Bodies = Difficult Terrain?

[Rechan]

A player asked a good question earlier.

If a body drops in a square, is that square now considered difficult terrain?

The situation is that the PCs had managed to find a choke point, and wanted to defend it better. One player is real tactically minded, and so he asked if tossing a body in a door way is going to make it harder to move through or stand in that square?

I think a medium sized creature would, but a large creature would just block that square off (it'd be like trying to fight with motorcycle parked there).

 

[Dalzig]

There is no RAW for it, but have fun with house rules. This is actually a pretty popular house rule from what I've seen.

RAW: That gargantuan dragon you just slaughtered is not considered difficult terrain nor cover.

Fun House Rules: That gargantuan dragon you just slaughtered requires a DC 20 Acrobatics/Athletics check to climb over, and provides a good amount of cover and possibly some concealment from the fountains of ichor.

 

[Telperion]

Going by 3.5 rules: yes, a corpse in a square makes it difficult terrain.

Going by dramatic gut ruling: a single medium sized corpse isn't enough, but if you pile them high enough then things should get interesting. Or, use one Large corpse, because they aren't that huge when they are lying down.

 

[Magus Coeruleus]

Let 'em matter when they matter, I say

I don't think there are RAW specifically on whether dead bodies affect terrain.

I'm soon going to run a fight that occurs in a clearing where a battle has recently taken place, with many dead bodies, and my plan is to abstract the humanoid bodies and call it difficult terrain, with actual cover and blocking terrain (or whatever it's called) provided by the bodies of horses.

That said, I haven't considered bodies in smaller numbers (i.e. in most fights) special terrain (we just remove them from the grid), but I think that your players' creativity should be rewarded, so long as your NPCs and monsters can employ the same tactic. Thus, my recommendation (if you agree with this opinion) would be to tell your players up front that as a general rule bodies are ignored for convenience but that if they want to employ a particular strategy using one or more, that's fine as long as they recognize that similar strategies may be used by opponents.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

It depends:

In a PG or G game, enemies dropped to 0 hit points drop all equipment (except clothing) and run away.

if you play a PG-13 game, the bodies of fallen foes immediately disappear.

In an R game, they will stay and provide difficult terrain if the creature is larger

In a NC-17 game, the bodies will spray blood over all adjacent creatures for 2 rounds (at the start of the original creatures turn) and cause them to be blinded (Save Ends), and the hacked pieces and excess blood will create a Zone of difficult terrain in the original creatures space and 1 square around it. A Balance Check (Moderate DC) allows ignoring the DC, a failure indicates you drop prone. The Zone lasts until the end of the encounter.

 

[amysrevenge]

I go both ways, depending on the circumstance.

Most of the time dead enemies just disappear, especially if we're tight for (RL) time. If it would be interesting/fun though... difficult terrain is the simplest, but it can get even more zany if the mood is right. Squeezing, Acrobatics checks, etc.

 

[Syrsuro]

I usually ignored them in 3.x, but have started to keep track of the corpses in 4E because movement is becoming so much more important.
At present my rule is that more than 4 small, 2 medium or 1 large body in an area will create difficult terrain.

This also requires simple clear rules for moving bodies around during the fight ("Can I kick that dead kobold body out of the way as I move past?", "What does it take to grab that orc's body and haul it over to here?")

I haven't yet decided if it is really worth it or not.

Carl

 

[Ruin Explorer]

At present my rule is that more than 4 small, 2 medium or 1 large body in an area will create difficult terrain.

This is what I was tending to think as well.

 

[Audrik]

RAW: That gargantuan dragon you just slaughtered is not considered difficult terrain nor cover.

If you just SLAUGHTERED a gargantuan dragon, do you really need to worry about terrain or cover?

 

[Dalzig]

If you just SLAUGHTERED a gargantuan dragon, do you really need to worry about terrain or cover?

Um....Um... It was a level one non-solo gargantuan dragon! There's 4 more that you have to fight!