Attacks vs a loft.


Rules Questions


Hello people,

A named NPC is standing on a balcony of a loft, which i reckon is about 10ft elevation. Is it just a -1 penalty for attacking a higher positioned enemy from the ground floor, or more? I couldn't quite find it.

Thanks


AFAIK, there's no penalty for attacking him assuming you have sufficient reach or range with your weapons. He does receive a +1 on melee attack rolls against those on the ground floor however; again, assuming he has sufficient reach with his weapon(s).

Depending on positioning of attackers and defenders and the construction of the balcony, it's conceivable that the NPC and attackers might receive a +4 bonus to their AC because of cover provided by the balcony itself.


This is an all-or-nothing proposition.

A human occupies a single 5'x'5' square. Taken to the third dimension, it's still only 5' tall even though that human might be a little taller - we don't assume a 6' tall man occupies two 5'x5' squares stacked on top of each other.

Why?

Well, if that man has a sword, he can reach about 10' total (from the ground) meaning that he cannot easily reach someone who is more than 10' off the floor with a normal attack. Therefore, his "space" is a 5'x5'x5' cube and his reach is every adjacent cube, including the ones directly above his 5' cube, but not the ones directly above that.

The alternative would allow a 6' human to hit things as high as 15' above the floor with a normal sword, clearly impossible.

So your PCs attacking this NPC need ranged weapons or reach weapons, or they need to be at least Large size.

If they do, then they can hit him, and if not, then they cannot. It's all-or-nothing.

Now, as Ambrus said, there is no penalty for attacking someone on "high ground" but there is an attack bonus for being the guy on "high ground", so the NPC gets +1 to hit your PCs but they are not penalized on hitting him.

Side note - that balcony he's standing on should provide some cover (the same way standing next to a wall gives cover against an enemy on the other side of it), so he probably should have +4 to his AC from cover. This is not because he's higher than his attackers, but because that solid balcony blocks some of their attacks.


Or you need to create a feat called wield ally and then use one of your fellow PCs as a weapon holding a weapon. What? Why are you running away in laughter? It worked against the last witch we trapped in the barn and had to stab.

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