COVER, CONCEALMENT, & INVISIBILITY

COVER & CONCEALMENT

Walls, trees, creatures, and other obstacles can provide cover during combat, making a target more difficult to harm. A target can benefit from cover only when an attack or other effect originates on the opposite side of the cover.

Adjust the armor class of the target creature as follows if cover (hard substances which protect) or concealment (soft substances which screen) exists. Cover adds bonuses to armor class and saving throws. Concealment adds a bonus to armor class.

Cover equal to 100% means there is no line of sight or line of effect. Creatures typically cannot be seen or attacked.

Concealment equal to 100% means there is no line of sight. Creatures are considered to be invisible.

TYPES OF COVER

Cover up to the knees is equal to 25% cover. Man-sized creatures standing along a high wall (without battlements) would have 25% cover. Firing a missile weapon from behind a pillar or corner provides 25% cover. 

Otherwise, taking cover behind a pillar or corner while still able to see around it provides 50% cover. Attacking from behind an over-turned table provides 50% cover (both ways if in melee). 

Sniping or peering from high narrow windows would provide 75% cover and the same activity from specially constructed arrow slits would provide 90% cover.

SOFT COVER

Protecting an Ally from Ranged Attacks. [parry] (declared; complex) 

Targeting a single creature in a group with a missile weapon (assuming no melee conditions exist) will give the target a cover bonus if the others in the group are providing active protection. The protected creature must declare a parry and the protector must declare a parry. This grants the protected creature a +2 bonus to armor class and Dexterity saving throws during that round (equal to 25% cover). If more than one protector declares a parry, the bonus is +4 bonus to armor class and Dexterity saving throws during that round (equal to 50% cover).

Any missile attack that misses the target due to the cover bonus provided may strike one of the defenders selected randomly (if the attack result would hit the defender).

Firing Missile Weapons Over a Melee. [missile] 

It is not uncommon to find missile weapon wielders on one side of a melee and their targets on the other side of a melee. If all in combat are at the same elevation (no side higher than the other), all missile attacks suffer a -2 penalty for soft cover. The GM may adjust this based on circumstances.

TYPES OF CONCEALMENT

A translucent screen concealing half the body is 25% concealment. 

Men concealed behind thick bushes (covering half their body) will have 50% concealment. Ability to see the outline of a creature’s shape is typically 75% concealment and only part of the shape is 90% concealment.

FOG OR MIST

The conditions normally provide concealment for those within depending upon thickness/density/opaqueness. Typical conditions allow sight within 10 feet with 25% concealment and 50% concealment out to 20 feet and invisibility (100% concealment, treat attacker as blinded) past 20 feet.

HIGHER GROUND

An attacker striking from a higher elevation of any kind typically gains a +1 bonus to attack rolls when targeting creatures on a lower elevation. 

If opponents are engaging one another from different elevations on a vertical cliff face (one combatant is above the other by a distance of at least half of the higher combatant’s height), the character in the higher position receives a +2 bonus to attack rolls and the character in the lower position suffers a -2 penalty to attack rolls. 

These adjustments are cumulative with any (non-elevation related) modifiers that may apply. On a severe slope, the adjustments are +1 and -1.

INVISIBILITY

Creatures that are magically invisible are always at an advantage when facing opponents that use sight. Sight includes normal vision, infravision of any sort, night vision, and ultravision.

The effects also apply in cases where one opponent is blinded while another is not (see also the blind condition).

EFFECTS OF INVISIBILITY

Opponents of invisible creatures suffer the following penalties when fighting them:

• • They suffer a -4 penalty to attack rolls vs. invisible creatures.

  • They suffer a -4 penalty to armor class vs. invisible creature's attack rolls against them (max. AC 10).

  • They cannot add any Dexterity bonus to saving throws against an invisible creature's spells or abilities.

  • They cannot target invisible creatures with effects that require line of sight.

  • They cannot take free attacks or immediate attacks against invisible creatures.

Invisible creatures gain the following adjustments when fighting creatures that cannot see or detect them:

• • They gain a +4 to saving throws vs. effects initiated by their opponents.

  • They will automatically gain surprise (of 1 segment) if they cannot be heard or sensed (scent, etc.) and, if they are not automatically detected (see hear noise), they gain a +17% to surprise others (this overrides any other sight based bonus). Note that even if automatic surprise is gained, surprise should still be checked if there is a chance of gaining more than 1 surprise segment.

  • Unless obstructed, they can attack opponents from any chosen flank with regard to special abilities (only; rear attacks are at no additional bonus). An example of a special ability that could be used is the back stab ability.

  • No matter the number of opponents, invisible creatures can choose which attackers can attack their flank and rear (See Combat Facing).

  • Invisible creatures cannot use gaze attacks.

DETECTING AN INVISIBLE CREATURE

Awareness. When you encounter an invisible creature, the GM will check for Surprise. If you are not surprised, you will become aware of "something" or someone moving nearby. The GM may give you a direction heading if the invisible creature was moving and making noise. 

Detection. You can detect an invisible creature by making a successful Sense Invisible check or a successful Hear Noise check. This allows you to pinpoint their location going forward. If using sense invisible, pinpointing lasts until the invisible creature moves beyond line of sight for more than one round. If using hear noise, pinpointing lasts until the invisible creature moves beyond your hearing range for more than one round.

Sense Invisible checks are made as an immediate action at the beginning of segment 1 each round by all creatures that have a chance to detect the invisible creature (ie. after the declaration phase).

A creature that is speaking or casting a spell with verbal components may be automatically pinpointed within a range of 20-ft. in combat conditions (or 30-ft in non-combat conditions) and/or medium amounts of ambient noise.

Pinpointing

• You can target the creature with melee or missile attacks.

• Effects that require line of sight or a "target" (a spell area of effect that allows targeting "a selected creature") cannot target an invisible creature, even if pinpointed.

• Any attempt to contact or touch an invisible creature in melee range is a major action (melee attack) even if the creature is immoble.

INVISIBLE CREATURES IN MELEE

• An invisible creature can enter melee range of those that have the surprised condition (ie. Awareness does not exist) without spending a round to Enter Melee.

• If Surprise has not been checked (ie. a creature has recently become invisible) the GM will check for Surprise when an invisible creature attempts to enter melee range. If the suprise check fails, the invisible creature must enter melee normally or all creatures in melee can pinpoint them automatically. Of course, charge actions allow movement and entering melee in the same round.

• An invisible creature that has not been pinpointed can leave melee without drawing free attacks.

• An invisible creature, even if not pinpointed, will be a target for any randomly assigned attacks in the melee (ie. rules for firing into melee or spell effects that bisect the melee).

• If an invisible creature remains in melee range of other creatures engaged in melee for more than one round, if not pinpointed, there is a 10% chance of any attack made by an invisidual that has not pinpointed them of accidentally targeting them (check before the attack is made).

ATTACKERS THAT CANNOT BE SEEN

Any defender attacked by a creature that can see them but the defender cannot see or detect the attacker will follow the rules above as if the attacker were invisible. This included defenders that are blind or defenders that cannot see their attacker due to lighting limitations (attackers with infravision attacking with missile weapons or ranged abilities from the darkness).