Ranged attacks and cover for Large+ creatures from Medium- creatures

[gergLeft]

So my group is discussing this currently, but I'm looking for some official feedback (we have a lot of theories, all which seem plausible rules answers - again, specifically looking for official ruling from Paizo).

If you have an archer shooting a dragon, RAW seems to imply that if there are any creatures between you and that dragon, the dragon gets cover, because there's a creature in the way. Slightly different version interprets it as fairly situational as a line is drawn from one corner of the attack to all four corners of the dragons full area and if one of those lines passes THROUGH your buddy (or any other creature), then they get cover.

Our issue with this is - that just doesn't make sense! A colossal dragon has a human standing in front of his left "pinky toe" and therefore gets cover?! Either that or we've missed something about having to be a given size/height as a creature to provide cover, but RAW doesn't seem to support such a criteria. Let us know - thanks!

[Adamantine Dragon]

RAW also says that if your target is more than half exposed, then the cover penalty is reduced by half, from a +4 to AC to a +2 to AC.

In my games if there are two sizes difference (small to large, medium to huge) between the "cover" and the target, I ignore penalties. Don't think that's RAW though.

I am frequently surprised by how often people forget the 1/2 penalty for more than half of the target exposed rule. I use it all the time.

[gergLeft]

Yeah, wasn't specifying how much cover, but yes, still the dragon would get +2 cover from his big toe being covered. I'm in favor of a rule such as yours Adamantine Dragon - but I'm looking for RAW as there's some debate in my group (and we have multiple people who DM).

[Grick]

gergLeft wrote:

I'm looking for RAW as there's some debate in my group (and we have multiple people who DM).

Cover tells you how to determine if the dragon has cover from your archer. Soft Cover states that a creature (your human) grants it the AC bonus, but not the reflex save. Partial Cover states that if more than half the creature is visible, its cover bonus is reduced. It also states, and this is the important part: "This partial cover is subject to the GM's discretion."

So there you go. If your DM rules that a human standing in front of a colossal dragon isn't in the way enough to grant the +2 bonus to AC, then that's how it is - by the official Paizo rules.