My party had an epic bossfight, damn near a TPK save for a clutch critical hit in the end by the lone surviving party member. Unfortunately, one of the party members perma-died, and the person they are rescuing is unconscious and will remain so for at least 24 hours-48 hours. An NPC ally also died.
I imagine my players will want to bring the body of at least the fallen player character back to their village, along with the unconscious rescued person. Plus, all the loots – or as much as they can. That's what's prompting my question here: reasonably speaking, in the absence of beasts of burden, magic items, or magics to help them (they have none), what realities they need to face when deciding just how much weight they can carry without effectively becoming sitting ducks. The journey back to the village is perilous, after all!
Each character has a carrying capacity determined by their STR score. I figure this is what a person can physically carry on themselves – in backpacks, pockets, what have you. You can carry up to your capacity limit without becoming encumbered and still fight like Samwise Gamgee with all his pots and pans clanging on his back. But going over an encumbrance carries costs to your movement speed, and eventually you can't move at all.
On top of that, you might have a body in your arms or around your shoulders. I figure, if carrying a body this way, your not really able to move too fast AND your arms are pretty fully occupied so, no shield or weapons.
Question 1: Is it correct then to separate the carrying capacity on a character (let's say, 120lbs) from the push, drag, or lift capacity (let's say, 240lbs) in this way? Or does one feed into the other.
Question 2: Push and Drag are specifically mentioned regarding how they effect movement, but I didn't see "Lift" mentioned. Are there any rules on how lifting a body (one-person lift, over-the-shoulder rescuer carry) impact player speed or action?
In your particular situation, the party are likely to want to rig up something to help them move the bodies (litters, if nothing else, but don't surprised if they get creative), and you're going to have to adjudicate how those work.
1) Your size and Strength score determine the maximum weight in pounds that you can carry and the maximum weight you can drag, lift, or push.
2) While dragging, lifting, or pushing weight in excess of the maximum weight you can carry, your Speed can be no more than 5 feet.
To put it another way then, a PC with a carry weight of 120lbs can carry 120lbs on their person, AND drag an addition 240lbs, without incurring the speed penalty? I think realistically if you're dragging/pushing/lifting you should have a speed penalty regardless, but the question is what the tipping point is for 5ft vs something else.
In the end it might be a non-issue since they could just leave a body or two, but I want to be prepared. A travois or a litter/stretcher to carry a body is doable with a bit of time to make, incurring some movement penalty in exchange for the extra carrying capacity.
I can't be bothered to get granular with movement and encumbrance in my games because I'm a lazy DM, so I treat carrying unconscious allies like a grapple and halve the movement speed. The only time I'll reconsider is if there is a drastic size difference between the dead weight and the carrier, or if the carrier has a STR score under 10.
I think that as long as they have some reason to come back you could use the same dungeon later with a system to automatically reset traps and a brand new population. Carry capacity could be a good way to set that up. Make it so they cannot gather everything in one run once in a while, especially if there are unexpected weights on their backs.
Edit: you could also use it as a way to reveal a deeper part of the dungeon no one knew of that just makes for a trap gauntlet with some undead inhabitants who dragged a body or some extra loot with them.
1) Your size and Strength score determine the maximum weight in pounds that you can carry and the maximum weight you can drag, lift, or push.
2) While dragging, lifting, or pushing weight in excess of the maximum weight you can carry, your Speed can be no more than 5 feet.
To put it another way then, a PC with a carry weight of 120lbs can carry 120lbs on their person, AND drag an addition 240lbs, without incurring the speed penalty? I think realistically if you're dragging/pushing/lifting you should have a speed penalty regardless, but the question is what the tipping point is for 5ft vs something else.
What the rule says is that if you're dragging, pushing, or lifting more than 120 lbs, your speed is no more than 5.
It's unclear if this is in addition to their normal carrying capacity. In the 2014 version of the rules, "lift" was not included in the set. I suspect it's an error to put it in with them, and pushing and dragging are in addition to carry, but lift is not.
This is also potentially relevant:
Mounts and Cargo
An animal pulling a carriage, cart, chariot, sled, or wagon can move weight up to five times its base carrying capacity, including the weight of the vehicle. If multiple animals pull the same vehicle, add their carrying capacities together.
While PCs are not draft animals, if they can rig up anything, this is probably a useful guideline.
To put it another way then, a PC with a carry weight of 120lbs can carry 120lbs on their person, AND drag an addition 240lbs, without incurring the speed penalty?
