Wall of force question.

[Question]

Lets say you have.....a giant or something......lets say 20 ft high. You are in a room with a 20 ft tall ceiling. You and your party are medium PCs. You cast wall of force infront of the monster, creating a 10 ft sized wall positioned so that it reaches the ceiling, effectively leaving 10 ft of free space below it for attacks, etc to go through.

In such a situation do the PCs have 50% cover from the monster, while the monster has 0% cover?

 

[Infiniti2000]

The monster should have 50% cover and the PCs 100% cover until such a time as the monster realizes what is up. Then, the PCs will have 0% cover. I might even consider giving the monster improved cover based on the rules on Varying Degrees of Cover.

 

[Question]

Wouldnt the PCs gain cover benefits for attacking as if they were behind a waist high wall or some such?

Also as the PCs are only 5ft tall why would the monster gain cover of any sort from the PCs? They have a 10ft high arc of attack, and melee fighters cannot possibly reach higher than that, so they are targetting, say, a giant's legs.

Cover against ranged attacks sounds plausible though.

 

[Question]

Btw :

The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane whose area is up to one 10-foot square per level.

Does that mean you can form a wall, say, 100 ft long, 15 ft high, as long as you were at least 15th level?

 

[MarkB]

Btw :

The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane whose area is up to one 10-foot square per level.

Does that mean you can form a wall, say, 100 ft long, 15 ft high, as long as you were at least 15th level?

Yes.

 

[MarkB]

The monster should have 50% cover and the PCs 100% cover until such a time as the monster realizes what is up. Then, the PCs will have 0% cover.

Based on the rules concerning larger creatures and cover, the monster will have zero cover against anyone who knows where the wall is, and 50% cover against anyone who doesn't. The PCs will likewise have 50% cover against the monster until it figures out where the wall ends, then zero cover thereafter.

I might even consider giving the monster improved cover based on the rules on Varying Degrees of Cover.

Why? If I understand Question's positioning of the wall correctly, the monster's entire lower half is unprotected by cover. How is it possibly managing to achieve improved cover?

 

[Question]

Yes.

Why? My DM takes the text of the spell to mena you can only create "squares" that are 10 ft in area, so either 10ft high or 20 ft high.

Wouldnt a tall monster that has to attack through its lower half be somewhat handicapped at least? It has to pretty much bend over and attack to reach the PCs.

 

[dhaga]

Wouldnt a tall monster that has to attack through its lower half be somewhat handicapped at least? It has to pretty much bend over and attack to reach the PCs.

Yes. As Infiniti2000 pointed out, the giant will be extremely handicapped (PCs at 100% cover) until he figures out what is going on. Once he does and can attack the PCs under the wall, the cover will no longer be a factor. However, the DM could still assign a circumstance penalty to the giants' attacks, since it has to stoop or kneel.

 

[lukelightning]

I'd ad hoc it based on the creature. A giant would have trouble. A monstrous centipede or giant snake or ooze or even an elemental would attack or move under it with no problemo (on a tangent, I also ad hoc some things like snakes can squeeze without penalty, so a large snake can fight in a 5' corridor without penalty).

Presumably the caster would know not to do this tactic with an ooze.

It would be hilarious if the giant charged and slammed into the top of the wall. Nelson Muntz would appear out of nowhere and say "HAH-hah!"

 

[dhaga]

It would be hilarious if the giant charged and slammed into the top of the wall.

Depending on the giant's distance from the PCs (and the wall), I can completely see this happening. The giant may even end up on his back...and then he'd have some more penalties