What are good ways to create cover?

[robbie374]

What are good ways to create cover?

Spellcasters in particular can benefit from cover. What creative ways can characters use cantrips, spells, and abilities to quickly and effectively create cover when combat begins, or is expected to begin?

[RSP]

What are good ways to create cover?

Spellcasters in particular can benefit from cover. What creative ways can characters use cantrips, spells, and abilities to quickly and effectively create cover when combat begins, or is expected to begin?

Easiest way is to get behind any fellow party members and/or mounts.

[solidork]

Shape Earth (cantrip from EE) can make a hole for you to hide in.

My War Cleric has used Stone Shape for this, on occasion, because our DM has ruled that you can make things that are larger than 5ft on a side so long as the volume is the same as the 5x5x5 cube.

[Steampunkette]

Mold Earth can also form a berm to hide behind. My Warlock uses it a -lot-.

Alternatively you could kick over a table, use a door, or dive prone behind short boulders or other objects in the environment.

[JackPhoenix]

Best cover for spellcaster is the party meatshield barbarian. That way, you'll get cover that hits any enemy that tries to get around it to you. While fighters and paladins may seem like a better choice thanks to their metal coating and less smell and noise, barbarians are on average larger and their at first glance softer exterior invites enemies to waste their actions trying to make their way to you THROUGH the cover instead of around in, while masking the fact that proper, brand-name barbarian is tougher than either of the other two options.

Some people claim that druids are even better cover than barbarians, thanks to being larger in wildshaped forms and having the ability to restore the integrity of the cover they provide. While that's true, you musn't forget the fact that druids are spellcasters too, and using the backwater pretenders fellow spellcasters as a source of cover may set up a dangerous precedent leading to someone (propably a halfling) using YOU as a cover sometimes in the future, and you don't want that, do you?

[Marvnmartian]

well as a caster Minor illusion is the best thing imo. When making your character always have them as short as you can so that you can make your 5x5 box with eye holes that you hide inside of.

makes the person about to attack you have to use their action to look through your illusion which helps with action economy if there is alot of them.

the box with eye holes is consider 3/4 cover maybe even full cover if your dm is nice

also Major image is a thing if you cast it as a level 6 spell it becomes permanent, which is great if your dm isnt a stickler about actually making you move the object and not have it just be apart of your character. I used it as a larger imposing tower shield, that my dm allowed me to put it on my back and act as if it stays there without saying, "I use my action to move the shield with me as i walk through town"

then just prior to combat i would place the image of the shield on the field and scamper behind it and shoot spells from behind it and it makes the same ability as the minor illusion box but more flavorful

[JackPhoenix]

well as a caster Minor illusion is the best thing imo. When making your character always have them as short as you can so that you can make your 5x5 box with eye holes that you hide inside of.

makes the person about to attack you have to use their action to look through your illusion which helps with action economy if there is alot of them.

the box with eye holes is consider 3/4 cover maybe even full cover if your dm is nice

also Major image is a thing if you cast it as a level 6 spell it becomes permanent, which is great if your dm isnt a stickler about actually making you move the object and not have it just be apart of your character. I used it as a larger imposing tower shield, that my dm allowed me to put it on my back and act as if it stays there without saying, "I use my action to move the shield with me as i walk through town"

then just prior to combat i would place the image of the shield on the field and scamper behind it and shoot spells from behind it and it makes the same ability as the minor illusion box but more flavorful

Only works for illusionist with Illusory Reality, otherwise the illusions provide no cover, as they can't actually stop attacks.

[Marvnmartian]

Only works for illusionist with Illusory Reality, otherwise the illusions provide no cover, as they can't actually stop attacks.

Minor illusion - Physical interaction with the object reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell DC. If the creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

So the only way to show that the illusion is in fact an illusion is to touch it or attack it in melee, but if the op is looking for cover its assumed he wants to defend against ranged. aoe of course will go straight through but if the person is trying to target you thats behind the tower shield they would have to roll their investigation check. thus wasting an action which is better than cover

[Chugger]

Hirelings to carry cover for you. You can't count on hirelings to face extended danger or eat arrows for you, but they could set up a simple wooden barrier for you as an action and then run back to safety -then come pick it up and carry it for you to the next fight! I'd pay a few gold for that! :smallsmile:

[Chugger]

Hah that would be a good homebrew figurine of wondrous power. It has three charges at day at dawn, and you can expend a charge and use a bonus action to toss it on the ground near you, making 1/2 cover. Two charges maybe to get 3/4 cover. It has ac x and y hp and if dropped to zero either reverts to figurine form or (if you roll a 1 out of 20) is destroyed.

