These points of D and D always alludes me. Say a wolf is running through dense forest to flee from the players, and the ranger wants to take a few shots at the wolves as they travel farther in. Is there a -5 to attack because they are running though foliage, or would it be 1/2 or 3/4 cover because of the dense trees? Thoughts?
You get to decide as the DM and making that kind of call comes with experience. You could easily say that light woods is Half Cover or more dense forest is Three-Quarters cover.
Note that neither of these options cause a penalty to the player character - instead the creature in the cover gains a bonus to their AC and saving throws.
Related to cover, what is the difference between the levels. I can see players saying that if they are right up against the tree it should count as total cover instead of 1/2
Stormknight covered... uh... cover... pretty thoroughly. Just remember that in combat, few things are supposed to be static - cover should be calculated including this; if someone's behind a tree that I can move 3 feet to the right to see him, he only has half cover. Arrow-slits on walls and the like are the usual providers of three-quarters cover.
Your title also mentions lightly obscured, which (along with heavily obscured) is unrelated to cover and AC bonuses - those things are used for hiding, or, more specifically, the possibility of hiding, and facing effectively invisible opponents. Rules on such obscurement are here.
In the thinking of this edition, Cover uses separate rules from advantage/disadvantage. Cover is one of the very few situational effects that uses static modifiers (+2 or +5 AC) rather than advantage/disadvantage, which allows for stacking (which is unusual in this edition). So an invisible creature standing mostly behind a tree would be at +5 AC and disadvantage to hit.
Consider that a shield gives a +2 AC bonus. This bonus stacks with partial cover, but is also equivalent - so think of partial cover as being equivalent to anything from a small shield to a tower shield, while total cover is like standing behind a wall and sticking your head out. The AC bonus is sensible in that an arrow that might have hit the person with a lower roll instead hits the shield or cover.
Also, if you look up optional flanking rulesmin the Dm's guide, they give you a picture of what half cover and 3/4 cover looks like on a grid map if you are using a VTT or TT.
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These points of D and D always alludes me. Say a wolf is running through dense forest to flee from the players, and the ranger wants to take a few shots at the wolves as they travel farther in. Is there a -5 to attack because they are running though foliage, or would it be 1/2 or 3/4 cover because of the dense trees? Thoughts?
Here's the rules for cover.
You get to decide as the DM and making that kind of call comes with experience. You could easily say that light woods is Half Cover or more dense forest is Three-Quarters cover.
Note that neither of these options cause a penalty to the player character - instead the creature in the cover gains a bonus to their AC and saving throws.
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Related to cover, what is the difference between the levels. I can see players saying that if they are right up against the tree it should count as total cover instead of 1/2
It doesn't really define it on purpose, so you can interpret as you like.
Loosely though:
Total = you cannot actually see the target, such as behind a wall.
Three-Quarters = roughly 75% of the target is obscured from view (so between say 65% and 99%).
Half Cover = around half of the target is obscured from view (so between say 25% and 65%).
The percentages are just rough estimates that I came up with, assuming that anything below about 25% isn't really giving any worthwhile cover.
Pun-loving nerd | She/Her/Hers | Profile art by Becca Golins
If you need help with homebrew, please post on the homebrew forums, where multiple staff and moderators can read your post and help you!
"We got this, no problem! I'll take the twenty on the left - you guys handle the one on the right!"🔊
Stormknight covered... uh... cover... pretty thoroughly. Just remember that in combat, few things are supposed to be static - cover should be calculated including this; if someone's behind a tree that I can move 3 feet to the right to see him, he only has half cover. Arrow-slits on walls and the like are the usual providers of three-quarters cover.
Your title also mentions lightly obscured, which (along with heavily obscured) is unrelated to cover and AC bonuses - those things are used for hiding, or, more specifically, the possibility of hiding, and facing effectively invisible opponents. Rules on such obscurement are here.
Thank you for the clarification. I thought being lightly obscured may have given a - 5 to his attack role, thank you for the explanation
In the thinking of this edition, Cover uses separate rules from advantage/disadvantage. Cover is one of the very few situational effects that uses static modifiers (+2 or +5 AC) rather than advantage/disadvantage, which allows for stacking (which is unusual in this edition). So an invisible creature standing mostly behind a tree would be at +5 AC and disadvantage to hit.
Consider that a shield gives a +2 AC bonus. This bonus stacks with partial cover, but is also equivalent - so think of partial cover as being equivalent to anything from a small shield to a tower shield, while total cover is like standing behind a wall and sticking your head out. The AC bonus is sensible in that an arrow that might have hit the person with a lower roll instead hits the shield or cover.
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in awhile.
I answer how to handle this here. Forward to the part about Forrests.
https://youtu.be/YutHfu_bU2o
Also, if you look up optional flanking rulesmin the Dm's guide, they give you a picture of what half cover and 3/4 cover looks like on a grid map if you are using a VTT or TT.