Attacking with Reach and Aoo

[puksone]

Hi guys,

so when a character casts a spell and stands in a square threatened by a monster with reach....the monster gets an aoo.

But does the monster still gets the aoo when another character stands between the caster and the monster?

thx

[Mabven the OP healer]

Yes, but the caster benefits from a +4 bonus to AC from cover provided by his ally. This assumes that by between, you mean that in order for the monster to hit the caster, a line can only be drawn through two opposing edges of the caster's ally's square to the caster.

[Maezer]

You cannot execute attacks of opportunity against targets that have cover from you (p.195 core rules).

[Mabven the OP healer]

Oh, good catch. I change my answer to an unqualified "No."

[Grick]

Maezer wrote:

You cannot execute attacks of opportunity against targets that have cover from you (p.195 core rules).

It could be argued either way.

Cover: "When making a melee attack against a target that isn't adjacent to you (such as with a reach weapon), use the rules for determining cover from ranged attacks."

"Soft Cover: Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks..."

The monster uses ranged cover rules, but soft cover specifically says against ranged attacks. So it depends on if you consider the Soft Cover rules to be specific (ranged attacks) over general (reach like ranged).

There have been a few threads on this, with no real resolution. Be prepared for table variation.

[james maissen]

Grick wrote:

Maezer wrote:

You cannot execute attacks of opportunity against targets that have cover from you (p.195 core rules).

It could be argued either way.

Cover: "When making a melee attack against a target that isn't adjacent to you (such as with a reach weapon), use the rules for determining cover from ranged attacks."

"Soft Cover: Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks..."

The monster uses ranged cover rules, but soft cover specifically says against ranged attacks. So it depends on if you consider the Soft Cover rules to be specific (ranged attacks) over general (reach like ranged).

There have been a few threads on this, with no real resolution. Be prepared for table variation.

Exactly.

I had always read it as reach used the ranged rules for determining cover, but it was still a melee attack and thus soft cover did not apply.

But if I recall correctly the majority on the west coast was going the other way.. and Paizo is located out there.

-James