[Chugger]

I'm assuming that if you're inside a minor illusion shooting out - and you have eye holes - or you've disbelieved it for yourself to make it go "faint" - others would have a disad to hit you cuz you're kind of like in darkness - hard to know where you are in there.

But if you make a little wall to get half cover with a minor illusion, would that really count as half cover? On the one hand they can't see your lower half, and if that would have been the "best and most vulnerable" spot to aim for that turn - they can't know. So it counts as cover. It also limits their choices as to where to hit you. But they know where your lower half is. And if an arrow, say, just "goes low" and would have gone thunk had the wall been real - it won't - it will go right through the illusion and maybe hit you. So by that reckoning it shouldn't be "full" half cover -maybe half half cover, if you follow me, based on a fusion of the two arguments. Shucks, I dunno.

Caster can't "use" shields, but what if you carried one with a little prop-up arm - and you put it on the ground and propped it up in front of you like a mini wall? I'm not sure that would actually be true half cover because it is so small - and someone could use a bit of movement to outflank you and then shoot... so I think I'm going back to hirelings who carry some sort of more substantial wooden barrier that wraps around goes goes back so you can't be outflanked easily. Or ask the DM why every battle is in a room devoid of things to hide behind? At which point all encounters will be "difficult terrain" because the little everywhere, and the meleers who are slowed a round to reach targets will be having choice words with us.

So um....yeah hide behind the barbarian! :smallbiggrin:

[Kane0]

Minor Illusion, move earth, block sitting on a Floating Disk, conjurer's L2 ability, Fog Cloud, pack animal, cart/wagon, dude with a tower shield, there's probably some magic items as well...

[Tanarii]

Minor illusion - Physical interaction with the object reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell DC. If the creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

So the only way to show that the illusion is in fact an illusion is to touch it or attack it in melee, but if the op is looking for cover its assumed he wants to defend against ranged. aoe of course will go straight through but if the person is trying to target you thats behind the tower shield they would have to roll their investigation check. thus wasting an action which is better than cover
Or the first one can just shoot you with the ranged attack, accepting disadvantage, and revealing the illusion. The rest of them can then shoot you without penalty. Even if your DM rules a physical interaction of the arrow and illusion only reveals it to the creature shooting the arrow, which is really bizarre IMO but a possible interpretation, the others still also only get disadvantage. So you've used your action to summon the illusion in return for either disadvantage vs one ranged attacks in the round or vs all of them.

There's certainly situations in which that's useful, under either interpretation. But most of the time it's not that useful a use of your action.

[Finger6842]

Minor Illusion, move earth, block sitting on a Floating Disk, conjurer's L2 ability, Fog Cloud, pack animal, cart/wagon, dude with a tower shield, there's probably some magic items as well...

Disk floats 3 feet off the ground but might help if the NPCs are above you and you get under it. A block on top of it might cover all of you over 3 feet tall. My DM took 30hp out of my legs even with 1/2 cover (since the disk is three feet in diameter and "reach" is 5 feet or more.

Miner Illusion box etc. would likely be dispelled hit or miss, and a box isn't likely to give a ranged weapon any pause, a handaxe or javelin would penetrate a box anyway. A brick wall just appearing from nowhere, would you believe it? Minor illusion should only work if they don't know the terrain OR it's accomplished outside their line of sight. At best you would get one or two actions out of a low INT NPC group.

13 seconds into the encounter and shield bearer dude will be dead from AOE plus these shields are thick but only one person big.

Now, mold earth, fog cloud, darkness, animals and objects are all good cover. The door you just came through, tables, wall corners, statues are all good cover. Undead minions, good. Other PCs MIGHT be good or Might move, exposing you to danger.

Mold earth is my personal favorite but does steal an action and only makes an obstruction from "loose earth". The best thing is use your movement to get behind existing terrain. Alternately use control abilities or illusions to make them focus elsewhere.

[JackPhoenix]

Minor illusion - Physical interaction with the object reveals it to be an illusion, because things can pass through it. If a creature uses its action to examine the sound or image, the creature can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell DC. If the creature discerns the illusion for what it is, the illusion becomes faint to the creature.

