[RPG] How do some of the Hunter Abilities interact with Extra Attack for Rangers

dnd-5eoptimizationpowersranger

While there's several feats that could also interact with the following, I don't want this to become a ramble, so I'll stick to specifically how the Ranger and Hunter specialisation abilities interact with each other.

So continuing from the Title Question, I'm specifically wondering about:

Extra Attack:

Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, when ever you take the Attack action on your turn.

And how it relates to this:

Volley.

You can use your action to make a ranged attack against any number of creatures with in 10 feet of a point you can see within your weapon’s range. You must have ammunition for each target, as normal, and you make a separate attack roll for each target.

I'll explain what I'm thinking. So if you have extra attack… which allows you to make 2 ranged attacks per turn, does Volley disqualify your 2nd attack, consuming your whole action, or does it just consume 1 attack action? If so, then would you be able to use it twice? Because that seems ridiculous.

Additionally beyond that:

Horde Breaker.

Once on each of your turns when you make a weapon attack, you can make another attack with the same weapon against a different creature that is within 5 feet of the original target and within range of your weapon.

Horde Breaker is rather vague… because instead of saying when you take an attack action, it says when you make a weapon attack.

So would that mean that you could, hypothetically, make a Volley attack, and then extend the range by an additional 5ft in any direction outside of the original Volley using Horde Breaker via 1 target on the edge of the original limit?

The ramifications of this are astounding, because if the above technically is within the rules, you could do the following:

Attack with Volley, 5 Targets within 10ft of selected point of vision – Use Horde Breaker on 1 outlying Target of the original 5 Targets, Attack 1 additional Target – Rinse and Repeat.

And even if you could only use Volley once, could you still use Horde Breaker in conjunction? Gaining an attack on 1 additional target?

Finally, how does the following interact with the above:

Foe Slayer:

At 20th level, you become an unparalleled hunter of your enemies. Once on each of your turns, you can add your Wisdom modifier to the attack roll or the damage roll of an attack you make against one of your favored enemies. You can choose to use this feature before or after the roll, but before any effects of the roll are applied.

Would Foe Slayer then, allow you to add the modifer an attack made with either of the two afore mentioned abilities?

Many thanks in advance.

Best Answer

So, first up, we need to make something clear: The (capital A) Attack action is a specific action defined on page 192 of the PHB. It lets you make a (lowercase a) attack, or multiple (lowercase a) attacks if you have the Extra Attack class feature.

Volley is a specific action that lets you make as many (lowercase a) attacks as there are creatures within 10 feet of your chosen point. So the Volley action and the Attack action are entirely separate, distinct actions. Since Extra Attack only works with the Attack action, there is no interaction whatsoever between Extra Attack and Volley. You can use your action to take the Attack action, or you can use your action to Volley. Extra Attack will not affect Volley in any way.

Next up, Horde Breaker and Volley. You can use Horde Breaker whenever you make a weapon attack. Since Volley involves making weapon attcks, yes, Volley can trigger Horde Breaker. I'm not sure what you mean by "extending the range" of Volley - Volley allows you to attack all targets within 10 feet of a chosen point. Attacking an additional target with Horde Breaker won't change the target or range of the Volley, it just lets you make one more attack.

Finally, Foe Slayer. This lets you add your Wisdom modifier to the attack or damage roll of one (lowercase a) attack per turn. So you can use it on the Horde Breaker attack, you can use it on one of the Volley attacks, you can use it on one of the attacks you make with the Attack action - but only ever on one attack.