Attacks of Opportunity with a ranged weapon seems like an insane concept. The way I understand it, if a creature were to move within range of a PC's light crossbow it would trigger an AoO. If so that makes ranged weapons way too powerful, and brings up the question of whether making a ranged AoO gives another creature an AoO on you. This concept just seems like one endless series of AoOs.
Am I misinterpreting something, or are ranged weapons just that strong?
Best Answer
You threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, so this usually is not a problem, because melee attacks don't usually get huge reach.
Whenever some element in the game allows you to make AoOs with ranged attacks instead, they usually give you specifics about the working range.
If they don't, you still threaten all squares into which you can make a melee attack, even if you can make it with a ranged weapon, so you probably need some melee weapon that's still useable while you wield the ranged one and that sets your AoO range.