What do your players do with thier dead foes?

[Bardsandsages]

I depends on the party and the location. If they are trying to escape somewhere, they quickly loot and run (assuming the other surviving baddies will deal with the bodies.) If they are out in the woods or something, they normally either cremate or bury the bodies. This is a pragmatic activity, as dead carcasses attract both monsters or law enforcement authorities. So it is less about compassion than about destroying the evidence.

 

[frankthedm]

Soul destroying is one of those unforgivably vile deeds in my book.

 

[Sejs]

Soul destroying is one of those unforgivably vile deeds in my book.

Fair enough. There've been three times in the game in question where resurrection's been actively prevented. Once via making the dead guy into a skeleton and then sealing it into a stone sarcophogas and kept on hallowed ground. The other two were via barghest, contacted via Lesser Planar Binding. The meal in question was a very nasty customer (who frankly was hellbound anyway) who we knew for a fact had access to resurrection as he'd already pulled that one on us once before. Pitch-black BBEG with a cleric minion tucked away somewhere. The second barghesting was the BBEG's right hand man who took up the cause once the boss went down hard.

We never did get that cleric, either. He's got a special place on the List.

Evil tool, used to good ends. And preventing Varo Nevrac's return definitely qualified as good ends.

 

[Presto2112]

Most of the mook type foes, my players have left to rot, as it were. As of this point, they've consisted of a few skeletons and giant vermin, and some spider eaters. The only two foes where this would have been a concern were:

1) A human in a settled town (the townspeople dealt with the burial rites)

2) A gnoll druid on a drifting ship (the ship sank and the corpse went down with the ship).

 

[TerraDave]

I forgot I posted on this!

Good topic though. But it shows, if you just leave something lying dead, it can always come back to haunt you another day.

 

[Roadkill101]

Most of the time, my players have their characters loot the body, slit the throat (to make sure they are dead) and then leave the corpse to rot. If they're afraid the corpse may somehow be able to come after them later, they'll resort to cremation, as best as possible based on the situation.

 

[Doghead Thirteen]

The number of nasty little ideas this thread is giving me...

There's a specific Big Bad in my campaign world the players (not just the characters) hate with a passion; my brother gets this look of glazed loathing at the mention of this bad guy.

Having the SOB come back from the dead just when the PC's think they've permanently got rid of him is one of those 'Why didn't I think of this?' ideas that had me banging my head on the desk earlier.

As to soulkilling a Big Bad, if that NPC's bad enough, I'd have even the Goodest of Good deities turn a blind eye.

Not approve - just turn a blind eye.

 

[Nazhkandrias]

Different characters, different methods. Alignment plays a huge part, too. Take a few of my methods, for example -

Human Bonewarden (class of my design; ultra-specialized Necromancer.) - Neutral (not evil, but morbid. VERY macabre.)

Evisceration is the first term that comes to mind. Mostly for study, with the occasional useful bit turning up (several parts of, say, a Red Dragon have fiery qualities; I once converted a small Dragon head and a few choice parts into a makeshift flamethrower when some other monsters showed up after the kill). If I'm short on minions, raising the body myself is an attractive option, but usually it just gets cut up. I tell the party to leave me alone for a few minutes (in-game, of course. The characters had a problem with this at first, but they grew to accept it, not really wishing to see the careful dissection of a particularly odd monster. They don't ask what happens to the body, I don't tell). After cutting up and examining the body for a minute or two, it's usually too mangled to even consider resurrecting. Of course, True Resurrection is still an option, but we won't have to worry about zombies, skeletons, or that person ever coming back, short of True Resurrection. Seeing as it's a bloody pulp, I kick a little dirt over it if we're just passing through, and if we're bedding down nearby, I gesture at the general area, and the party Wizard knows what to do (lob a fireball). After the looting, the corpses are my domain, freeing the rest of the party from the grim duty of dealing with the cadavers, and giving me precious resources. For mundane bodies of average creatures, I usually just raise them or have somebody incinerate or do whatever to the bodies. Despite the fact that I creep out the rest of the party, they're glad to have me, mostly for power, but partially to avoid body duty.

Detail never hurts, and it really gives an idea of the character. Nothing brutal or crude, just pure curiosity and thriftiness. Come on, don't tell me you've never wanted to see what makes a Chaos Beast tick!

 

[STARP_Social_Officer]

Once the battle is over and the lives are lost, what do the players do with the fallen foes beyond looting them?

Wait...there's something beyond looting?

 

[Lanefan]

Poll needs to be multiple choice (I could honestly vote for every option) and is missing one choice:

O - Animate them ourselves before anyone else can, and gain some mooks.

Done this too.

Lan-"that way at least they can carry their own weight"-efan