PDA

View Full Version : Question Regarding Corpse Mutilation



Darth Stabber
2011-02-15, 04:26 PM
In D&D 3.5 what is the Hardness and HP/inch of a dead body? While I hope I don't need to know, i may.

stainboy
2011-02-15, 04:40 PM
Undefined, as far as I know. Wouldn't it be expressed as general hitpoints and DR though? A dead creature is still a creature. (Raise Dead targets a dead creature rather than a "corpse object" or something, and the Zombie template can't be applied to objects.)

Darth Stabber
2011-02-16, 09:49 AM
The zombie template is applied to the stats of the living creature. Without motive force a dead body is no longer a creature (no mental or physical stats), making it an object. This can be relevant for several reasons, Dead Human shields (or quick adjucation of live unarmored ones), Mutilating bodies enough to make them useless to necromancers in the absence of enough fire (because there is no such thing as enough fire), or mutilating bodies due to overly roleplayed blood lust.

Techsmart
2011-02-16, 09:55 AM
I don't know any official sources, but I would say hardness 0 (Its incredibly easy to break skin, and I wouldn't really include bones in any calculation). hp/inch would probably be at most 5, probably less. A well-placed arrow (1d8) can pierce through most/all of a body. maybe 1hp/inch

Chilingsworth
2011-02-16, 10:01 AM
I think the intellect devourer entry in the Expanded Psionic Handbook mentions something bout this, since the creatures use host bodies as disguises/armor. Something like 10hp for a corpse, no hardness mentioned, IIRC.

Darth Stabber
2011-02-16, 11:41 AM
Thank you all very much.

The_Jackal
2011-02-16, 05:30 PM
Is your party going to be mutilating corpses mid-combat? Otherwise, I think you're probably best off just fudging it and saying 'You mutilate the corpse, you find X'. If you've got the equipment to MAKE corpses in the first place, odds are good you should have the equipment to make them into corpse chunks without too much trouble.

Halae
2011-02-16, 05:38 PM
In dungeonscape there's rules for walls made of flesh. I don't know them off hand, but you can probably use them to extrapolate

Chilingsworth
2011-02-16, 05:47 PM
If you're trying to mutilate corpses in combat, there's at least one feat that could help you in Champions of Ruin. I don't remember the feat name (names?) off hand, though.

Darth Stabber
2011-02-17, 10:44 AM
There's a feat for mid-combat corpse mutiliation? Talk about option overload.

The real point of this it combat necromancy. There are several ways to animate a corpse in the middle of combat, but I generally rule that a sufficiently damaged corpes requires a more involved (2min) application of magic. It won't happen nearly often enough to render Sunder Corpse a good feat choice, but it could be worth doing to deny a necromancer another body. Honestly if you wanted to be good at corpse mutilation I would just take Improved Sunder and call it a day, since that feat has the potential of being decent.

Chilingsworth
2011-02-17, 11:26 AM
There's a feat for mid-combat corpse mutiliation? Talk about option overload.

The real point of this it combat necromancy. There are several ways to animate a corpse in the middle of combat, but I generally rule that a sufficiently damaged corpes requires a more involved (2min) application of magic. It won't happen nearly often enough to render Sunder Corpse a good feat choice, but it could be worth doing to deny a necromancer another body. Honestly if you wanted to be good at corpse mutilation I would just take Improved Sunder and call it a day, since that feat has the potential of being decent.

Well, the feats I'm thinking of are Mutilator, which lets you make a corpse unraiseable as a free action 1/round and Snatch Trophy, which lets you collect trophies as a free action, doesn't reduce the corpse's raisability, though.

Both are in Chmpions of Ruin, a Forgotten Realms book.

Darth Stabber
2011-02-17, 11:36 AM
Mutilator sounds like an awesome feat. I can charge, pounce, full attack, and still have time to desecrate a corpse, so much win.

The_Jackal
2011-02-17, 02:35 PM
Can you animate a corpse that's missing a head? I'd just go with the default coup-de-gras rule. One full round action dispatches the combatant in such a way that it can't immediately be raised as an undead. Maybe later someone could sew the bits back together, if they were determined to raise that particular corpse.

Honestly, however, going around hacking up corpses to prevent the necromancer from raising them is a crummy way to beat the necromancer. I say go straight for the quarterback, and quit wasting your time pummeling his linemen.

Dvandemon
2011-02-17, 02:40 PM
In dungeonscape there's rules for walls made of flesh. I don't know them off hand, but you can probably use them to extrapolate

You forgot the the walls made of zombies IIRC :smallwink:

graymachine
2011-02-17, 03:05 PM
I agree with The Jackal; using up character building resources for such a narrow application is like loping off your nose to spite your face. Any decent necromancer is going to have done the majority of her raising undead prior to the fight and will be spending most of the time enervating you and buffing her already raised undead. If a necromancer starts churning out undead during the fight, then you don't really have to worry about them, as you chop her to bits in a few short rounds. This is, of course, assuming your party of 5th level characters are not picking a fight with a 20th level necromancer; if so, worrying about the corpses about is a little moot. With any of these possibilities, worrying about the corpses isn't significant.

Combat Reflexes
2011-02-17, 03:14 PM
I don't know any official sources, but I would say hardness 0 (Its incredibly easy to break skin, and I wouldn't really include bones in any calculation). hp/inch would probably be at most 5, probably less. A well-placed arrow (1d8) can pierce through most/all of a body. maybe 1hp/inch

Really? AFAIK, human skin is tough. It's a lot harder to cut open the skin with a knife than you think - it's multi-layered and flexible. If you stab someone with a knife, you won't be able to get it out without effort: muscles below the skin contract and 'seal' the wound.

Also, corpses get stiff after a day or two. Hardness??

Chuckthedwarf
2011-02-17, 03:19 PM
I don't know if there are any actual rules for this - I haven't come across any, at least.

I think that something like 10 HP, no hardness seems reasonable.

Although on the other hand, it would make sense to make it reliant on the creature's original hit points in some way. I mean, hit points are abstract enough as it is, and a corpse of a barbarian who used to have like 20 CON at life and is all covered in sinews and muscles should be able to withstand more punishment then a corpse of an elf mage with 8 str and 8 con.

And somewhat off-topic, I often coup-de-grace fallen enemies after combat on my martial characters. You can't really tell apart between someone dead and someone at -5 hp without a heal check or a spell - so if you want to be merciful to them (although they're unconsious anyways... It's still a more proper send-off for a warrior, to be killed by sword instead of being left behind to bleed out) or make sure they don't come back after you later after stabilizing and perhaps being picked up by their friends...

Dvandemon
2011-02-17, 10:53 PM
I asked my friends (whom are much more savvy than I) today they one had no idea while other said 4, after Rigor Mortis. @^: That'd be a good multiplier to build on

Telok
2011-02-18, 01:22 AM
Try HP = Con + racial HD and hardness = natural armor (1/2 hardness for slashing weapons) for quick chop jobs.

You probably shouldn't be able to do much to a hill giant corpse with a pick or a quarterstaff unless you take 20 or 30 minutes to work at it.