AoO Rules Mistake in WotC Web Article

[Felon]

On the official WotC site, there's a web article called Opportunity Knocks wrtten by Stephen Schubert. On the whole, it's useful stuff, but check out this paragraph:

"Sometimes, when attempting to avoid attacks of opportunity, cover is your friend, since if your PC has cover, then your opponent can't make such attacks against your PC. But not only is cover your friend, but your friend is also cover! When teaming up against an opponent with exceptional reach, your PC can move up adjacent to the creature without provoking an attack of opportunity if she has cover along her route leading to her final space. If the Large opponent (or guy with a longspear) is already adjacent to your ally, then move your PC up "behind" your ally before you have her step diagonally into a space from which she can attack her foe. Using clever movement, one character in the party with Tumble or the Spring Attack feat can help to eliminate attacks of opportunity for the rest of the party by moving in first to provide cover for the rest of the group."

True, a creature can provide cover, but it's only considered "soft cover", for which the rules state:

Soft Cover: Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks, giving you a +4 bonus to AC. However, such soft cover provides no bonus on Reflex saves, nor does soft cover allow you to make a Hide check.

Note that it says that soft cover is only effective against ranged attacks, so a friend should not be able to provide cover against a melee AoO from creature with reach.

Seems pretty cut-and-dried. Am I missing something, or is there an actual mistake in this official rules article?

 

[Hypersmurf]

Am I missing something, or is there an actual mistake in this official rules article?

You're missing something.

"When making a melee attack against a target that isn’t adjacent to you (such as with a reach weapon), use the rules for determining cover from ranged attacks."

You're not adjacent to the ogre, so he uses the rules for determining cover from ranged attacks... so soft cover applies.

-Hyp.

 

[Felon]

K, thanks.