Firing into Melee

[Trellian]

In yesterdays session, a fighter was in close combat with a troll, while a rogue fired at the troll from a distance.

He missed on his shot, and since the troll and the fighter were in melee, I ruled that if the rogues attack roll was high enough to hit the fighter, he would. THe fighter was hit by the bolt.

The question is, did I rule by the rules? Or even if it didn't, do you guys out there feel that I could rule that? The fighter was not providing cover for the troll..

 

[Hypersmurf]

The question is, did I rule by the rules? The fighter was not providing cover for the troll..

Technically, no.

By the rules, hitting the wrong person in melee with a ranged attack only occurs if they're providing cover or grappling.

-Hyp.

 

[Trellian]

But the rogue would still suffer the normal -4 penalty for firing into a melee? right?

 

[Joker]

Yep, he still suffers from the -4. Unless, of course, he has Point Blank Shot.

Tata.

 

[MythandLore]

Yep, he still suffers from the -4. Unless, of course, he has Point Blank Shot.

Tata.

Your thinking of "Precise Shot" (Feat p.84 PHB)

 

[StalkingBlue]

The rogue would suffer the -4 penalty unless he had the Precise Shot feat.

He would have hit the fighter if

a) the fighter was providing some degree of cover to the troll, i.e. was standing at least partly in the rogue's line of fire to the troll; AND

b) the rogue's attack roll was too low to hit the troll with its "fighter-cover" bonus to AC, but would have been high enough to hit the troll if the fighter had not provided cover; AND

c) the attack roll was high enough to beat the fighter's AC.

The rules are on p. 133 of the PHB (under "Striking the Cover Instead of a Missed Target").

 

[Trellian]

Thanx fellows... I should have known that, but the players were having an easy time, and I tried to even the odds a little...

what if that rogue was trying to sneak attack the troll, and the fighter WAS indeed providing cover? could he theoretically sneak attack the fighter accidentally? I do not think you could sneak attack someone that way, but just wanted to make sure..

 

[MythandLore]

No, only the target can be sneak attacked.

 

[Xahn'Tyr]

As a fairly common house rule, you could have the arrow possibly hit the fighter on a natural "1" (a fumble) if he is anywhere along the line of fire.

 

[Timotheos]

this is how we do it

if the rouge missed, you just count how many that are involved in battle, we say that it was four combatants then you give each combatant a number and roll appropiate die in this case a d4. if it only two fighting eachother a d4/2