Using variant encumbrance tends to make scale and half plate worthless. To avoid penalties with half plate and a shield requires STR 10 (and usually more; that only gives 4 lb for everything else you might want to carry, so STR 12 is safer). Breastplate and shield only requires STR 6 to avoid penalties, or 8 to be safe.
Encumbrance is essentially the only meaningful benefit tied to Strength: you can carry more. But the moment you put on armor, you immediately lose your Dex bonus to AC — simply because the armor is “too heavy” or restrictive. Yet you can drag around five times the weight of that same armor without losing your Dex bonus; the only penalty is a 10 or 20 ft reduction in movement.
This makes the relationship between Strength and Dexterity feel completely unbalanced. If encumbrance gets too high, it would make sense that you also suffer Dexterity penalties, just like you do when wearing certain types of armor.
Some groups ignore encumbrance entirely, but that’s almost the same as deciding not to apply Dex bonuses to AC — the balance swings even harder toward Dexterity.
The result is predictable: most players dump Strength, even many fighters, because Strength has far less mechanical impact than Dexterity.
Being able to move effectively in armor is not the same as being able to move with the speed required to dodge attacks- it's the difference between running laps in a weighted vest and jumping hurdles or doing one of those "thread yourself between the poles" runs on that same track in the vest.
But that's the Watsonian explanation- the Doylist one is just that it's how they broke out the elements of the game. That said, I haven't seen many people outright dump STR in my groups- it doesn't have much to recommend it as a secondary pick, but it's not consistently set to 8 by everyone not attacking with it or anything. Plus, whether or not a Fighter or other martial is going to use it depends a lot on their weapon picks- two handers have been strong picks since the start of 5e plus lots of people just like the vibe of them, so STR still has a prominent niche for Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins, and even a few quirky Ranger builds.
If wearing a 50-kg suit of plate limits my Dexterity, then carrying that exact same 50-kg suit of plate should logically limit my Dexterity as well. The object doesn’t magically become less restrictive just because I’m not wearing it.
And it becomes even stranger when you consider Strength requirements: I need STR 15 to wear full plate, but my teammate with STR 8 could simply carry that same full-plate suit in their backpack with no penalty at all.
My point is: if a table chooses not to use the encumbrance rules, then the logic should be consistent across the board. No encumbrance should mean no negative impact on wearing armor due to weight, and also no Strength requirements to wear armor. If players assign STR scores, then treat STR consistently — just like every other ability score requirement.
If wearing a 50-kg suit of plate limits my Dexterity, then carrying that exact same 50-kg suit of plate should logically limit my Dexterity as well.
No the logic is not the same. Wearing that armor means your range of motion and probably vision is limited. If you carry that 50kg armor in a back pack, your range of motion is not limited. You can have a full range of vision as well. If you carry that 50kg of armor in your hands, then yes your dex would not only be the same, but probably less. In addition, you can drop the backpack and have full dex. Putting weight in a back pack changes you dex due to the center of gravity changes, not due to weight itself. You can wear a backpack that is close to your own weight and walk. If you are in shape and used to walking 10s of miles a day, a backpack close to your own body weight is very doable, you can even jog for a short distance as well.
You would need help getting it on and off, that help can be setting it on a table or tree stump or having a buddy help you strap it on.
I can't imagine wanting to track how much weight you're carrying, plus the Bag of Holding makes the point moot. With basic encumbrance, basically all the bookkeeping required is "no, you cannot carry that 500-pound solid gold statue of the dwarf king with you."
I can't imagine wanting to track how much weight you're carrying, plus the Bag of Holding makes the point moot. With basic encumbrance, basically all the bookkeeping required is "no, you cannot carry that 500-pound solid gold statue of the dwarf king with you."
And here I thought I was the only one who gave out a Bag of Holding extremely early in a campaign. xD
No the logic is not the same. Wearing that armor means your range of motion and probably vision is limited.
Bear in mind that D&D and reality are only casual acquaintances.
I understand that, but I don't think the original poster understands that. I was just pointing out how his logic is seriously flawed. He wrongly assumes that just owning a 50KG suit should hamper you dex no matter if you are wearing it or carrying it. The rules for the two are different.
No the logic is not the same. Wearing that armor means your range of motion and probably vision is limited.
Bear in mind that D&D and reality are only casual acquaintances.
I understand that, but I don't think the original poster understands that. I was just pointing out how his logic is seriously flawed. He wrongly assumes that just owning a 50KG suit should hamper you dex no matter if you are wearing it or carrying it. The rules for the two are different.
It is like the difference in carrying 10 pounds of rope and being tied up in 10 pounds of rope. One is more restrictive than the other.
I understand that, but I don't think the original poster understands that. I was just pointing out how his logic is seriously flawed. He wrongly assumes that just owning a 50KG suit should hamper you dex no matter if you are wearing it or carrying it. The rules for the two are different.
