D&D 5E Unconscious/Dead Creatures' Space

[Hriston]

Whether a creature is a friend or an enemy, you can’t willingly end your move in its space.

My question is, does this apply to dead or unconscious creatures? I've been playing that their space is difficult terrain, but I'm not sure if other creatures should be allowed to end their turn there considering it still contains another creature. If it's more a matter of the creature controlling its space, what other circumstances would prevent it from doing so?

This came up in a drawn-out fight in a narrow hallway in which there were several waves of monsters, and by the time it was near the end the hallway was choked with bodies. The pile of corpses ended up between the PCs and the last wave of monsters. I wasn't sure if the PCs should have been able to attack with such unsure footing, but not letting them do so would have forced them to retreat to cover under missile fire as they weren't ready to shoot back. Should dead creatures be considered to form such a barrier?

 

[Cristian Andreu]

I interpret that rule on a case-by-case basis, due to the abstract nature of the space mechanics: In some cases, the size/shape of a creature really does make it impossible for someone else to occupy the same physical space (ie, a gelatinous cube or a giant), while in others it would appear to be a matter of control (ie, Small-sized creatures, which use the same amount of grid space as Medium creatures, but are clearly not using the same amount of physical space).

A dead/unconscious creature would no longer be a factor in the latter case (unable to maintain control of its space), while it would depend on how big/shaped it is for the former: A standing Medium humanoid will usually occupy more room due to its extremities and movement than a prone one, for instance, so it would be reasonable to be able to stand in the same space if it was dead/unconscious, while a dead giant will still block at least the central segment of its space.

Wolfram Alpha tells me the average human body has a volume of 0.0664 cubic metres/2.3445 cubic feet; a single 5-foot space has 125 cubic feet. This means there's plenty of room to stand if a Medium-sized humanoid is no longer actively using its space (of course, in practical terms the body uses up more room unless it's goes full Metroid and curls up into a ball, but that still leaves plenty of room for another human-sized creature to stand there if the other guy's dead).

That means you can potentially squeeze 53.3 average human bodies in a single 5-foot cube. Let's suppose a regularly spread-out human occupies four times it's normal volume, and you should be able to completely block a 5-foot cube with about 13 corpses; if you pile up 6-7, that means anyone walking on top of them would have to crawl. So having one or two Medium-sized humanoid corpses should still leave enough room to stand on/walk through, through with difficult terrain penalties.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I would say keep using difficult terrain. It is simple and it works.

 

[jayoungr]

I make it difficult terrain too (since you have to step over the body), but I allow characters to end their turns in those spaces. If it helps, just think of an unconscious body as the equivalent of a low bench or a knee-high line of bushes.

 

[Jester David]

Moving through the space of a living, active creature is difficult terrain. A dead body should be slightly easier.
Two bodies though should be trickier. That's difficult terrain for sure.
Five likely blocks the entire square.

 

[Mistwell]

Functionally, I ignore spaces with dead creatures and treat them as empty. If I am using miniatures, it's just easier to remove it from the battlefield to make things clearer for everyone. If we're doing theater of the mind, space detail isn't as important as it would take too much effort for the benefit gained to recall each space that has a dead body in it. So either way we play it, we treat dead body spaces as empty unless there is something special about it.

 

[Leatherhead]

Depends on how they died really. Being burnt to ash isn't likely to cause much of an obstacle.

 

[Wik]

Personally, across editions, we've adopted a rule that works like this:

One dead guy is usually not an issue. Two dead guys are definitely difficult terrain. Three dead guys are half cover, and five are full cover. Any more than five, and they instead start spilling out into adjacent spaces.

Small count for half, large count for 2, huge count for 4, and so on. So, a huge giant goes down and it's gonna provide half cover. If he goes down and lands on two goblins, killing em instantly, it's full cover (in one square), and half cover in every other square of the giant's original space.

 

[thalmin]

Tiny bodies would be insignificant until you had some quantity of them. More than 2 small, or a single medium, would allow the space to be navigable, but that is what makes difficult terrain, you have to watch your step.
Once the space is fully covered, then possibly imposing disadvantage. Or even becoming a full obstacle, depending on size of body or pile of bodies.

 

[Sunseeker]

I would say keep using difficult terrain. It is simple and it works.

I do this as well, it works out pretty well.