Essentials: Melee cover

[Nikosandros]

I've noticed that the RC is missing the distinction between melee and ranged attacks in determining cover. The RC simply states that the attacker can pick one corner of his square in order to check for cover, while the DMG specifies that in case of a melee attack all corners of the attacker square must be checked.

Do you think that this omission was made just to save some space in the book or have they decided that melee attacks around a corner no longer have cover?

 

[P1NBACK]

I really hope they've cleaned up the cover rules. If so, this is good news. The whole "attacker's burden" vs. "defender's burden" when comparing ranged attacks vs. melee attacks is more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[Camelot]

I liked the differentiation between ranged cover and melee cover. I would probably still use the original rules if they decided to change it, because it lets you make tactical use of corners in melee.

 

[havoclad]

I got a pretty good answer to this question recently over at rpg.stackexchange.com.

 

[malraux]

I occasionally joke with my players that I never bothered to read the rules; for this I had no idea this rule even existed.

 

[Mapache]

I liked the differentiation between ranged cover and melee cover. I would probably still use the original rules if they decided to change it, because it lets you make tactical use of corners in melee.

The reason they had different rules in the first place is because under the ranged one-attacker's-corner standard, melee attacks without Reach can never have cover.

 

[spayne]

I've noticed that the RC is missing the distinction between melee and ranged attacks in determining cover. The RC simply states that the attacker can pick one corner of his square in order to check for cover, while the DMG specifies that in case of a melee attack all corners of the attacker square must be checked.

Do you think that this omission was made just to save some space in the book or have they decided that melee attacks around a corner no longer have cover?

The original PHB contained the rules for cover, and the RC uses those. The DMG cover rules were always optional and they continue to be. Unless you used optional rules, melee attacks around a corner never had cover.

 

[Nikosandros]

The original PHB contained the rules for cover, and the RC uses those. The DMG cover rules were always optional and they continue to be. Unless you used optional rules, melee attacks around a corner never had cover.

Fair enough. I guess that I've been so used to the rules in the DMG that I didn't really consider them optional. But this being the case, it makes sense that only the standard and simpler version is included in Essentials.