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Hi all -
When an NPC (named or not) is killed, do you video game it and they blink off the board or do they litter the battle field like food for the carrion crawlers and vultures like the 14th Century?
In my PFS Games, dead bodies litter the battle field preventing charges and whatever else that would hinder PC's or NPC's from making moves (5' step) - because a body is a hindrance (this is different that a 'prone' character/opponent).
Just want to know what other people do. I'be played with both at home games and conventions. But in both that's what I do. After the scene is played out and combat is over, sure the bodies can blink off the board and go to their respective places of afterlife (because then until they loot the bodies, it doesn't really matter).
Here's one of the reasons I do leave them on the board. Traps. If you end up leaving a body on the board this one time, the players will know something special is up.
Thanks,
Theocrat Issak
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Well, I would only treat "piles" of bodies as difficult terrain; most of the time we just remove any slain NPC or monsters (minis) from the map (PC corpses are another thing, naturally). I think it's more convenient that way, especially as you couldn't tell apart prone beings from corpses. For example, some months ago I ran a huge battle with around 100 participants or so; it would have been impossible to run if we every slain being remained on the map and I would have just "piled up" the bodies. There was no way for me to remember which ones were just tripped and which ones dead (in fact, I already struggled with a large group of orcs being hit with two separate stun effects with different durations).
There's also the mechanical angle to this; I'd treat single bodies as I would treat any helpless being, i.e. you can move through such a square without any problems. If you want to add more realism to your combats, I still suggest treating only huge (and larger) monster corpses and squares/areas with actual piles of bodies (i.e. where a large number of enemies have fallen) as difficult terrain.
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Actually, there is a rule for this, it's just a bit obscure.
Moving Through a Square
You can move through an unoccupied square without difficulty in most circumstances. Difficult terrain and a number of spell effects might hamper your movement through open spaces.Opponent: You can't move through a square occupied by an opponent unless the opponent is helpless. You can move through a square occupied by a helpless opponent without penalty. Some creatures, particularly very large ones, may present an obstacle even when helpless. In such cases, each square you move through counts as 2 squares.
Emphasis mine, of course. In my game, the "some creatures" this rule references means "one Large or larger corpse, at least four Medium corpses, or at least eight Small corpses". At least that's the rule for Medium and Small creatures (Large creatures treat at least four large corpses as difficult terrain, or at least eight Medium ones, and so on).
There's the rule, and there's my take on it.
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Actually, there is a rule for this, it's just a bit obscure.
Moving Through a Square
You can move through an unoccupied square without difficulty in most circumstances. Difficult terrain and a number of spell effects might hamper your movement through open spaces.Opponent: You can't move through a square occupied by an opponent unless the opponent is helpless. You can move through a square occupied by a helpless opponent without penalty. Some creatures, particularly very large ones, may present an obstacle even when helpless. In such cases, each square you move through counts as 2 squares.
Emphasis mine, of course. In my game, the "some creatures" this rule references means "one Large or larger corpse, at least four Medium corpses, or at least eight Small corpses". At least that's the rule for Medium and Small creatures (Large creatures treat at least four large corpses as difficult terrain, or at least eight Medium ones, and so on).
There's the rule, and there's my take on it.
That's a pretty good interpretation; don't know if I would want to keep track of how many slain small or medium creatures each square has, but your way is pretty solid if you want to add more "realism" to movement in combat. Anyway, I might change my first post to include Large corpses as potentially difficult terrain.