Striking Cover/Allies in Melee

[jaded]

Ok, so I've skimmed my books but can't seem to find the rule on this:

PC attacks from the second rank over his buddy with a reach weapon, and misses by 4 or less...

What happens?

I'm certain I've read somewhere that you reroll your attack but vs the cover, but then I also think I've read that you don't even strike the cover. I could be getting my editions confuzzled though

Any rules gurus, please help me out?

 

[Stalker0]

If you miss the guy you were trying to hit, check his AC if he didn't have the cover.

If you would have hit him without the cover, then you actually hit the cover, meaning your friend in this case.

Then you roll flatfooted ac attack on your friend to see if his armor took the blow.

 

[Hypersmurf]

In 3E:
Striking the Cover Instead of a Missed Target
If it ever becomes important to know whether the cover was actually struck by an incoming attack that misses the intended target, the DM should determine if the attack roll would have hit the protected target without the cover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target with cover but high enough to strike the target if there had been no cover, the object used for cover was struck. This can be particularly important to know in cases where a character uses another character as cover. In such a case, if the cover is struck and the attack roll exceeds the AC of the covering character, the covering character takes the damage intended for the target.
If the covering character has a Dexterity bonus to AC or a dodge bonus, and this bonus keeps the covering character from being hit, then the original target is hit instead. The covering character has dodged out of the way and didn't provide cover after all. A covering character can choose not to apply his Dexterity bonus to AC and/or his dodge bonus, if his intent is to try to take the damage in order to keep the covered character from being hit.

In 3.5, this rule is not the default. In 3.5, if you miss due to Cover, you simply fail to hit your target.

However, the 3E rule appears in the DMG as an optional variant.

-Hyp.

 

[Droid101]

Ok, so I've skimmed my books but can't seem to find the rule on this:

PC attacks from the second rank over his buddy with a reach weapon, and misses by 4 or less...

What happens?

I'm certain I've read somewhere that you reroll your attack but vs the cover, but then I also think I've read that you don't even strike the cover. I could be getting my editions confuzzled though

Any rules gurus, please help me out?

Depends on the weapon. If he's using one that can only attack people 10' away (glaives, guisarmes, lances, longspears, ranseurs) and can't hit those right next to you, then it doesn't matter. You can't hit your friend anyway.