What upgrade i would like to see for "ranged" slot is possibility to place there throwing weapons ... like i have 6 Javelins in my barbarian inventory ... there is little to none reason for me to use Bow, or Crossbow rather than those (mainly for immersion reasons, but w/e :P ) ...
Classic RPGs to the rescue! All that and more was possible in BG1&2 and Co.
Characters had multiple weapons slot, where you could assign any weapons you wanted with no artificial limitations. Weapons with two functions (like thrown weapons that could be used both in melee and thrown) had a toggle so you could switch between throwing and smashing with them.
IIRC BG1/2 allowed up to 4 ready weapon slots ( containing ANY weapon ) if you were a fighter, less slots for other classes, and also allowed 3 types of ready ammunition.
But then D&D2e used 1 minute combat rounds where it was generally assumed you could switch to any weapon in that timescale, so the BG1/2 weapon slots were actually a Bioware-designed convenience/limitation.
In contrast 5e uses 6 second combat rounds, during which you can nominally:-
- move about 10m ( or rather your moement rate )
- cast a spell/hit/perform other significant action
- possibly perform some reaction
- possibly perform one or more bonus actions ( particularly in Larian's implementation )
- interact with a single object in the environment as a free action
which is all a lot more frantic than is actually reasonable for 6 seconds, in real life.
Switching weapons requires interacting with 2 objects, so RAW 5e would need to use both your action and your free action to switch weapons in a single round.
An alternative argument is that you could hit with a weapon and stow it as a free action in one round, then draw another weapon as a free action and hit with it in the following round, thereby not wasting an action.
I think this is a 5e rule that is regularly ignored on tabletop. In BG3, Larian do correctly make you use your action if you switch to a weapon in your inventory, but they allow the 2 "ready" weapons to be freely switched, which is a reasonble compromise; but there is no good reason why the ready weapons should be of any given type, since switching between sharp/blunt weapons is just as valid as melee/ranged.
I would definitely favour more ready weapon slots for martial classes ( they need the love ), but I would also favour allowing only a single ready weapon switch per round, to avoid the exploit where you switch to a high damage or ranged weapon to hit, but always switch back to weapon/shield at the end of the round for the extra AC.
