Aid Another and Concealment

[Doomed Hero]

Are Aid Another checks subject to Concealment?

Does Miss Chance effect the Attack Roll needed to Aid someone?

[jimibones83]

I don't think you can aid an attack unless specifically stated, like grapple

[SlimGauge]

I don't think that's what the OP is asking, jimibones.

I would think that a miss chance DOES affect the attack role, because it *IS* an attack roll and no exception to the concealment rules is called out. It's harder to hinder your opponent if you can't see him clearly.

[jimibones83]

I was answering based off a misunderstanding of the aid rule. I just re read it. It appears yes, concealment would affect the aid roll. I'm glad this came up

[Unruly]

I'm the GM in the game which prompted this question, and I'd like to say the way I see it working.

The involved parties are currently in a Stinking Cloud, which provides Concealment(20%) to everything adjacent and Total Concealment(50%) to anything beyond that. So far I've ruled that the concealment applies to the Aid Another check, since it's called out as an attack vs AC 10.

In a related question, how would this be handled in a situation where only one of the involved parties has Concealment? Is the attack vs AC 10 directed at the enemy, at the player being aided, or at a more nebulous area such as a square?

The way it's worded, with "If you're in position to make a melee attack on an opponent that is engaging a friend in melee combat," makes it seem as though it's an attack against the actual opponent, so things such as miss chance that are applied to the opponent would be applied to the Aid Another roll. But that argument could be used to say that the target AC of 10 could change, but since Aid Another specifically sets an AC that's separate from the opponent's normal AC, I'd say that the specific AC overrides the general.

Or at least that's the way I read it.

[SlimGauge]

It is an attack on the opponent. It's just an attack that doesn't do any damage. The AC is called out in the rule, because you don't have to defeat the target's regular AC to hinder him in one of the ways listed.

[Eridan]

RAW is unclear but you have only two choices:

1) Use all modifiers for an attack roll like buffs (spells, feats(weapon focus etc), flanking,.. ), cover and concealment.

2) Dont use any modifiers.

Option 1) is mostly suppported by RAW with the statement 'You make an attack roll against AC 10'

[jimibones83]

Yeah RAW doesnt really address that does it. I'd say apply the miss chance if either the target or the attacker is in the fog. The person trying to aid would be the attacker on his roll, even if he's not actually attacking.

In case of other scenarios, he should get only 20% if he's in the first square of fog, 50% if he's 2 or more squares in, in case of reach or ranged attacks