Cover in DnD 5e

Rules and tactics for using cover in DnD 5e

How does cover work?

Cover in D&D 5e is categorised into 3 types with differing effects but the basic essence of the rules is, the more you’re covered, the better protected you are:

Half cover

What counts as half cover? – Any obstacle that blocks about half of the creature

Impact of half cover – Creatures in half cover get +2 to their AC.

Examples of half cover – Low wall, narrow tree trunk, piece of furniture, a crate etc.

Three quarters cover

What counts as three quarters cover? – Any obstacle that blocks about 3 quarters of a creature.

Impact of three quarters cover – Creatures in 3 quarters cover get +5 to their AC.

Examples of three quarters cover – A portcullis, an arrow slit, a cart etc.

Full cover

What counts as full cover? – Any obstacle that completely obscures a creature from view.

Impact of full cover – Any creature in full cover can’t be targeted by attacks using conventional means. There are unconventional ways to do that such as using an AOE spell, but there are rules around this too.

Examples of full cover – A wall, a large tree a creature much larger than the creature hiding behind it.

Using characters as cover

If you’re using another character as cover, the PHB states:

“A target has half cover if an obstacle blocks at least half of its body. The obstacle might be a low wall, a large piece of furniture, a narrow tree trunk, or a creature, whether that creature is an enemy or a friend.”

Player’s Handbook

This means that being behind any creature will normally grant half cover. There is space here for a DM to rule that a shot can’t pass beyond the massive tarrasque you’re trying to shoot past/through, but typically, half cover applies, even when a creature is significantly large. This seems to be due to the constantly moving nature of combat with characters constantly moving, jumping out to take a shot, diving back behind cover etc rather than a matter of the size of a creature. This means that even your small Gnome will typically only get half cover when standing behind a huge giant.

Another optional rule to be considered can be found in the DMG. This can be used when a shot aimed at someone using another creature as cover misses, to determine whether the cover was hit instead.

“When a ranged attack misses a target that has cover, you can use this optional rule to determine whether the cover was struck by the attack. First, determine whether the attack roll would have hit the protected target without the cover. If the attack roll falls within a range low enough to miss the target but high enough to strike the target if there had been no cover, the object used for cover is struck. If a creature is providing cover for the missed creature and the attack roll exceeds the AC of the covering creature, the covering creature is hit.”

Dungeon Master’s Guide

Just remember that this is an optional rule so your DM can choose whether they use it or not (though it seems a sensible rule to me).

Cover tactics

Hitting creatures behind full cover

A creature behind full cover can’t be targeted by a normal attack, but there are still ways to get those pesky characters that stay behind cover:

• Move to a better spot – The most simple method is simply to move to somewhere where the character isn’t being obscured by that cover. This isn’t always possible or easy though. If that’s the case, try one of these other methods.
• Destroy the cover – If a creature is cowering behind another creature, you can just kill the creature in front. It’s also possible that your DM will allow you to use certain attacks and spells to destroy certain other types of cover like a crate or cart.
• Area of effect spells – The rules for AOE spells state that “A spell’s effect expands in straight lines from the point of origin. If no unblocked straight line extends from the point of origin to a location within the area of effect, that location isn’t included in the spell’s area. To block one of these imaginary lines, an obstruction must provide total cover.” If your target isn’t in total cover, then AOE spells will affect them as normal. On stop of this, AOE spells could be cast to land to the side of where a character is hiding, negating their cover. Some AOE spells will also state that they travel around corners (like insect plague) which may allow you to hit someone in full cover.

Negating the effects of half and three quarters cover

While less of a pain than full cover, half and three quarters cover make it considerably harder to hit an enemy, so knowing how to bypass or reduce the effectiveness of these tactics is handy:

• Feats – You can grab the feats sharpshooter (for ranged weapon attacks) and spell sniper (for spell attacks) which will negate the effects of half and three quarters cover.
• Spells – Certain spells will specify not being affected by cover as accuracy is less of an issue. Sacred flame can be used this way. In addition, many AOE spells work this way too, especially those not requiring a dexterity saving throw. Even better is a spell like magic missile which automatically hits, so half and three quarters cover are not an issue.
• Arcane archer – Arcane archers can use a seeking arrow to home in on their target, negating the effects of half and three quarters cover.

When to use cover

Cover generally isn’t useful against melee attacks or spells that aren’t attacks (though blocking line of site with full cover can help here against many spells).

However, cover is great when playing against lots of ranged enemies, especially if you’re using ranged attacks yourself. Even if you’re a highly specialised, melee warrior like a barbarian, you can still benefit from cover as you charge in, especially if enemies are a fair distance away, you might choose to weave in and out of bits of cover to make yourself harder to hit.

Creating cover

If you know you’re going to be attacked and have time to prepare, you can even create some cover. Shovels can be used to dig trenches, furniture can be stacked conveniently and boards can be hammered over windows.

If already in combat, spells can provide a quick version of this. Spells like wall of ice can fully obscure you from a combatant as well as having some more interesting uses. Something like blade barrier will grant you three quarters cover and other spells like Bigby’s hand, stone shape, mold earth, Leomund’s tiny hut, prismatic wall, wall of force and wall of stone all have similar effects.

Using prone with cover

Prone is a condition you can impose on yourself and others that basically causes you to lie down. It has a mix of good and bad effects and while it will slow down your movement speed and make it easier for melee attacks to hit you, it does also cause disadvantage for ranged attacks from enemies.

This can be used in conjunction with cover, so you might hide behind a cart and drop prone giving yourself an AC bonus and ranged attacks against you disadvantage. In some cases, dropping prone might mean that you are fully covered by an obstacle where standing up wouldn’t have provided this, which would then give you full cover.

Of course, lying down behind a wall isn’t much good for fighting back. To manage to do this, you can use your movement to stand up from being prone (it takes half your movement speed), take a shot at an enemy, and then drop back down prone again.

This can be a pain to combat against, and if your enemy does decide to use this tactic. The section above about hitting creatures behind full cover may help. You could also choose to ready an action to shoot at your devious foe when they pop their head above the parapets, removing the benefits of prone.

Creating opportunities for cover as a DM

In my experience, the rules for cover aren’t used enough in D&D 5e. I suspect this is partly because coming up with rich and full battlefields takes a fair bit of thought and preparation. I’d highly recommend it though. If you use battlemaps, choose versions that have natural cover on them, or place some on yourself using tokens or a pen. You can do a similar thing with virtual tabletops and with 3d scenery just making sure you’re prepped with the right kinds of cover for the environment.

Things like city walls and battlements, crumbled buildings, carts, barrels, gates, fences, ditches and all sorts of other things make great natural cover. It will also help players, especially if you use theatre of the mind to play, to describe the battlefield in detail to your players, drawing them to natural pieces of cover they can use and helping them to think more tactically. Doing the same with NPCs will also encourage similar behaviour from players, making combat a more tactical affair.