Someone with such carrying capacity means the maximum weight in pounds that it can carry is 120 pounds and the maximum weight it can drag, lift, or push is 240 lbs, yet 121+ means Speed can be no more than 5 feet. How i understands it:
My party had an epic bossfight, damn near a TPK save for a clutch critical hit in the end by the lone surviving party member. Unfortunately, one of the party members perma-died, and the person they are rescuing is unconscious and will remain so for at least 24 hours-48 hours. An NPC ally also died.
I imagine my players will want to bring the body of at least the fallen player character back to their village, along with the unconscious rescued person. Plus, all the loots – or as much as they can. That's what's prompting my question here: reasonably speaking, in the absence of beasts of burden, magic items, or magics to help them (they have none), what realities they need to face when deciding just how much weight they can carry without effectively becoming sitting ducks. The journey back to the village is perilous, after all!
Each character has a carrying capacity determined by their STR score. I figure this is what a person can physically carry on themselves – in backpacks, pockets, what have you. You can carry up to your capacity limit without becoming encumbered and still fight like Samwise Gamgee with all his pots and pans clanging on his back. But going over an encumbrance carries costs to your movement speed, and eventually you can't move at all.
On top of that, you might have a body in your arms or around your shoulders. I figure, if carrying a body this way, your not really able to move too fast AND your arms are pretty fully occupied so, no shield or weapons.
Question 1: Is it correct then to separate the carrying capacity on a character (let's say, 120lbs) from the push, drag, or lift capacity (let's say, 240lbs) in this way? Or does one feed into the other.
Question 2: Push and Drag are specifically mentioned regarding how they effect movement, but I didn't see "Lift" mentioned. Are there any rules on how lifting a body (one-person lift, over-the-shoulder rescuer carry) impact player speed or action?
1) Your size and Strength score determine the maximum weight in pounds that you can carry and the maximum weight you can drag, lift, or push.
2) While dragging, lifting, or pushing weight in excess of the maximum weight you can carry, your Speed can be no more than 5 feet.
In your particular situation, the party are likely to want to rig up something to help them move the bodies (litters, if nothing else, but don't surprised if they get creative), and you're going to have to adjudicate how those work.
Seems likely, yes. I'm fine with that, I just want to make sure I have a good head for the framework of the task.
To put it another way then, a PC with a carry weight of 120lbs can carry 120lbs on their person, AND drag an addition 240lbs, without incurring the speed penalty? I think realistically if you're dragging/pushing/lifting you should have a speed penalty regardless, but the question is what the tipping point is for 5ft vs something else.
In the end it might be a non-issue since they could just leave a body or two, but I want to be prepared. A travois or a litter/stretcher to carry a body is doable with a bit of time to make, incurring some movement penalty in exchange for the extra carrying capacity.
I can't be bothered to get granular with movement and encumbrance in my games because I'm a lazy DM, so I treat carrying unconscious allies like a grapple and halve the movement speed. The only time I'll reconsider is if there is a drastic size difference between the dead weight and the carrier, or if the carrier has a STR score under 10.
I think that as long as they have some reason to come back you could use the same dungeon later with a system to automatically reset traps and a brand new population. Carry capacity could be a good way to set that up. Make it so they cannot gather everything in one run once in a while, especially if there are unexpected weights on their backs.
Edit: you could also use it as a way to reveal a deeper part of the dungeon no one knew of that just makes for a trap gauntlet with some undead inhabitants who dragged a body or some extra loot with them.
Just a goober doing my own work when I want to. I like the idea of not just high fantasy dnd.
You can reach me over discord as well, Handle is royalsupsi as well
I am open to work on joint homebrew projects, just DM me.
All my projects so far are in the extended signiture
Extended Sig
What the rule says is that if you're dragging, pushing, or lifting more than 120 lbs, your speed is no more than 5.
It's unclear if this is in addition to their normal carrying capacity. In the 2014 version of the rules, "lift" was not included in the set. I suspect it's an error to put it in with them, and pushing and dragging are in addition to carry, but lift is not.
This is also potentially relevant:
While PCs are not draft animals, if they can rig up anything, this is probably a useful guideline.
Someone with such carrying capacity means the maximum weight in pounds that it can carry is 120 pounds and the maximum weight it can drag, lift, or push is 240 lbs, yet 121+ means Speed can be no more than 5 feet. How i understands it:
Carrying
0-120 lbs = Speed normal
Dragging, Lifting, or Pushing
0 - 120 lbs = Speed normal
121 - 240 lbs = Speed 5 feet or less