Ranged attack on enemy, but invisible creature in front of it

[nogoodscallywag]

The scene is a tight tunnel, 5 ft. wide, 5 ft. tall ceilings.

PC 1, in front, is invisible. PC 2, behind PC 1, is visible.

Enemy throws a javelin at PC 2, because he can see PC 2 but not PC 1.

What happens to the javelin?

Does it hit PC 1, or have a chance to hit and damage?

[Rysky]

Cover rules don't work that way in Pathfinder, allies just grant a +4 AC bonus to the original target.

As it stands even if the cover is invisible they would still get that bonus unless your GM comes up with something on their own. If It misses due tot ey cover maybe flavor it as just scraping the ally's armor or something.

[Gauss]

Rysky is correct, the invisible PC is still providing cover to the visible PC against the enemy.

If the attack misses due to the cover nothing happens other than the attack missed. Pathfinder does not have rules to cover "striking cover".

[Kazaan]

The rules don't really handle invisible creatures very well. For instance, if you are flanking an enemy, but one of the flankers is invisible, it still counts even if the enemy has no idea the invisible character is there. Strictly following the rules, the intended target just gets a +4 AC bonus due to the (invisible) cover. But, unless otherwise stated, hits and misses are binary in Pathfinder rather than proportional. You either hit or you don't hit; the game rarely cares about how much you miss by. For instance, if their AC is 20 with the +4 cover bonus and your roll result is 19, you don't know if you fell short due to the cover, or their dexterity, or if you *pinged* off their armor, or whatever.

However, if you want to create a reasonable houserule for this situation, I'd recommend the following. Roll miss chance as if attacking the invisible character and, if you "miss" the invisible creature due to concealment, then you have a chance to hit the intended target. If you "fail to miss", then the attack is adjudicated against the invisible character.