What happens when a character has more item weight then their being capacity? With the variant rule there are speed reductions and disadvantage. With pushing dragging and lifting your speed is reduced to 5.
Are you just not able to carry it? Sorry for the noonish question, never played with carrying weight before.
You can carry beyond your capacity, but you get disadvantage on basically everything and move much slower. So it's possible but a very bad idea. Imagine trying to carry a backpack full of bowling balls on a hiking trip. You could probably do it, but you'd be moving slower than all your friends and doing almost anything will be much harder than if you just left them behind.
I’m assuming you’re not using the Encumbrance variant. The answer is no, you can’t carry more than your carrying capacity, which is 15 times your Strength score. To move more weight than that (up to 30 times your Strength), you’re reduced to dragging or pushing at 5 feet per round.
"...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."
I interpret the rules like this:
If you want to make the game harder, the DM will either allow or disallow the Variant: Encumbrance in determining the hinderance of carrying/lifting capacity. If allowed, the above is clearly stating "up to your maximum carrying capacity" which is determined b your strength score multiplied by 15. The PHB also defines workarounds such as Push, Drag, or Lift a weight by multiplying your carrying capacity by 2 (or 30 times your strength score). Your speed would drop to 5 feet.
To answer your question, I think the book is clear that you can't carry a weight above your carrying capacity unless you use the variant: encumbrance rules [This has been found to be incorrect. See Chicken_Champ's response, below]. Then, you can only move 20' less than your normal allowance and you would roll with disadvantage on every ability that requires your attention away from carrying the weight. (The book mentions nothing of pushing, dragging or lifting as it would apply to Variant: Encumbrance rules).
Not sure if pushing or dragging the weight would be the appropriate workaround here or if it would warrant the same rules as carrying, but everyone gets a free "No" from the DM/GM. Personally, I'd look to build a craft that could carry the weight with the tools in my equipment inventory. Roll for success or failure.
The above posters are misstating the variant rule: it does not permit you to exceed your carrying capacity, but instead imposes additional penalties at points up to your carrying capacity. With or without the variant rule,you cannot move while carrying weight above your carrying capacity (which is Strength score x 15 under either rule). However, you can "push or drag" a heavier weight along the ground and move 5 feet/round, up to Strength score x 30. See Chapter 7: Using Ability Scores - Strength.
For a medium character with a strength of 10 and speed of 30:
Normal Rule: Your speed is 30 while carrying up to 150 pounds. At 151-300 pounds, you can hold that weight aloft but not move, or push and drag it along the ground at 5 feet/round.
Variant Rule: Your speed is 30 while carrying 0-50 pounds. Your speed is 20 while carrying 51-100 pounds. Your speed is 10 while carrying 101-150 pounds, and you also have disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saves using Str/Dex/Con. At 151-300 pounds, you can hold that weight aloft but not move, or push and drag it along the ground at 5 feet/round.
I do like MinglePingle's idea of attempting to craft an improvised land vehicle (such as a sled) that might enable you to push/drag a load faster than 5 feet. As a DM I would certainly entertain a Survival or tool check to make something like that if there were materials on hand, maybe a sled made out of a shield and rope to let you push/drag at 10 feet/round? Constructing axles and wheels on the fly for a cart is probably outside o the time and materials on hand that a party is likely to have... but maybe there are poles or logs on hand to move very heavy objects, the same way that ships or heavy stone blocks in quarries were moved, that might let you push or drag things at 5 feet/minute?
What happens when a character has more item weight then their being capacity? With the variant rule there are speed reductions and disadvantage. With pushing dragging and lifting your speed is reduced to 5.
Are you just not able to carry it? Sorry for the noonish question, never played with carrying weight before.
You can carry beyond your capacity, but you get disadvantage on basically everything and move much slower. So it's possible but a very bad idea. Imagine trying to carry a backpack full of bowling balls on a hiking trip. You could probably do it, but you'd be moving slower than all your friends and doing almost anything will be much harder than if you just left them behind.
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I’m assuming you’re not using the Encumbrance variant. The answer is no, you can’t carry more than your carrying capacity, which is 15 times your Strength score. To move more weight than that (up to 30 times your Strength), you’re reduced to dragging or pushing at 5 feet per round.
Page 176 PHB:
Variant: Encumbrance
"...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."
I interpret the rules like this:
If you want to make the game harder, the DM will either allow or disallow the Variant: Encumbrance in determining the hinderance of carrying/lifting capacity. If allowed, the above is clearly stating "up to your maximum carrying capacity" which is determined b your strength score multiplied by 15. The PHB also defines workarounds such as Push, Drag, or Lift a weight by multiplying your carrying capacity by 2 (or 30 times your strength score). Your speed would drop to 5 feet.
To answer your question, I think the book is clear that you can't carry a weight above your carrying capacity unless you use the variant: encumbrance rules [This has been found to be incorrect. See Chicken_Champ's response, below]. Then, you can only move 20' less than your normal allowance and you would roll with disadvantage on every ability that requires your attention away from carrying the weight. (The book mentions nothing of pushing, dragging or lifting as it would apply to Variant: Encumbrance rules).
Not sure if pushing or dragging the weight would be the appropriate workaround here or if it would warrant the same rules as carrying, but everyone gets a free "No" from the DM/GM. Personally, I'd look to build a craft that could carry the weight with the tools in my equipment inventory. Roll for success or failure.
These situations are what floating disk is for. :)
The above posters are misstating the variant rule: it does not permit you to exceed your carrying capacity, but instead imposes additional penalties at points up to your carrying capacity. With or without the variant rule, you cannot move while carrying weight above your carrying capacity (which is Strength score x 15 under either rule). However, you can "push or drag" a heavier weight along the ground and move 5 feet/round, up to Strength score x 30. See Chapter 7: Using Ability Scores - Strength.
For a medium character with a strength of 10 and speed of 30:
I do like MinglePingle's idea of attempting to craft an improvised land vehicle (such as a sled) that might enable you to push/drag a load faster than 5 feet. As a DM I would certainly entertain a Survival or tool check to make something like that if there were materials on hand, maybe a sled made out of a shield and rope to let you push/drag at 10 feet/round? Constructing axles and wheels on the fly for a cart is probably outside o the time and materials on hand that a party is likely to have... but maybe there are poles or logs on hand to move very heavy objects, the same way that ships or heavy stone blocks in quarries were moved, that might let you push or drag things at 5 feet/minute?
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Thank you for the clarification. Still learning myself.
:)
curious, how do such rules apply when underwater?