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Im currently in a homebrew game playing a spellslinger when one of my fellow adventurers mentions the rules for soft cover are +4 in pathfinder not +2 ... resulting in my jaw dropping to the floor... really paizo? Again?
Time to run the numbers, this will be based on the following assumptions:
Enemy ac 17 touch ac 14
Enemy Engaged By Party
1.Fighter 18 str Bab 1
2.Ranger 18 dex Bab 1
3.Wizard 14 dex Bab 0 (assuming dumped most points in INT)
So with our base information the following is true:
Good Maneuvering = Flanking/Line of Sight
Bad maneuvering = No Flanking/Blocked
NLOS = No Line Of Sight
SIM = Shoot Into Melee
1.Bad Maneuvering = 45% to hit, Good Maneuvering = 55% to hit
1BAB+4STR=+5 12-20 1BAB+4STR+2FLANK=+7 10-20
2.Bad Maneuvering = 5% to hit, Good Maneuvering = 25% to hit
1BAB+4DEX-4SIM-4NLOS=-3 20-20 1BAB+4DEX-4SIM=+1 16-20
3.Bad Maneuvering = 5% to hit, Good Maneuvering = 25% to hit
0BAB+2DEX-4SIM-4NLOS=-6 20-20 0BAB+2DEX-4SIM=-2 16-20
So? What can we take from this. Well obviously rangers are taking a penalty to their hit ratios to offset the utility of ranged attacks, which is fine. However in 3.5 bad or good maneuvering would only minus or add 10% to either types. In pathfinder paizo decided another10% reduction was tossed on for bad maneuvering, resulting in players having to roll a nat 20 at level 1 if their teamates got in the way.
I was wondering why exactly?
Interesting numbers indeed - however, if you play a character who is mainly ranged (not just ranger), it kind of encourages you to take Point Blank and then Precise Shot feats to negate that firing into melee penalty.
These should be chosen early on for any ranged attack specialist, they are his bread and butter feats. And you just know, in early game especially, that the melee bunnies are going to be all in the way from the get go.
A ranged specialist is also likely to have a high dexterity in place of high strength, but that not only affects his attack roll, but also his AC - strength does not affect AC, so the ranged specialist is getting double bang for his attribute points.
Another reason perhaps for making it so hard, is not only to encourage the feat selections covered, but to encourage more tactical movement from the ranged characters as they try to maneuver so that they can naturally negate the soft cover. A ranged specialist who stands in the same square the whole encounter twanging away at targets is not as interesting as that same character having to take occasional risks and moves to get better line of sight.
It also works the other way too - gone are the days where the enemy archers stay out of melee way, if they want to shoot the PCs, then they too have to take those same risks and movements.
Finally, it makes sense that the cover bonus for soft and hard cover are the same, based on their descriptions. The only difference really is that the soft cover is potentially moving soft cover and does not provide save bonuses which hard cover does.
So for me, I think these numbers are set so as to encourage a more fluid, dynamic encounter for all, not just the melee.
And then I doubled checked.. and 3.5 did the same thing.. fail
And then I doubled checked.. and 3.5 did the same thing.. fail
Yeah, no change since 3.5, I'm glad you noticed :)
Shooting into melee isn't usually a good idea. Makes those touch spells (which you can also hold the charge on) have a little more relative utility to make up for the danger. Ditto for melee vs. ranged.
Essentially, at low levels you don't want to fire into melee or with bad positioning, and particularly not both.
Can you use Improved Precise Shot to negate soft cover?
Can you use Improved Precise Shot to negate soft cover?
Yep.