Fighting in a hallway

[Tief]

Couldn't think up a title so just used the example...
In our games our DM has always said if you use a spell or a ranged weapon to attack somebody, you must have direct line of sight to see them (ok thats fine) but if a teammate is in the way, that classes as they are blocking it and you cannot see...

I'm curious how you do it.. Say you are in a 5ft wide 50ft long corridor. At the front of the party is the Paladin, he is fighting an orc, behind the orc a goblin.
Now if you was 20ft away from the Paladin and had a longbow, could you shoot the orc or the goblin?
With how our DM plays it would be a no, because the paladin is in the way, but I read a similar example where somebody said you could hit them.
I'm assuming you "can" because you could shoot around the Paladin, or over, or even under I guess if you was a good enough Archer. But the goblin would get concealment? or something like that?

[Surfing HalfOrc]

I've always said that you can, BUT at a -4 to hit, and that you hit your own teammate if you missed by more than 8, or rolled a 1 (critical fumble).

However, polearms can be used over the shoulder of the paladin (that's what they were meant for) with no penalty. The fighter in armor is in front, fighting whoever, the poleman stands behind and jabs away. I remember fighting that way when I still did SCA back in High School.

[Vladislav]

You may find this relevant


Cover
To determine whether your target has cover from your ranged attack, choose a corner of your square. If any line from this corner to any corner of the target’s square passes through a square or border that blocks line of effect or provides cover, or through a square occupied by a creature, the target has cover (+4 to AC).


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.

So, you can make ranged attacks in this scenario, but:
- shooting the Orc takes a -8 penalty (-4 because your line of fire passes through another creature, and another -4 because he's in melee with your ally.
- shooting the Goblin takes a -4 penalty (your line of fire passes through another creature, but the Goblin is not in melee with your allies)

[Zilzmaer]

The goblin or orc would have cover, meaning you could attack them, but they get +4 to AC. This form of cover is called 'soft cover'. PHB 150-152 has the rules for cover.

[Tief]

Ah that's what I was looking for, thank you!

[KillianHawkeye]

In addition, while hitting the cover was a possibility using the original 3E rules, that has been removed in 3.5e. Essentially, you are assumed to be trying hard enough to avoid your allies that a miss means the cover caused you to shoot wide.