Diving for Cover against non-Area attacks

[GAZZA]

I'm a bit confused about Diving For Cover. I have a few cases; all of them assume that the target is aborting to dive.

1. Attacker declares an Area Effect. In order to be useful, the target will need to know where it is going to hit before diving, otherwise he'll have to gues where to go. So I assume the attacker declares his area of effect before the target decides to dive, and assuming the target can dive completely out of the area successfully, he'll take no damage.
   
2. Attacker declares a Blast, and spreads it to hit the target's area. Again, I presume the attacker declares this before the target decides to abort to a dive, and assuming he succeeds, the target will avoid the attack.
   
3. The above two suggest that the attacker must always declare where his attack will land before the target decides to abort, and cannot change his mind once the target dives out of the way. That being the case - what if the attacker simply punches or blasts without using an area of effect? Can the target dive 1 metre and (assuming he makes the DEX roll) completely avoid the attack? This seems weird if true. Dive for Cover seems intended for area attacks (Dodge or Block being more appropriate for single targets), but I can't see anything specifically forbidding using Dive for Cover to avoid single target attacks - and if you can, then it is quite possibly the best avoidance manoeuvre for high SPD/DEX characters.
   

 

In short - can the attacker move his target after seeing the results of a dive for cover? Can you abort to a dive for cover if you are targetted by a single target attack?

[Steve Long]

Re: Diving for Cover against non-Area attacks

 

Yes, a character can Abort to Dive For Cover; it makes no difference what type of attack is involved. No, the attacker can’t change his target once he realizes the target’s Diving For Cover; he’s already declared his Action.

 

As always, combat is a dynamic situation where the GM sometimes has to use his common and dramatic sense when running the game. But remember, it’s not as if the characters are literally standing there, declaring their Actions one at a time and performing them in order. Essentially it’s all happening at once, with the initiative order being instituted to (a) give an advantage to characters who’ve paid to have faster reflexes, and ( provide a way to determine what happens to whom that’s easy for gamers to use.