Placement by a doorway in melee

[Matt Riggen]

So this came up last night for me. Using the standard grid system I had a bad guy just inside a doorway, outside the doorway and one square off was the player. I went to hit him and he complained that the wall should give him some cover, because the complete square of the bad guy cannot see his complete square. Is there somewhere that spells this situation out plainly?

Simple text drawing...
B= bad guy
G= player
W are walls
D is the doorway
Please imagine the Wall and Doorway as just a line and does not take up a 5 foot square while the player and bad guy do take up a 5 foot square.

........G....
WWWDWWW
..........B...

[Laurefindel]

Matt Riggen wrote:

So this came up last night for me. Using the standard grid system I had a bad guy just inside a doorway, outside the doorway and one square off was the player. I went to hit him and he complained that the wall should give him some cover, because the complete square of the bad guy cannot see his complete square. Is there somewhere that spells this situation out plainly?

Simple text drawing...
B= bad guy
G= player
W are walls
D is the doorway
Please imagine the Wall and Doorway as just a line and does not take up a 5 foot square while the player and bad guy do take up a 5 foot square.

........G....
WWWDWWW
..........B...

Was the bad guy attacking the PC in melee? If so, he should have been inside the doorway (short of a reach weapon) rather than behind the doorway.

At best (for the player), the bad guy would have been 'squeezing through a space' for a -4 to hit.

Even if the bad guy was attacking with a ranged or reach weapon weapon AND the doorway was significantly smaller than a 5' x 5' square, your player is right and he should have benefited from cover. (scroll a bit down from previous link for ruling on cover)

Then the real question is whether the doorway was thigh enough to provide a physical "border that blocks line of effect".

'findel

[William Sinclair]

I believe the reference you are look for is on page 194 of the corerule. Specifically, you want the picture, example #2, and Merisiel attacking the ogre. On page 195, it states cover gives a +4 bonus to AC.

Hope this helps!

[Gile]

William Sinclair wrote:

I believe the reference you are look for is on page 194 of the corerule. Specifically, you want the picture, example #2, and Merisiel attacking the ogre. On page 195, it states cover gives a +4 bonus to AC.

Hope this helps!

Thanks! Thats exactly what I was looking for.