Just a doubt which I would like to gather some tips from you and also ask for guidance to understand better about the carrying capacity and encumbrance variant (PHB pg 176).
Carrying capacity is calculated by Strenght score X 15, which gives, for instance, for a character with 16 STR, 240LB (16X15).
1) That means he can load as many weapons + shield + all "gadgets" up to 240LB without any problem such as getting an exhaustion penalty, is that right?
After that 240LB, will the character be encumbered and his speed drops by 10ft (as well as his performance in combat?)
I am not willing to bring all his gadgets to a combat, like his explorer's kit for instance.
It seems that most of the adventures start when the characters are located in an Inn. Part of the equipment can be left in the room and effectively, the character carries his weapons, armor and maybe rations of food, healer's kit, and a few items which will not affect his performance. The total weight will be much less than the carrying capacity.
When the character goes to a mission part of the equipment can be left in the room and effectively, he carries his weapons, armor and maybe rations of food, healer's kit, and a few items which will not affect his performance to the battle. The total weight will be much less than the carrying capacity.
Considering if the character carries a lot of items, when he reaches 241 LB he will be encumbered and his speed will decrease, like from 30 ft to 20 ft, and maybe his performance in battle.
2) His Push/Drag/Lift capacity is 30X STR (16 X 30) = 480LB. When he reaches that his speed drops to 5ft. What about between 240LB and 480LB, how that affects his speed and performance?
So, the sequence for carrying items would be:
Carrying capacity (safe range) without affecting his speed or performance = 240LB (16 X 15)
Heavily encumbered (he can't do much than pushing/dragging/lifting) = 480 LB. His speed is 5ft and more than that he doesn't move
However, encumbrance is a variant used instead of carrying weight (that "sucks" because of a character, such as a fighter, easily reaches 5 X his Strenght score). the DM chooses what he wants?
The DM chooses what he wants?
Could anybody provide me some better enlightenment on this topic?
You've actually kind of gotten the two different rules in the book confused for each other.
If you are using the standard rules, a character can carry up to their strength score x 15 pounds without penalty. They can also push, drag, or lift up to twice that amount, but while doing so their speed drops to 5 feet.
If you are using the variant rule for encumbrance, the above push, drag, or lift rules are unchanged and the carrying limit is split into three categories: up to your strength x 5 pounds which has no penalty; more than strength x 5 pounds but not more than strength x 10 pounds which is called "encumbered" and reduces your speed by 10 feet; and more than strength x 10 pounds but not more than strength x 15 pounds which is called "heavily encumbered" and reduces your speed by 20 feet and gives you disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.
Yes, the DM chooses whichever they want to use (though it's worth noting more than a few DMs choose to use a math-free "just don't be ridiculous about what you try to carry" rule instead of either of those from the book). Presumably, though, the DM has a sense of what their group likes/dislikes, so there shouldn't ever be a "that sucks" response - if a group is using the variant encumbrance rules, presumably it is because they like having to be more mindful of what they are carrying.
Thanks for the reply. I am currently playing a campaign as a War Cleric, who recently got an plate armor, which increased my AC to 20. I thought that would be OK until last session I was "penalized" in my speed, during the combat, by the encumbrance. My Strength is 17, but adding my regular cleric weapons, water skin, food rations, healer's kit and a component pouch (which I acquired some time ago to carry some other small items), I am over the 85LB.
As I never had this problem before, I was surprised by getting my speed reduced during the combat. Comparing to other players who are heavily armoured and "weaponized" but don't have problems with encumbrance and making some math, I got confused.
I will Talk to the DM to "understand" better the rules that he applies concerning to the encumbrance. Maybe it was my misunderstanding of the rules that got me out of guard.
If your character has a backpack with all that heavy gear in it when combat starts you could always state that you are dropping the pack as you draw weapons. I'm a pretty fair DM, and I would let you drop a pack as a free action, and then you aren't encumbered, or rather your speed isn't affected while fighting. I'm not certain I would penalize your speed anyway, but I like the idea of players choosing to drop their packs for combat. What if the fight goes awry and your group loses the ground? If you dropped your pack and get driven away you lose your gear. Raises the stakes and consequences of a fight.
A lot of adventures start at the inn, but I like for things to be complicated. When traveling from an inn for a dungeon or whatever the next leg of the adventure is I prefer to make it far enough away so that my players have to camp at least one night. I love when the players have to choose to leave some of their gear at a campsite to explore the dungeon.
