Archery 101: Cover and Concealment

[Xaragos]

So as I understand it:

Cover comes in these flavors:

Soft cover: those provided by creatures in the way (granting +4 AC)
Partial cover: something like a low wall (+2 AC +1 Ref)
Total cover: Solid barrier no LOE (Cant target!)
Improved cover: murderhole (+8 AC +4 Ref)

Then there is concealment...

Concealment (grants 20% miss chance)
Total Concealment (grants 50% miss chance)

Now here is my question. Which of these applies when an archer targets someone in melee? For example, Archer A attempts to attack enemy B, but his friend fighter C is standing in front of him fighting the beast and keeping him at bay.

Does that only grant soft cover (+4 AC) or does it also grant concealment? If so, now is there a rolled percentile chance to hit your partner who is keeping the enemy at bay? What if the Archer has precise shot?

First time playing that I heard a DM telling a player that because their meatshield was in front of them, they had to roll percentage to hit them vs the target for every attack. (We were in a dungeon crawl so not a lot of angles to take).

If for some reason soft cover does do as we were told and grant not only a boost to AC but a percentage chance to hit your companion, are there any ways to mitigate this via feats or what have you?

I know this may be rudimentary, but I just wanted some clarification. Thanks!

[snailgosh]

The archer firing into melee with his tank buddy between himself and target would have a -4 penalty to hit to avoid hitting his friend and his target would have +4 AC for soft cover.
These are cumulative. The -4 penalty can ignored with Precise Shot and the AC from cover with Improved Precise Shot. The target does not get any concealment.
There is a variant rule in which you hit the cover (in this case your melee friend) if you miss by such a margain that you would've hit your target if it weren't for it's cover, but this rule is optional.

[Psyren]

It's actually pretty simple. The big difference between the two is that an effect has to say it grants concealment, in order to grant concealment. Cover meanwhile can be granted by just about anything between you and the target that blocks (in whole or in part) a straight path between your attacks and that target, even if it doesn't specifically say anything about granting cover.

So to answer your question - targeting someone in melee with an ally between you, would mean that they have soft cover (+4 AC) and no concealment. And if your ally is right next to them and you don't have precise shot, you have that -4 penalty to worry about too.

[aethel27]

I believe concealment is directly mentioned when it applies (like the fog spells). Shadows, darkness and other thing might give concealment as well but cover never gives concealment (That I know of :P)

[Xaragos]

Thanks for the info. That seems to make more sense to me. Having a bonus to AC and a miss chance seems a little bit harsh against ranged focused players.