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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DrSpunj" data-source="post: 690651" data-attributes="member: 994">The SRD says:"If a combatant shoots or throws a ranged weapon at a target that is engaged in melee with an ally, that combatant suffer a -4 penalty on it's attack roll."PHB pg 124 "Shooting or Throwing into a Melee" says the same thing only at the end of the above quote the PHB goes on to say,"...because you have to aim carefully to avoid hitting your ally."The "avoid hitting your ally" part sounds to me like the situation outlined in the Cover rules where they actually fully describe when you may hit your ally instead of your target. It's pretty easy to imagine when your ally and target may be in melee but your ally is not providing any cover to your target. If your ally is magically protected or has a really high AC, can you choose to ignore the -4 penalty for firing into melee if you aren't worried about hitting your ally? Of course I'm assuming you don't have Precise Shot and I'm looking for the "official ruling" here.This came up over the weekend in the first session of a group that just started up (Hi Nail! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /> ) because in my old group we have been playing that you could choose to ignore the -4 penalty for firing into melee if you weren't concerned about hitting your ally. I guess we were just thoughtless b******s because we did it fairly often! After playing that way for two years I wasn't sure if that was an official rule or a house rule and I couldn't find anything in the FAQ, PHB or SRD to back up any official stance. Then I got to wondering about exactly what the -4 penalty is supposed to represent since what's written in the PHB to me seems to be talking more about Cover!Thanks for any help on setting me straight!DrSpunj</blockquote>

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