Firing a Ranged Weapon into melee?

[brunswick]

Hiya folks,

Apologies if this has been asked before.

I was quickly searching the PHB last night for a rule re firing into melee but I couldnt locate one. Is there a penalty applied to these sorta attacks (-2 would seem sensible but I cant find anything). Admittedly, it was a rather cursory search so maybe I just didnt see it.

Thanks,


Bruns.

 

[essenbee]

No penalty as far as I know; your allies do not provide cover for the target, but enemies do. Realistic? Nope. Fun? Yep.

 

[brunswick]

Thanks essenbee for the quick response.

 

[JosephK]

It has sorta been moved to a bonus instead of a penalty.. Both warlocks and rangers get "prime shot" which is a +1 bonus, if you're the closest person to the enemy (representing that no melee is going on between the target and you).

 

[frankthedm]

No penalty as far as I know; your allies do not provide cover for the target, but enemies do. Realistic? Nope. Fun? Yep.

That depends which side of the missile fire you are on! When over a dozen javelin chucking minions pincushion the wizard because he roasted 3 of them at once last round, the reduced value of cover is a lot less fun.

 

[jbear]

yes but now the wizard doesnt have to crap his pants from being hit by a javelin or two, plus with the use of a feat u can have him wearing leather armour... so it balances it out anyway...

 

[blargney the second]

For explicitness' sake, there are two different penalties in 3.5. Here's what happened to them in 4e:

Firing into melee. In 3.5 you take -4 to attack if your target is adjacent to someone who threatens him in melee, which can be removed with Precise Shot. In 4e this penalty is gone and replaced with a prime shot ability for some classes (the designers decided not to make your character lose two feat slots).

Cover. In 3.5 you take -4 to attack if there is anything at all blocking line of sight. In 4e it's only -2 and allies no longer count for this purpose, but enemies and objects still do. Also there's the whole superior cover thing.

-blarg

 

[frankthedm]

Also there's the whole superior cover thing.

Which only seems to come from objects.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

what happens if you miss by 2? do you hit the enemies ally?

I always interpreted the rule as: your targets enemies don´t provide them cover.
Reason: it doesn´t matter to you if you hit them instead of your intended target, but you have to be careful not to hit your own allies...

but... whatever^^

 

[essenbee]

That depends which side of the missile fire you are on! When over a dozen javelin chucking minions pincushion the wizard because he roasted 3 of them at once last round, the reduced value of cover is a lot less fun.

As DM, I'm allowed my share of the fun too!