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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RogueInRouge" data-source="post: 5708602" data-attributes="member: 6683718">I think RAW is a decent compromise between realism and fast play. The guy firing a missile weapon is trying to aim at a certain area: the unobscured portion of the intended target is the "bullseye." He rolls to see how close his shot comes to the bullseye, so all bonuses should apply.If he hits the bullseye, great, end of story. If he misses, well let's see how close he came. If his adjusted roll is a 5, he probably coughed or something and the missile went wildly astray. For full realism we could roll to see whether the stray shot entered another square, and if so whether it hit any creatures/structures/objects in that square, but... too much work! If his adjusted roll is really close -- i.e. he would have hit without the other combatant complicating the shot -- then he's definitely aiming in the right neighborhood. Let's do a little hand-waving to see if maybe he hit the other combatant. (This is where the little DEX/AC dance comes in.)Although... this is just one of many examples where D&D tries to have its cake and eat it too wrt using a single AC # for both position and protection, and we end up having to turn a blind eye to all the shenanigans. If the attacker "misses" his intended target b/c the intended target is basically stationary but encased in a comfy suit of plate mail, should we really be rolling to see if he hit the other melee combatant instead? I'd argue no, we should only be looking at other targets if the attackers aim is off, i.e. he misses against the intended target's flat-footed AC.  But maybe Vegepygmy's right:[MENTION=40109]Vegepygmy[/MENTION], by "pins down" do you mean getting in a position where the other combatant suffers an attack of opportunity if he tries to close with the ranged attacker?</blockquote>

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