In reality carrying a 50lb (no, D&D does not use kg nor does field plate weigh 50 kg) suit will hamper you more than wearing it, because of horrible weight distribution.
I understand that, but I don't think the original poster understands that. I was just pointing out how his logic is seriously flawed. He wrongly assumes that just owning a 50KG suit should hamper you dex no matter if you are wearing it or carrying it. The rules for the two are different.
In reality carrying a 50lb (no, D&D does not use kg nor does field plate weigh 50 kg) suit will hamper you more than wearing it, because of horrible weight distribution.
That depends on how you're carrying it. If it's loose in your arms, yes, it will be quite encumbering. If it's on your back with a secure harness, it's not going to be nearly as encumbering.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
This just depends on your group. The old school guys (playing since the 1970's) are willing to track encumbrance/spell components/food. The newer guys tend to not be interested in doing all that bookkeeping. You need to tailor it to your table I'd say.
I can honestly say that I have never used encumbrance and never had a DM use encumbrance. The only times I can think of where the question of carrying or lifting something came up is if we found treasure, gold etc. throughout a dungeon or lair, and the questions were how do you get it all out and leave with it without it getting stolen or whatever.
I'm in one campaign with variant encumbrance. This campaign was designed to be a bit gritty from the beginning. Roll20 tracks the weight, so there's no math, just careful bookkeeping of the character sheet. My character is an artificer and is using an infusion for a Bag of Holding, very necessary as it is a low strength character. House rules require that removing anything from a bag of holding is an action plus a d20 Int roll to get the item you intended, so it's fine for everyday necessities but not something you want to be needing in combat. This character has to manage very carefully what is right at hand to stay under the limit. Several characters in the party are similar.
Before we had the Bag, we had a story situation where the characters had left much of the adventuring gear behind on what was meant to be a short excursion but ended up with the party making a massive detour in time and space. It did end up mattering that we didn't have some of those items with us. The resource management in this campaign is fun.
I've also played at more casual tables where we didn't manage inventory at all, and that was also fun, just different. It's really about what kind of story you want to tell and what kind of adventure you want to have.
The only problem with Variant is because of how inaccurate or just wild the weights for gear are as well as the penalty for going over your weight limit by even 0.001 of a lb. It's way too easy to go over and the penalty far too harsh for that straw.
As a DM I ask for regular encumbrance because it's very lenient but still at least makes players consider that they can't carry infinite amounts of gear. I prefer variant but with the above issues it can become cumbersome for players to keep track of and on top of that, they don't tend to like the fact that it essentially creates the requirement of a base camp with hirelings and wagons or at least beasts of burden to carry all their gear. Personally, I wish they'd consider how cool it is to have a base camp like that but most players seem not to want to bother with it.
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"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
ok that is an exaggeration, but i generally stopped doing it except for special survival games.
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He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player. The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call To rise up in triumph should we all unite The spark for change is yours to ignite." Kalandra - The State of the World
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Gotcha. I guess I would qualify Dexterity as my second-to dump stat, 10 or 11.
Using variant encumbrance tends to make scale and half plate worthless. To avoid penalties with half plate and a shield requires STR 10 (and usually more; that only gives 4 lb for everything else you might want to carry, so STR 12 is safer). Breastplate and shield only requires STR 6 to avoid penalties, or 8 to be safe.
I tend to use variant encumbrance because it's easier to track and is more punishing (I like running difficult campaigns).
Encumbrance is essentially the only meaningful benefit tied to Strength: you can carry more. But the moment you put on armor, you immediately lose your Dex bonus to AC — simply because the armor is “too heavy” or restrictive. Yet you can drag around five times the weight of that same armor without losing your Dex bonus; the only penalty is a 10 or 20 ft reduction in movement.
This makes the relationship between Strength and Dexterity feel completely unbalanced. If encumbrance gets too high, it would make sense that you also suffer Dexterity penalties, just like you do when wearing certain types of armor.
Some groups ignore encumbrance entirely, but that’s almost the same as deciding not to apply Dex bonuses to AC — the balance swings even harder toward Dexterity.
The result is predictable: most players dump Strength, even many fighters, because Strength has far less mechanical impact than Dexterity.
Being able to move effectively in armor is not the same as being able to move with the speed required to dodge attacks- it's the difference between running laps in a weighted vest and jumping hurdles or doing one of those "thread yourself between the poles" runs on that same track in the vest.
But that's the Watsonian explanation- the Doylist one is just that it's how they broke out the elements of the game. That said, I haven't seen many people outright dump STR in my groups- it doesn't have much to recommend it as a secondary pick, but it's not consistently set to 8 by everyone not attacking with it or anything. Plus, whether or not a Fighter or other martial is going to use it depends a lot on their weapon picks- two handers have been strong picks since the start of 5e plus lots of people just like the vibe of them, so STR still has a prominent niche for Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins, and even a few quirky Ranger builds.