So the only way to show that the illusion is in fact an illusion is to touch it or attack it in melee, but if the op is looking for cover its assumed he wants to defend against ranged. aoe of course will go straight through but if the person is trying to target you thats behind the tower shield they would have to roll their investigation check. thus wasting an action which is better than cover

It doesn't matter if they know if it's an illusion or not. It's an illusion, not an actual object that can stop incoming attack, so it's not a cover. It may give them disadvantage on attack if you're fully concealed (i.e. heavily obscured), but never a cover bonus.

[Twizzly513]

There's been a lot said about Minor Illusion, which was what I was going to bring up, although i don't see it as technically a kind of cover.
It's not physical, but it stops the enemy from seeing you, which (in my own opinion as a DM) I would rule as not having sight of them, in turn giving the attack roll disadvantage, the same effect as cover.

[Tanarii]

which (in my own opinion as a DM) I would rule as not having sight of them, in turn giving the attack roll disadvantage, the same effect as cover.
That's not the effect of cover, mechanically. Cover gives an AC and Dex saving throw bonus, depending on how much of them you can see. Full cover (not being able to see them at all) just makes them impossible to hit.

Your opponent being partially behind concealment means nothing. If you can see part of them, no penalty to the attack roll. Not being able to see your opponent at all gives disadvantage on the attack roll.

Concealment is considerably worse than cover.

[Millstone85]

That's not the effect of cover, mechanically. Cover gives an AC and Dex saving throw bonus, depending on how much of them you can see. Full cover (not being able to see them at all) just makes them impossible to hit.

Your opponent being partially behind concealment means nothing. If you can see part of them, no penalty to the attack roll. Not being able to see your opponent at all gives disadvantage on the attack roll.

Concealment is considerably worse than cover.I think this is best represented by a character standing fully or partially behind an unbreakable transparent wall, like from the forcecage spell or some eerie crystal cave, versus a character standing behind opaque fog, like from the fog cloud spell or some fire.

Enters a third character, with a bow. They can see the first character clearly, but the wall might stop their arrows. They can not see the second character, but fog offers no resistance to arrows.

For the purpose of the third character's attacks, the first character is seen but has full or partial cover, while the second character is unseen but has no cover whatsoever. So the first character either can not be targeted at all or gains a bonus to AC, while the second character imposes disadvantage on the attack rolls.

It gets more complicated if the third character is a spellcaster. What counts as cover for a spell? Would eldritch blast, which does not require sight but can not target objects, be able to hit a creature on the other side of a thin paper wall? It is weird.

Edit: Maybe not such a great example. Since the second and third characters can not see each other, attack rolls would gain both advantage and disadvantage, eventually being done without either. But what I said is still technically true.

[Finger6842]

There's been a lot said about Minor Illusion, which was what I was going to bring up, although i don't see it as technically a kind of cover.
It's not physical, but it stops the enemy from seeing you, which (in my own opinion as a DM) I would rule as not having sight of them, in turn giving the attack roll disadvantage, the same effect as cover.

I love minor illusion as a spell but believe spells in general are misused.
For example: Party is in a 30' x 30' room and NPC Wizard knows:
a) what the room looks like
b) there are enemies in there
So as a DM I'm not allowing illusions to affect the NPC, casting an AOE spell into the room that fills the room, and not allowing a saving throw unless the PC can explain what action will allow it. I will give the same tactical advantage to the PCs if the tables are turned. So fireball with dex save? You're hosed unless there's a place to hide/exit within 5 feet. Cloud attack con save? Ok, this round you can hold you breath so a save can happen, next round will be a different answer. Good god, wizard slammed the door shut, closing you inside? Your Dex heavy party might not have an answer quick enough.

Now back to illusion, cast such that the wizard thinks he has an enemy on both sides, now he's hesitant to expose his back to cast the AOE to start with. In this case thamaturgy, mage hand or knock might serve as well. Long story short, illusions and things that obscure vision provide no cover but MIGHT provide disadvantage on attacks or better still prevent attacks, which MIGHT apply to both parties. Your compatriots are not immune to the same Illusion.

[Unoriginal]

-Buy a big, large cape and find two sticks tall sticks

-In case of troubles, put the sticks in the ground and put the cape between them

You are now under cover, as per the rules.

[Tanarii]

-Buy a big, large cape and find two sticks tall sticks

-In case of troubles, put the sticks in the ground and put the cape between them

You are now under cover, as per the rules.
Sure beats having to haul around a pavise or mantelet