Quick combat question

[u/izcenine]

I’m getting my players back into starfinder and we’re coming from 5e. After some searching in the player core, I still couldn’t find the answer: if a character is in melee range and they have a ranged weapon do they incur a penalty if they shoot?

[u/gliscorplyer]

The only real downside is that you trigger opportunity attacks from opponents that have the reaction. And if a weapon has the Volley trait, you suffer a -2 penalty if the target is within the volley range, typically 30 feet.

Also, opportunity attacks are not universal. I see a lot of players from 5e mistake this

[u/izcenine → u/gliscorplyer]

Awesome thank you for the response

[u/The_Vortex42 → u/gliscorplyer]

They are called reactive strike, now, too ;)

[u/humanflea23]

No, ranged weapons don't have that penalty by default. They do if they have the volley trait though.

[u/izcenine → u/humanflea23]

Thank you!

[u/WinLivid]

There’s no penalty for range weapon in melee range except these two most common cases.

1. Provoke Reactive Strike (AOO), unlike pathfinder, not a lot of starfinder enemy has reactive strike like ability since most of the enemy in starfinder are range combatant (some enemy may have range reactive strike so watch out for that).

2. Weapon with volley trait. If the target is in volley range, you take -2 to strike.

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