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If a large creature using natural weapons (or a weapon without reach), and there are 2 medium creatures (#1 is adjacent, #2 is behind his ally).
L L 1 2
L L - -
I understand that weapons with reach are treated as ranged weapons when determining cover. Does this rule also apply to large or larger creatures with natural reach?
Would #1 provide cover for #2 against the large creature's attacks?
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If a large creature using natural weapons (or a weapon without reach), and there are 2 medium creatures (#1 is adjacent, #2 is behind his ally).
L L 1 2
L L - -I understand that weapons with reach are treated as ranged weapons when determining cover. Does this rule also apply to large or larger creatures with natural reach?
Would #1 provide cover for #2 against the large creature's attacks?
L L 1 2
L L 0 0 - The map, with 0 being empty squares.A B
C D - L's squares
ab
cd - Corners
The rule applies to any creature with reach, whether natural or manufactured. So it would apply to a grippli with Agile Tongue (extends melee touch range to 10'), or to a dire hyena with its 10' reach bite - but would not apply to a lion (5' reach on all three attacks.)
With that in mind, the general rule is that the attacker chooses a corner of one of his squares, then traces to each corner of one of the target's squares. If there is any blockage, there is SOME degree of cover.
To figure out how much, we need to work out how much of the target is out of cover. If it turns out to be more than half, then the cover is only partial.
So let's consider both.
When 2 attacks L, she traces from 2c to the four corners of LD. Since the 2c-LDb line does NOT go through 1's square, L has no cover against 2's attack!
When L attacks 2, he traces from LDd to the four corners of 2. Two complications arise.
- L must go through 1's square to reach 2a;
- Since LDd-2b (where the line of clean effect starts) is a diagonal, it bisects 2's only square: exactly 50% of the character's area.
Therefore, 1 grants soft cover to 2 for the full +4 AC.
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Yup, it doesn't matter whether the reach is natural or via weapon. Any time you make a melee attack against a target that isn't adjacent to you, you determine cover as if you are using a ranged weapon.
Edit: actual quote!
When making a melee attack against a target that isn’t adjacent to you (such as with a reach weapon), use the rules for determining cover from ranged attacks.
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Easy way to think of it is if you or the opponent is larger than the thing that provides the cover (like another character), then you don't have cover as ranged cover requires you to not be able to see at least half of the target: Two Medium creatures can fight each other over the head of a small creature; A large creature has half of its space about the head of a medium creature and said large creature can look down and over the square of an interposing medium creature; etc.