I use a variant of Variant Encumbrance. I find Standard Encumbrance not limiting enough and Variant Encumbrance way too strict. In my opinion, characters should not be Encumbered by the Standard Equipment selection when rolling up a character which often happens with Variant Encumbrance.
The Variant Encumbrance rule from the Player's Handbook states:
Variant: Encumbrance
The rules for lifting and carrying are intentionally simple. Here is a variant if you are looking for more detailed rules for determining how a character is hindered by the weight of equipment. When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table in chapter 5.
If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet.
If you carry weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score, up to your maximum carrying capacity, you are instead heavily encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.
My Homebrew Variant Encumbrance rule states:
Homebrew Variant: Encumbrance
The rules for lifting and carrying are intentionally simple. Here is a variant if you are looking for more detailed rules for determining how a character is hindered by the weight of equipment. When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table in chapter 5.
If you carry weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet.
If you carry weight in excess of 15 times your Strength score, up to your maximum carrying capacity, you are instead heavily encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.
This places the value for encumbered movement and heavily encumbered movement at a midpoint between the standard encumbrance weight limits and the variant encumbrance weight limits. I find this to be a satisfying compromise. It still means that characters may have to at some point hire some hirelings, use a wagon, or prepare and cast Tenser's Floating Disk.
To implement this on D&D Beyond, I have my players allow Homebrew, use Variant Encumbrance, and do not toggle on the Ignore coin weight button. I create a Homebrew Magic Item called Encumbrance Modifier. My players equip this item and customize the weight of the item to be a negative value equivalent to their characters Encumbered Weight. I then require my players to keep this item equipped at all times. This tricks D&D Beyond into not changing the character's speed until they exceed a carry weight of over 10 times their character's Strength score or 15 times over their Strength score. The only thing you have to pay attention to is if you use character weight for determining whether or not pressure plates trigger or old rotten rope bridges hold and stuff like that. In those cases, have the player unequip the Encumbrance Modifier for a second to check their character's actual weight carried and then re-equip the item.
I hope this helps anyone looking for a compromise between standard and variant encumbrance.
If someone more knowledgable in the ways of D&D Beyond knows of a better way to do this, I would appreciate you letting me know.
Thank you for suggesting this! It works as you describe. I figured out one other way to alter carrying capacity, but it is not as flexible. You can create a homebrew magic item (such as a ring) that alters a character's carrying capacity when worn. You can change it to be a different size class (such as "Large") or a multiple (such as 2x).
I'd been hoping to do something like 1.2x, which would have changed the thresholds from 5x/10x of STR to 6x/12x of STR, but decimal numbers don't work. I think I'll be switching to your method.
Ideally, it'd be nice to adjust it with both a scaled and linear calculation in one item.
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I use a variant of Variant Encumbrance. I find Standard Encumbrance not limiting enough and Variant Encumbrance way too strict. In my opinion, characters should not be Encumbered by the Standard Equipment selection when rolling up a character which often happens with Variant Encumbrance.
The Variant Encumbrance rule from the Player's Handbook states:
My Homebrew Variant Encumbrance rule states:
This places the value for encumbered movement and heavily encumbered movement at a midpoint between the standard encumbrance weight limits and the variant encumbrance weight limits. I find this to be a satisfying compromise. It still means that characters may have to at some point hire some hirelings, use a wagon, or prepare and cast Tenser's Floating Disk.
To implement this on D&D Beyond, I have my players allow Homebrew, use Variant Encumbrance, and do not toggle on the Ignore coin weight button. I create a Homebrew Magic Item called Encumbrance Modifier. My players equip this item and customize the weight of the item to be a negative value equivalent to their characters Encumbered Weight. I then require my players to keep this item equipped at all times. This tricks D&D Beyond into not changing the character's speed until they exceed a carry weight of over 10 times their character's Strength score or 15 times over their Strength score. The only thing you have to pay attention to is if you use character weight for determining whether or not pressure plates trigger or old rotten rope bridges hold and stuff like that. In those cases, have the player unequip the Encumbrance Modifier for a second to check their character's actual weight carried and then re-equip the item.
I hope this helps anyone looking for a compromise between standard and variant encumbrance.
If someone more knowledgable in the ways of D&D Beyond knows of a better way to do this, I would appreciate you letting me know.
Thank you for suggesting this! It works as you describe. I figured out one other way to alter carrying capacity, but it is not as flexible. You can create a homebrew magic item (such as a ring) that alters a character's carrying capacity when worn. You can change it to be a different size class (such as "Large") or a multiple (such as 2x).
I'd been hoping to do something like 1.2x, which would have changed the thresholds from 5x/10x of STR to 6x/12x of STR, but decimal numbers don't work. I think I'll be switching to your method.
Ideally, it'd be nice to adjust it with both a scaled and linear calculation in one item.