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Had a case where a player character armed with ranged weapon was engaged in melee and wanted to know the penalties when shooting:

• Case 1: the attackers that are in melee with him <- resolved below
• Case 2: another target while he is engaged in melee

I found very brief information on the topics on APG p.98 and then on reddit at thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Symbaroum/comm ... and_melee/, where they quote something from Swedish errata, that I don't see in any English resource:

Projectile weapons in close combat. Clarification: a projectile weapon can't be fired in close combat. The archer either has to choose to Break Combat (p. 161 (Note, probably swedish version)) or change weapons (a movement action for most weapons, albeit not for weapons with the Short quality as they are drawn as a free action). Defense is not affected by having a projectile weapon in your hands while in close combat.

Case 2 I ruled as option one, but we discussed that there are possibilities to be able to fire at distant target with penalties while evading attacks (since you have no penalties on Defense rolls).

Did you have such case, how you rules out?

To make it simple, I'd say that someone that wants to use a missile weapon while engaged in melee, whatever the target, has to take a Movement Action to look for space before shooting.

That means that every enemy engaged in melee has a free attack against him, and then he can do his Attack Action. As if disengaging from combat.