Cover in Melee

[JoeGKushner]

I could be remembering something wrong, but I thought that there was a rule where if a character was in front of a target and the person missed the target thanks for the AC bonus of cover from the character, that the missile might hit the person providing the cover?

Anyone got a page reference for me on that or was that a 3.0 rule or an earlier rule that I'm remembering?

 

[FEADIN]

Don't know where it is but this is the way it works.
If the to hit roll is in the range of the cover bonus you hit the cover, less the dexterity bonus because the cover try to avoid your arrow.
The ennemy is ac 17, you have an ally between you an the ennemy, you shoot; if your to hit is in the 18-21 (+4 AC) you hit your ally (if you hit his ac with this score) unless his dext modifier provide enough bonus to avoid, to permit to the arrow to go through his case.
He provides a cover bonus less his dext modifier.

 

[dcollins]

The rule is 3.0 PHB p. 133. I believe in 3.5 this has been relegated as a Variant in the DMG.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

It's, as mentioned, a 3.0 rule and a 3.5 variant. It works as such:

• Attack your chosen target, and note your attack roll.
• If you hit, you hit; roll damage accordingly.
• If you miss, determine whether or not you missed by 4 or less. If you did, then you missed due to cover, and have a chance to strike the character providing this cover.
• Compare your original attack roll to the character providing cover's AC.
• If you hit, you hit that character. Roll damage accordingly.
• If you miss, compare your original attack roll to the character providing cover's AC minus any Dexterity or Dodge bonuses.
• If you missed that AC, then your attack misses entirely.
• If you would have hit that AC, then the character providing cover managed to dodge your shot, and didn't provide cover to the initial target in the first place. You hit your initial target; roll damage accordingly.

You can plainly see why this rule became a variant, rather than the standard.

 

[TheGogmagog]

Agreed with Patryn. It is a common house rule (not published as a variant) to just have it hit the cover if it miss by 4.

The default rules have few instances where you can hit allys or unintended targets. Thrown grenade-like weapons (splash) and ranged weapons into a grapple are the only two that I can think of.

 

[Infiniti2000]

It is a common house rule (not published as a variant) to just have it hit the cover if it miss by 4.

That's a really bad houserule, though, because it lets you set up various hokey cover situations to allow you to hit the really high AC opponent with a much lower roll. The better choice is that if you miss by 4 or less, reroll an attack roll on the cover, using automatic hits and misses but no critical threats.