If wearing a 50-kg suit of plate limits my Dexterity, then carrying that exact same 50-kg suit of plate should logically limit my Dexterity as well.
The object doesn’t magically become less restrictive just because I’m not wearing it.
And it becomes even stranger when you consider Strength requirements:
I need STR 15 to wear full plate, but my teammate with STR 8 could simply carry that same full-plate suit in their backpack with no penalty at all.
My point is: if a table chooses not to use the encumbrance rules, then the logic should be consistent across the board.
No encumbrance should mean no negative impact on wearing armor due to weight, and also no Strength requirements to wear armor.
If players assign STR scores, then treat STR consistently — just like every other ability score requirement.
No the logic is not the same. Wearing that armor means your range of motion and probably vision is limited. If you carry that 50kg armor in a back pack, your range of motion is not limited. You can have a full range of vision as well. If you carry that 50kg of armor in your hands, then yes your dex would not only be the same, but probably less. In addition, you can drop the backpack and have full dex. Putting weight in a back pack changes you dex due to the center of gravity changes, not due to weight itself. You can wear a backpack that is close to your own weight and walk. If you are in shape and used to walking 10s of miles a day, a backpack close to your own body weight is very doable, you can even jog for a short distance as well.
You would need help getting it on and off, that help can be setting it on a table or tree stump or having a buddy help you strap it on.
I can't imagine wanting to track how much weight you're carrying, plus the Bag of Holding makes the point moot. With basic encumbrance, basically all the bookkeeping required is "no, you cannot carry that 500-pound solid gold statue of the dwarf king with you."
And here I thought I was the only one who gave out a Bag of Holding extremely early in a campaign. xD
Bear in mind that D&D and reality are only casual acquaintances.
I understand that, but I don't think the original poster understands that. I was just pointing out how his logic is seriously flawed. He wrongly assumes that just owning a 50KG suit should hamper you dex no matter if you are wearing it or carrying it. The rules for the two are different.
It is like the difference in carrying 10 pounds of rope and being tied up in 10 pounds of rope. One is more restrictive than the other.
She/Her Player and Dungeon Master
In reality carrying a 50lb (no, D&D does not use kg nor does field plate weigh 50 kg) suit will hamper you more than wearing it, because of horrible weight distribution.
That depends on how you're carrying it. If it's loose in your arms, yes, it will be quite encumbering. If it's on your back with a secure harness, it's not going to be nearly as encumbering.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
This just depends on your group. The old school guys (playing since the 1970's) are willing to track encumbrance/spell components/food. The newer guys tend to not be interested in doing all that bookkeeping. You need to tailor it to your table I'd say.
I can honestly say that I have never used encumbrance and never had a DM use encumbrance. The only times I can think of where the question of carrying or lifting something came up is if we found treasure, gold etc. throughout a dungeon or lair, and the questions were how do you get it all out and leave with it without it getting stolen or whatever.
I'm in one campaign with variant encumbrance. This campaign was designed to be a bit gritty from the beginning. Roll20 tracks the weight, so there's no math, just careful bookkeeping of the character sheet. My character is an artificer and is using an infusion for a Bag of Holding, very necessary as it is a low strength character. House rules require that removing anything from a bag of holding is an action plus a d20 Int roll to get the item you intended, so it's fine for everyday necessities but not something you want to be needing in combat. This character has to manage very carefully what is right at hand to stay under the limit. Several characters in the party are similar.
Before we had the Bag, we had a story situation where the characters had left much of the adventuring gear behind on what was meant to be a short excursion but ended up with the party making a massive detour in time and space. It did end up mattering that we didn't have some of those items with us. The resource management in this campaign is fun.
I've also played at more casual tables where we didn't manage inventory at all, and that was also fun, just different. It's really about what kind of story you want to tell and what kind of adventure you want to have.
The only problem with Variant is because of how inaccurate or just wild the weights for gear are as well as the penalty for going over your weight limit by even 0.001 of a lb. It's way too easy to go over and the penalty far too harsh for that straw.
As a DM I ask for regular encumbrance because it's very lenient but still at least makes players consider that they can't carry infinite amounts of gear. I prefer variant but with the above issues it can become cumbersome for players to keep track of and on top of that, they don't tend to like the fact that it essentially creates the requirement of a base camp with hirelings and wagons or at least beasts of burden to carry all their gear. Personally, I wish they'd consider how cool it is to have a base camp like that but most players seem not to want to bother with it.
"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation."
― Oscar Wilde.
I haven't used encumbrance since 1999.
ok that is an exaggeration, but i generally stopped doing it except for special survival games.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World