Cover bonuses for large creatures on characters

[Belares]

A question came up on my last game that I need some help on.

The players were fighting giants and seeing that giants (hill) are 10 1/2' tall is was informed that the players get cover bonuses from the giants. There was a groulp of 4 giants about 50' away and a Hill giant chief with 2 stone giants as well as a cloud giant standing next to a the chief. I was informed that since there were 4 giants in front of the players the ones behind gave cover bonuses to the players. I questioned the rule since the giants are 50' away and the giants behind the other giants were about 40' or so. The roof was about 35' so i didnt see the problem with throwing rocks over allies to the players and they were not in melee so you didnt need the -4. The player insisted that they did I ruled they didnt, then the chief used a large crossbow and the player said "that is definetly a cover bonus becuase it is straight on" and I got a bit perturbed..of course it was 3:00 in the morning too.

I want to know when and where that cover bonus may apply(only in melee?) and if/when it does apply then when does the miss chance get the oppurtunity to hit the cover.

The players had like 30+ AC and so I want to know if the cover is used then if you get a AC bonus of +4 then if it misses by that much does it hit the cover? I think with that high of a AC and saying if it misses the player then it hits the cover is ludicrious. I mean to say that it automattically hits the cover if it misses the target is ludicrious.

 

[Christian]

If the ranged attack misses due to the cover bonus, and the roll would be high enough to hit the covering character, then the attack hits the cover. The things that happen when the cover has a Dex bonus to AC make my brain hurt, so I'll stop here for now ...

 

[Christian]

OK, here, I'll just let you read the rule (from the SRD) ...

If it ever becomes important to know whether the cover was actually struck by an incoming attack that misses the intended target, the DM should determine if the attack roll would have hit the protected target without the cover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target with cover but high enough to strike the target if there had been no cover, the object used for cover was struck. This can be particularly important to know in cases where a combatant uses another combatant as cover. In such a case, if the cover is struck and the attack roll exceeds the AC of the covering combatant, the covering combatant takes the damage intended for the target.

If the covering combatant has a Dexterity bonus to AC or a dodge bonus, and this bonus keeps the covering combatant from being hit, then the original target is hit instead. The covering combatant has dodged out of the way and didn't provide cover after all. A covering combatant can choose not to apply his Dexterity bonus to AC and/or his dodge bonus, if his intent is to try to take the damage in order to keep the covered combatant from being hit.

 

[KarinsDad]

The players were right to a certain extent, they should get some cover bonus, but as DM, you get to decide how much cover (i.e. the percentage).

x...X...Y

X gives a cover bonus to x from Y and vice versa. At range though, I rarely give a cover bonus above 50% unless it is a situation like:

xX...Y