Post/Author/DateTime	Post
BrutishCelt 01-18-06, 09:04 PM	In a recent campaign, one of my fellow characters was playing a half-orc brawler-type. Early on, in a fight against skeletons, he learned that bludgeoning weapons were more effective against the critters. Lacking an appropriate weapon (and forgetting that his hands counted as blunt weapons), he promptly picked up the skull of a fallen skelly and beat down the other skellies with it. This soon became a recurring tactic, since he for some reason kept losing his weapons to fumbles and disarms. After a while, the DM decided that with all of the brawler's experience in the use of fallen foes, that he would grant the fellow Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Corpse. So, I thought I'd ask all of you if you have had similar experiences, and what you think the appropriate damage rating for a corpse would be? I figured 1d6 for a medium corpse, and adjusting the rating from there according to the weapon size charts.
Balthezar BlackSword 01-19-06, 01:08 AM	I just gotta say: LOL That's a funny story
tarkin 01-19-06, 09:02 AM	1d6 seems a bit high to me. Body parts are not well designed to be used as weapons. Normal unarmed attacks are non-lethal and do 1d3. You have them doing as much as a monk would. I could see upgrading to lethal damage, as you don't care if the corpse breaks, and if I am feeling GENEROUS, going up to 1d4. But 1d6 is too much damage for a regular human corpse to do. I might allow him to be proficient in it after going up a level. But mainly as a joke.
Pz.Az.04Maus 01-19-06, 09:05 AM	Skull weapon stats would be great! It would be just like Oddball in Halo!
Seeker of Undeath 01-19-06, 09:07 AM	I remember a vampire cleric of mine that used an enemy corpse as an entangling projectile... The DM had no idea what to do besides go with it. Ended up turning the tide of battle in our favor.
Dagonus 01-19-06, 10:10 AM	I once beat zombies back to death with an arm... I think it was swinging at 1d6. Man did it smell a few days later when I mentioned to my DM that I still had it in my backpack...
Shaggy_Shaggs 01-19-06, 10:18 AM	Ahh, beating on enemies with other enemies, what fun. :D My own characters have done quite a bit of it. It seems to me the best way to determine the damage a body does is figure out its weight, and consult the improvised weapon damage by weight table in Complete Warrior. Remember that corpses, being soft and malleable, do damage as objects of half their weight, but this does not apply to bones or frozen bodies. ;) I once beat zombies back to death with an arm... I think it was swinging at 1d6. Man did it smell a few days later when I mentioned to my DM that I still had it in my backpack... Heh... I once beat a giant to death with my OWN arm after he ripped it off.
BrutishCelt 01-19-06, 12:54 PM	1d6 seems a bit high to me. Body parts are not well designed to be used as weapons. Normal unarmed attacks are non-lethal and do 1d3. You have them doing as much as a monk would. I could see upgrading to lethal damage, as you don't care if the corpse breaks, and if I am feeling GENEROUS, going up to 1d4. But 1d6 is too much damage for a regular human corpse to do. I might allow him to be proficient in it after going up a level. But mainly as a joke. Well, not exactly body parts. The skull was rated at 1d4 damage, and the entire corpse was swung about by a big half-orc with a 20 strength for the 1d6(yes, I know str doesn't affect the damage rating of the weapon, just its bonus). Looking back, I would probably rate the skull alone at 1d3 damage, a severed hand or foot at just 1 point, an arm, leg, or torso at 1d4, and the whole corpse at 1d6. Of course the corpse is a two-handed weapon. Remember, a simple club does 1d6 damage, and that's just basically a well-worn stick or large bone. This also kinda raises the question on how one would use a body as a ranged weapon. I think that Races of Stone has a couple of feats, so I'm going to go check out the combat details they provide there. Thanks for the feedback, folks.