Just checking with the hive mind on this one: If you are in melee with an enemy and making a ranged attack against them, do suffer the -4 penalty for shooting into melee? Does this change if it is you and an ally in the melee?
Shooting or Throwing into a Melee: If you shoot or throw a ranged weapon at a target engaged in melee with a friendly character, you take a –4 penalty on your attack roll. Two characters are engaged in melee if they are enemies of each other and either threatens the other. (An unconscious or otherwise immobilized character is not considered engaged unless he is actually being attacked.)Precise Shot (Combat)
You are adept at firing ranged attacks into melee.Prerequisite: Point-Blank Shot.
Benefit: You can shoot or throw ranged weapons at an opponent engaged in melee without taking the standard –4 penalty on your attack roll.
You count as your own ally unless otherwise stated or if doing so would make no sense or be impossible. Thus, "your allies" almost always means the same as "you and your allies."
It seems very clear that if you or your allies are in melee, you will be taking the -4 penalty? Anyone know of exceptions? Trying to find a work around for all the lvl 1-2 kineticist out there.
if your target is engaged in melee with anyone then you suffer the -4. It doesn't matter if you're the only one that is in melee with the target, target is still at -4 and you'll likely provoke AoO.
Kineticists usually deal with this by weapon finesse and kinetic blade.
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It applies. If the target is in melee, ranged attacks suffer a -4 to hit. This is why precise shot is crucial to ranged builds, and should be taken at first level by any ranged primary character.
That said, unless the target has reach, you can take a 5' step away from the character engaging you, and they are not in melee then.