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A player in a recent I was a part of was insisting that a rule existed regarding soft cover that I can't seem to find. I was wondering if this rule existed and where it was cited it is as follows: " If an ally is closer to you than he is the enemy, you do not have soft cover to make a ranged attack against that enemy past your ally."
I do not believe this rule exists, please prove me wrong.

Yora |

Soft Cover: Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks, giving you a +4 bonus to AC. However, such soft cover provides no bonus on Reflex saves, nor does soft cover allow you to make a Stealth check.
What the player is refering to is this:
Low Obstacles and Cover: A low obstacle (such as a wall no higher than half your height) provides cover, but only to creatures within 30 feet (6 squares) of it. The attacker can ignore the cover if he's closer to the obstacle than his target.
It does not refer to soft cover at all.

joep |

I've got an additional question on top of this person's question about cover. We were gaming this past weekend and the situation was a small hallway. The enemy was standing there, then came are dwarf barbarian, then the halfling cleric, the elven rogue, followed by our elven ranger. The Ranger has Point Blank Shot.
So when the Ranger shot's his arrow's at the enemy what penalty's does he have?
The GM was saying -4 for shooting into melee & -2 for partial cover that his companions where providing since they were between him and the ranger.
Isn't this what the first -4 would take into consideration since your shooting into melee.
And if he shot's an additional arrow, is it another -2? For a total of -8
We are only level 3, so if this is the case then the ranger will miss majority of the time with -6 and -8 penalty's.

BiggDawg |

The -4 to shoot into melee is separate from the -4 for soft cover of an ally being in the way, without precise shot that makes your total penalty -8.
The penalty for shooting into melee is because characters are not considered static in their square when it is not their turn, they are fighting with anyone they are in melee with but don't have an opening to hurt each other (that is represented by the attack roll during their turn). Because they are fighting they and everyone they are in combat with are lunging and parrying which means people are getting in the way from time to time and to avoid hitting your friends you take the -4 penalty.
The soft cover penalty from shooting through someone is on top of this, even if the person you are shooting through is the person you are getting the penalty for firing into melee. The projectile has to pass completely through their square without hitting them and then contact the enemy, this limits their field of fire down to a small area which creates the -4 soft cover penalty.
These two penalties combine because they are having to shoot with a reduced field of fire (the soft cover penalty) and on top of that people are moving about as they fight so they have to take care not to hit their friends (shooting into melee).
Being an archer at low levels is a tough gig, but there are ways to remove both of these penalties. Precise Shot removes the penalty for firing into melee and the Seeker magic weapon quality removes cover penalties.

Hendelbolaf |

BiggDawg has it correct. That is why Precise Shot is one of the most important feats any ranged attacking character can have. The -4 shooting into melee and the -4 soft cover also apply to ranged touch attacks from casters so those rays can get tricky if you are not careful.

joep |

So if my cleric tries to do a Ranged Touch Attack and this enemy is engaged with a friendly. Does it matter what square this friendly occupies?
Is it -8 if the friendly is the square in your line of sight directly to the enemy?
Would it be -4 even if friendly is on square opposite your position?
As a cleric at low level your BAB is 0 or +1 and you already need to roll at least a 11 or 12 to hit the Touch Attack AC
Another -8 and you need to roll 19's and higher basically taking your character out of any fight.

Hendelbolaf |

Let's see if this helps (I am not very good at keyboard diagrams):
C=Cleric
A=Ally
F=Foe
-=Space
C--AF This would result in -4 for shooting into melee and -4 for soft cover.
C---FA This would only result in a -4 for shooting into melee.
C-A-F This would only result in -4 for soft cover
Soft cover does not take into consideration ally or foe so they above scenarios could be changed to reflect that and still be accurate.
So, yes, Precise Shot is more important than Weapon Focus or any number of feats for a ranged attacked based character build.

killzabit |
There are other things you can do......but back to the original question please....if an ally is in your line of sight but is closer to you than he is the opponent is it still cover? I always thought if it was an ally and he was close to you than the enemy he did not count as cover and you didn't get a - for it

Hendelbolaf |

Is the ally between you and the target? If yes, soft cover applies. If no, then soft cover does not apply.
The close and far aspects do not matter.
PRD:
"Cover
To determine whether your target has cover from your ranged attack, choose a corner of your square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target's square passes through a square or border that blocks line of effect or provides cover, or through a square occupied by a creature, the target has cover (+4 to AC)."
and
"Soft Cover: Creatures, even your enemies, can provide you with cover against ranged attacks, giving you a +4 bonus to AC. However, such soft cover provides no bonus on Reflex saves, nor does soft cover allow you to make a Stealth check."
There is nothing in there about how close or far they are, just the corner of the square check for cover.