Dancing around the corpses!


Pathfinder First Edition General Discussion


Ok well not everyone is dancing, especially not the dwarf tank, but the nimble bard sure is....why? Because I've decided when a creature drops, that space becomes rough terrain. Loot packed rough terrain hopefully, but still effecting movement, charging, etc. . Why? Just my attempt to fill things in with a little more realism. Now how many corpses CAN you fit into a 5' square? Only Gorum knows for sure, and he (it?) isn't one for math, but I will say from experience....that means watching movies, kids!....I'd say five and you are heading into unmanageable territory and it should be counted as rough and a low barrier if you want to make a distinction. Sniping from behind a few fresh kills? Bravo! You get to keep your Thieves Guild card for another month....


I don't really see how a single medium corpse in a 5 foot square is really that difficult to maneuver around... you take one normal or slightly larger than normal step and you're past it.


I do this with large creatures but not medium or small, instead I just draw corpses and bloodstains on my battle grid.


One corpse in a 5 foot square wouldn't do much.

I typically do it for Large size. Huge and larger tend to act similar to walls (had the amusement of watching the raging barbarian hack through a downed giant's corpse to get to the things on the other side). For medium, 3 or more makes it difficult terrain. I usually say you've got a meat wall when you wind up with 9 corpses in a square. 6 corpses winds up with a low barrier you can stand on and get the same benefits from standing on a table. 9, you've got something that pretty much accounts for a full meat wall. For small creatures, just double the numbers.

I've actually used goblin hordes to bury a fighter like this. It was amusing watching him wriggle his way out of his green meat coffin just in time to behead the boss of the fight with a lucky triple crit.


I think this is a good idea. Just imagine trying to navigate around a dead body while your attention is on live enemies. At some point the corpses will become tripping/stumbling hazards. If the PCs treat it as rough terrain then they are being careful in their footwork and only suffer the movement penalties. If the just proceed without due caution their should be some penalty to attacks or requirements for acrobatics checks to represent impediments to movements.

If the acrobatics check succeeds then they are unaffected in the actions that round. Failure should indicate a penalty to attacks. AC or such.

Also, sniping from behind course cover should earn you a thieves' guild merit badge.


chaoseffect wrote:
I don't really see how a single medium corpse in a 5 foot square is really that difficult to maneuver around... you take one normal or slightly larger than normal step and you're past it.

Eh, as someone that works outside, even the 2 inch stub of some cut down underbrush can make difficult terrain (Well, when the whole place is overgrown so there are hundreds of them in the field). Basically, stepping on the arm, or the edge of the torso will make you stumble enough that you might not be able to charge.

I'll agree that you there should be some simple way to get over this though, since it mostly just takes a well placed step. Maybe an acrobatic check to get over such things when it is from medium creatures? It should be a small DC, but noticeable enough that someone with no ranks might roll badly on it (so they either take acrobatics, or they simply just assume it will be difficult terrain).

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