glass
(he, him)
dcollins said:Actually, I'm afraid you're confusing two separate penalties:
(1) -4 for shooting into melee, and another
(2) -4 for shooting past cover. In 3.0 and variant 3.5 this part can cause striking the ally.
This is very nicely laid out in the diagram on 3.0 PHB p. 123.
[nitpick]Actually, there is no penalty to the attack roll for shooting past cover: instead the target gets a bonus to his AC due to the cover.[/nitpick]
glass.