The situation: A 5' wide corridor. At the end of the hallway is a medium humanoid. In front of him is a medium PC, engaged in melee combat with the humanoid. 30' back down the hallway is the PC's friend, a PC archer. The archer wants to shoot at the humanoid. It's -4 to hit because his target is engaged in melee. Does the humanoid ALSO get cover (+4 AC) because the archer's friend is in the way?
LOS and cover
- Thread starter klofft
- Start date
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
klofft said:
Yes.
To determine whether your target has cover from your ranged attack, choose a corner of your square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target’s square passes through a square or border that blocks line of effect or provides cover, or through a square occupied by a creature, the target has cover (+4 to AC).
The Precise Shot feat will allow the archer to ignore the -4 penalty; the Improved Precise Shot feat will allow the archer to ignore the +4 bonus to AC.
-Hyp.
Ridley's Cohort
First Post
This is exactly why Precise Shot is actually a pretty good feat choice for a spellcaster who likes casting ray spells -- it is pretty darn common for one or both of these mods to apply when brawling in a corridor.
wayne62682
First Post
Now this brings up an interesting question... how about spells that require no roll to hit? For example, if a wizard casts Kelgore's Fire Bolt, can they even cast on that opponent? The spell says nothing about requiring an attack roll, nor does it say "strikes the first creature in its path" (not 100% sure as I don't have the book handy at the moment). However, my group rules that in this respect you don't have line of sight because it would go through your friend and that it would strike your friend first. However, I cannot find anything specifically saying this in the rules; I was under the impression that you had LOS if you could see your target, regardless of any cover he may have (since that's cover, not Line Of Sight).
starwed
First Post
As long as you can see them, you have line of sight. You also have to have line of effect, but again, you have that in this case. (A wall of force is something which allows LOS but blocks LOE). Total cover or concealment, however, would prevent targetting a spell. (Although there's a rule for targetting invisible creatures by touching them.)
wayne62682
First Post
Sorry, I lost you.. so in a case like that I would have LOE and could cast the spell, even if my ally is in front of the enemy? Or would it still strike my ally and not the intended target?starwed said:
Infiniti2000
First Post
If you have line of sight, you have line of effect unless an invisible obstacle blocks it (like a wall of force). In the above case, you have both so you could cast the ray spell. You only have a chance of hitting your ally if you use the variant striking cover rule as noted on the bottom of page 24 of the DMG.wayne62682 said:
Hypersmurf
Moderatarrrrh...
wayne62682 said:
A wall will block line of effect, unless there is at least a one-square-foot gap in the given five-foot-square of wall.
So a gelatinous cube might block line of effect... but in general, your buddy the barbarian won't... there's much more than one square foot of space he doesn't occupy, in his five foot square.
A spell that has "Target: One creature", and doesn't require an attack roll, is effectively completely unaffected by the melee, since a/ there's no attack roll to penalise, and b/ there's no check against AC, so the bonus is irrelevant.
-Hyp.
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