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Could anyone let me know how they handle cover regarding ledges and elevated terrain and whatnot. For example, if a creature is standing on a 10 ft platform and a player is in the adjacent square 10 feet below, who has cover (if anyone), and who doesn't, or do they even have line of sight? If there is a person on the same platform, but 6 squares away, there is someone standing behind some normally cover-granting obstacle (like a sarcophagus), do either of them still have cover?
btw, this is mostly concerning ranged attacks. We ran into this in the DMG adventure in the skull-skull room.
I guess the best answer I can provide is think of it like they do in the "draw a line between the two creatures" text of the phb and just tilt your head 90 degrees.
Or in other words, think of the floor as a wall or obstruction and the two creatures as though they were looking at one another. I would assume the rules still apply in this sitaution the same way.
In your stated case I would say that unless the platform is substantially larger than the creature (larger enough to include more squares), then it would have to be very high to provide cover. If it is there are more squares to the platform than there are squares the creature resides in, then I would just treat it as a wall as mentioned above.
3D gaming is not well defined, but there is text in the rules alluding to treating vertical distance as squares, just like you do in the horizontal plane. In other words, someone standing 2 squares ahead and one to your right around a corner has cover from you. Therefore, the same enemy up 10ft on a platform has cover (if he's on the edge you can see). You don't have LOS to the opposite edge until you're some distance away (at which point you need to draw a line).
3D gaming is not well defined, but there is text in the rules alluding to treating vertical distance as squares, just like you do in the horizontal plane. In other words, someone standing 2 squares ahead and one to your right around a corner has cover from you. Therefore, the same enemy up 10ft on a platform has cover (if he's on the edge you can see). You don't have LOS to the opposite edge until you're some distance away (at which point you need to draw a line).
This would be my interpretation, while stressing that the person with the height gets the general "advantage" because height advantage is a classic bonus of D&D. In other words, the person who has the height advantage gets the cover bonuses and whatnot, but can easily duck out and snipe at someone down below without facing the same issues. Not a clear distinction, and there are circumstances where being the "low" person might help (hugging the wall so the attacker really has to lean out over the edge)...but even then I'd say that's more a function of the "low" person taking a defensive action as well as maximizing the cover, rather than gaining the cover benefit while still being able to attack normally.
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This would be my interpretation, while stressing that the person with the height gets the general "advantage" because height advantage is a classic bonus of D&D. In other words, the person who has the height advantage gets the cover bonuses and whatnot, but can easily duck out and snipe at someone down below without facing the same issues. Not a clear distinction, and there are circumstances where being the "low" person might help (hugging the wall so the attacker really has to lean out over the edge)...but even then I'd say that's more a function of the "low" person taking a defensive action as well as maximizing the cover, rather than gaining the cover benefit while still being able to attack normally.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, that's how I tried to handle it before. It makes sense...I suppose I should write up something more consistent than winging it every time it comes up.
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