Invisible Cover? 3.5

[Skjaldbakka]

How does cover work if it isn't visible? I'm planning to rule it works exactly like normal cover as a snap ruling, but are there special rules for it?

Specifically, if someone is standing in front of someone else, normally the someone else would get cover from them, and if the attack missed by four or less, they would roll to hit the cover, and if they missed the cover by its dex/dodge bonus, they hit the original target.

What about the miss chance from being invisible? Does that really apply since you weren't aiming for them?

[olelia]

I don't recall any rule where you hit your cover if it misses....


Regardless of that fact I would imagine you would still roll the miss chance even though he wasn't aiming at him...otherwise you could just miss on purpose to always hit anyone that was providing cover...

[Skjaldbakka]

Honestly, there doesn't need to be an explicit rule, but I am pretty sure there is. If cover provides 4 pts of AC, and you miss by 4, you hit the cover. In the case of cover that can dodge out of the way, if the attack then misses the cover by its dex bonus, it moved out of the way, thus no longer providing the cover, and the original target would be hit. That process is spelled out somewhere. What is unclear is how miss chance factors into that. If you don't hit them because of miss chance, does it hit the original target instead?

Do you not provide cover if you're invisible? That wouldn't make sense: an invisible wall would provide cover, why wouldn't an invisible person?

[Kuma Kode]

Invisible cover would work just like normal cover, I would assume. If it's in the way, it's providing a bonus, regardless of if the attacker knows it or not. The miss chance doesn't really apply in this situation since it models the inability to pin-point a creature's exact location even if you know the general area.

The cover bonus simply replicates how likely they are to be in the way. Being invisible doesn't suddenly make you half as likely to be in the way. If anything it would make it even harder to hit the original target because cover is there, but you can't see it so you can't try to aim around it or anything.

EDIT: But no, I recall no rules specifically about invisible cover. I do remember what was described above, with the "if you miss because of the cover bonus, you hit the cover instead."

[Curmudgeon]

If you're just around the end of a Wall of Force this is exactly what you have: partial cover, but no concealment. You may even be able to Hide, though you'll probably need Hide in Plain Sight because that "not being observed" requirement just got harder to satisfy.