Optimization: Chicken Infested corpse

[Xuldarinar]

Earlier today I was throwing character concepts out to my dm for this summer, and one stood out, making him laugh and he is considering letting me use it. A character with two flaws: Chicken-infested, and Corpse. Yes, you read that right, I may be playing a chicken infested corpse.

Now, how do we optimize it? This, dead guy with chickens living inside him and giving him the ability to move.

[Slipperychicken]

Be a necropolitan, pull chickens out of your desiccated chest?

[Xuldarinar]

Be a necropolitan, pull chickens out of your desiccated chest?

He'll consider. Any non-undead options? Preferibly options that can be carried out from 1st level.

[HaikenEdge]

See how much rules abuse you're allowed, because the following is the SRD summary for Dead in Condition Summary:


Dead

The character’s hit points are reduced to -10, his Constitution drops to 0, or he is killed outright by a spell or effect. The character’s soul leaves his body. Dead characters cannot benefit from normal or magical healing, but they can be restored to life via magic. A dead body decays normally unless magically preserved, but magic that restores a dead character to life also restores the body either to full health or to its condition at the time of death (depending on the spell or device). Either way, resurrected characters need not worry about rigor mortis, decomposition, and other conditions that affect dead bodies.

Nowhere within that description does that say you are unconscious, which is a separate condition (although you are soulless, since your soul has left the body), nor that you can't take actions.

With that in mind, talk to the DM and see if you're allowed to take actions for two characters, one for your physical corpse, and one for your incorporeal soul.

[Hangwind]

Like a ghost haunting his own body?

[Nihilarian]

The Hen That Walks?

[Yanisa]

Now I see some weird puppet show. A dead body moving around by sticks and strings... that are controlled by chickens.

Can you play AS the chickens? Or control their actions? Maybe you can roll handle animal checks to influence them so they can move your body around.

Maybe be wizard, you might be dead but you still got a familiar. And that familiar got smarts.

[gorfnab]

Necropolitan Dread Necromancer with the Corpse Crafter line of feats (specifically Distructive Retribution). Exploding Chicken Bombs!

[HaikenEdge]

How about playing a Chicken Infested Commoner Corpse Ghost, where the Ghost uses its Malevolence ability to possess the corpse?

[Jacob.Tyr]

Weekend at Bernie's, but with Chickens?

[Telonius]

Hmm... It's the, "A Wizard Did It" option, but:

A corpse is an object. Permanency, Animate Objects. You're now permanently a construct. Then, Awaken Construct. Since the spell is no longer temporary, it can affect you.

If you do this on a Small character (like a Halfling or a Gnome), the Construct has 1hd, meaning you can advance it by character class as though it were a regular character. A medium creature would have two hitdice of Construct (since a medium Animated Object has 2hd). So, for maximum creepy: awakened garden gnome.

[Xuldarinar]

Hmm... It's the, "A Wizard Did It" option, but:

A corpse is an object. Permanency, Animate Objects. You're now permanently a construct. Then, Awaken Construct. Since the spell is no longer temporary, it can affect you.

If you do this on a Small character (like a Halfling or a Gnome), the Construct has 1hd, meaning you can advance it by character class as though it were a regular character. A medium creature would have two hitdice of Construct (since a medium Animated Object has 2hd). So, for maximum creepy: awakened garden gnome.

Thats a new one. That option never would have occured to me, thank you. I cannot say if that will be the route taken, but it is certainly food for thought.

[HaikenEdge]

But if you already had a soul, and now you have an animated corpse as a body as well, imagine just how creepy that'd be.