Simpler ways to deal with floors

[Yora]

The amount of different types of underground in 3.5e/PF is insane.
Normal ground, uneven flagstone, hewn stone, light rubble, dense rubble, natural stone, slippery, grate, light undergrowth, heavy undergrowth, shallow bogs, deep bogs, hedgerows, gradual slopes, steep slopes, scree, sand dunes, trenches, berms, fences, and I probably missed a few.

Nobody can ever remember that and I think nobody ever uses these rules ever because of that.

I think three types of underground should be enough, which already includes normal ground that imposes no penalties at all. Does anyone have a simple method to deal with difficult underground that is easy to remember and can be applied on the fly to a wide range of situations?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Wait, there are rules for all that? I thought it just boiled down to normal terrain, difficult terrain, and "start making climb checks."

[Deophaun]

Three aren't enough, for the simple reason that there are various abilities that require different terrains, like the druid's woodland stride and the Hover feat. But at the same time, you shouldn't have to keep track of every single type of terrain. Most characters just care about difficult terrain and the occasional need for balance checks.

[CRtwenty]

Wait, there are rules for all that? I thought it just boiled down to normal terrain, difficult terrain, and "start making climb checks."

That's what it essentially is, the DMG just decided to spend way more paragraphs then necessary describing it.

[erikun]

Wait, there are rules for all that? I thought it just boiled down to normal terrain, difficult terrain, and "start making climb checks."
This is pretty much what it boils down to. You want to know what is causing the difficult terrain, for the purpose of Woodland Stride/Icewalking and so on, but mechanically this is about all you need to know.

[Yora]

And what does difficult terrain do exactly?

[Sylthia]

You move at half speed through it.

[TuggyNE]

You move at half speed through it.

And can't run or charge.

[Yora]

How about this:

Light Difficult Terrain: No running or charging, -2 penalty to Acrobatics and Stealth checks.
Heavy Difficult Terrain: No running or charging, -4 penalty to Acrobatics and Stealth checks.
Obstacle: Counts as 5 ft. of additional movement to cross.

I believe when using the environment rules, difficult terrain never is just difficult, but also includes additional drawbacks and penalties depending on what actually makes the terrain more difficult than normal.

[Thomar_of_Uointer]

This is pretty much what it boils down to. You want to know what is causing the difficult terrain, for the purpose of Woodland Stride/Icewalking and so on, but mechanically this is about all you need to know.

Agreed. As the GM, you shouldn't use all of those types of terrain listed. Just say it's either not difficult, or difficult with a given DC for running and charging over it.

[Seharvepernfan]

I prefer it the way it is over anything simpler. It's there if you want to use, though most don't.

EDIT: I'm going over them right now, and I immediately notice that uneven flagstone and hewn stone floors have exactly the same penalty. I'll see if there are any more things like that.

Also, just had another thought: you can always figure out what kind of floor your dungeon is going to have ahead of time, and right it down in your notes for quick reference, or put a tab in the DMG.

[Yora]

I assume you could. But personally I am much more a fan of simple rules that are easy to memorize rather than having to rely on notes or looking things up in mid-game.