D&D 5E Gaining Cover Under a Dragon

[beaumontsebos]

How would you rule?

One of the PCs in my group (medium creature) wanted to gain cover against enemies by positioning herself under the legs of an allied huge dragon.

I thought it would be a cool thing for the game so in the heat of the moment I ruled as follows...

The PC got 3/4 cover while under the dragon, but the dragon made all melee attacks with disadvantage since it had to be careful not to squish the PC.

Any thoughts on what you would've done? Is this even RAW legal at all? Maybe there's rules covering this that I am unaware of?

Let me know!

 

[Hawk Diesel]

Makes sense to me. I'd allow it. Examples of 3/4 cover include hiding behind a large tree trunk, which to me is similar enough to the leg of a huge creature.

One thing I might include is that if the attack against a creature is not high enough to hit them, but is high enough to hit the creature or object providing cover, that it gets hits. So the dragon may also end up soaking a bunch of damage meant for the players.

 

[el-remmen]

Seems like a good ad hoc ruling in the moment. I might also say the character's actions may be at disadvantage depending on what they are. For example, hard as heck to arc a thrown javelin from under a dragon at an opponent not under the dragon.

 

[LordEntrails]

I don't know if I would have given the dragon disadvantage, but cover sounds reasonable, as well as the possibility of the dragon being hit. But then it probably has good AC, so...

Sounds like you made a ruling and it worked out. And by that I mean that everyone had fun and didn't feel the fight was spoiled. So sounds like you did the right thing.

 

[Stormonu]

How would you rule?

One of the PCs in my group (medium creature) wanted to gain cover against enemies by positioning herself under the legs of an allied huge dragon.

I thought it would be a cool thing for the game so in the heat of the moment I ruled as follows...

The PC got 3/4 cover while under the dragon, but the dragon made all melee attacks with disadvantage since it had to be careful not to squish the PC.

Any thoughts on what you would've done? Is this even RAW legal at all? Maybe there's rules covering this that I am unaware of?

Let me know!

Had this happen with small PCs sharing spaces with larger folk. The small fry could claim an AC bonus (of +2), but any misses went against the “cover”, and both individuals fought with a minus (“Would you get your elbow out of the way?” “As soon as you stop stepping on my feet!”).

Also, could treat this as a reverse mounted situation - instead of being atop the mount, you’re underfoot.

 

[Oofta]

You should always be getting +2 to AC from cover from an ally. DM can of course increase that based on circumstances if they think it's appropriate.

It's in chapter 9 of the PHB Combat > Cover

Half Cover​

A target with half cover has a +2 bonus to AC and Dexterity saving throws. A target has half cover if an obstacle blocks at least half of its body. The obstacle might be a low wall, a large piece of furniture, a narrow tree trunk, or a creature, whether that creature is an enemy or a friend.​

 

[DND_Reborn]

What @Oofta said. ^

 

[Shiroiken]

Technically not RAW, since you can't willingly end your movement in another creatures space. In reality, it's perfectly fine and rewards the player's ingenuity.

 

[Rabulias]

I was tooling around with a general rule for this at some point, and I came up with this before deciding to keep it simple and RAW:

COVER SIZE	TINY	SMALL	MED	LARGE	HUGE	GARG
TINY	2	2	1	1	0	0
SMALL	2	2	2	1	1	0
MEDIUM	3	2	2	2	1	1
LARGE	4	3	2	2	2	1
HUGE	5	4	3	2	2	2
GARGANTUAN	6	5	4	3	2	2

 

[beaumontsebos]

Thanks for the replies all!