see a house rule where you could "throw" the melee weapon for a ranged attack, but you lose the weapon in the process.