I think the rules for encumbrance are great if a little math heavy. I am usually willing to wing the math as long the players are reasonable about what they are carrying. I assume we are following the encumbrance guidelines, but if a player tries to tell me they are carrying five swords, two bows, most of the party treasure, nine bottles of wine, three months of rations, and four hundred feet of rope, we might take a few minutes and a math and logic heavy discussion. Having to make choices about what to leave or bring back is interesting.
If you were carrying your "max amount" of 240 lbs, you could not lift/drag/push another 480 lbs on top of that. You could, at most, lift another 240 lbs before suffering penalties to movement. Ultimately, yes, what happens is entirely up to the DM
first of all, thanks for your reply, I really appreciate your time in helping me with this doubt. Second of all, sorry for taking a little longer to message you, but I have been really busy for the last days.
Anyway, I agree with you on some points, especially that if the character drops the backpack on the floor, while it is fighting, there is the risk of losing it if he runs away or something else happening which you can not come back to recover the backpack.
After being surprised by the encumbrance rule, I was thinking.... and for a DM, it is easier to use the encumbrance.
Long story short, my war cleric doesn't have that much equipment to carry if I consider the regular carrying rule. In terms of weapons, he has the regular equipment, 1 heavy armor, 1 shield, 1 war hammer, 1 light cross bow, 1 dagger and 1 set of ammo/bolts (20) that he carries in a quiver.
I acquired 01 component pouch which I have 4 darts inside and 1 healer's kit. However, I also have an explorer's kit and I acquired also a herbalist kit, which increased the weight.
As the campaign is a homebrew one and the DM likes making the characters going to one region, where very often there is an inn or another place where the group can rent rooms and from there we go to the adventure itself, I am thinking of buying a mule or a riding horse (or maybe both) to carry some of my equipment and I can leave my "companion", safely, in a stable and my equipment in my room while I go to the adventure carrying the necessary and enough weapons and gadgets that are not going to affect my encumbrance.
I guess that is the best way of dealing with that issue which surprised me. I know that it will add costs to my character in terms of expenses with the animal (food/stables/saddle, etc) but at the end, it will be cool to have a "companion".
Thanks again for your attention and I hope to "see" you again in the forum.
Just to extend the topic, I bought from a friend the Lost Mines of Phandelver and I will start DMing the adventure for 3 players on Tuesdays evenings. It is going to be exciting to DM; I will face some challenges, and I will use encumbrance in my campaigns. I definitively will subscribe the Master tier to have some fun (maybe as DM too) around here.
Thanks for your reply. Within the last days, I have been busy but I checked the PHB and I got a better understanding of that particular rule. Also, I talked to the DM and it seems that I "forgot" that he decided to use encumbrance in the game. So...., encumbrance it is (from now on).
Your warning about the remaining 240 lbs is more than valid; numbers don't lie.
Thanks for your comment. The best reference for you is the PHB pages 176/177 where you can find the rules for Carrying and Lifting.
If the DM follows those rules, the character is able to carry 15 times its strength, in the example 17 STR x 15 = 255 lbs. You are right. You need to consider "everything" you are carrying on you as any item adds up to your weight.
The pushing, dragging and lifting capacity for your character would be 17 STR x 30 = 510 lbs.
Pay attention, as our adventurer friend, large_charles, said above, that in a certain situation if you are already carrying some weight on you, for instance, 100 lbs, you would be able to push another 410 lbs and not the entire 510 lbs. And in this case, while you are pushing, dragging, lifting your speed drops to 5 feet.
The DM has another option to make this carrying/lifting capacity even easier in terms of math, which is the encumbrance. Using that rule, the character can carry up to 5 times the STR without suffering a penalty in the speed (please check again the PHB page 177).
In my example, my war cleric who has 17 STR, with encumbrance, can carry 17 STR X 5 = 85 lbs. As he has a heavy armor plate (65 lbs), light crossbow (5 lbs), 1 quiver (1 lb), 20 bolts (1.5 lbs) warhammer (2 lb), shield (6 lbs), waterskin (5 lbs), 1 component pouch (2 lbs), 1 dagger (1 lb), 04 darts (1 lb)..... well all this weapons and items added up to 89.5 lbs.
I also carry, in a fantasy world, rations of food (2 lb) and a healer's kit (3 lbs) in my pouch, that brings up my weight away over the 85 lbs I am supposed to carry without encumbrance. At the end, I am carrying 94.5 lbs when in combat. All those items I consider the minimum necessary to be "ready" and in a decent way to battle.
Maybe I should replace my light cross bow by a longbow (2 lb) and its ammo/arrows are 1 lb, that gives me less 3.5 lbs, reducing my weight to 91 lbs. It is still over the 85 lbs.
I can "lose" the waterskin, and the healer's kit, after all, I am a cleric and I can heal my friends without a healer's kit. But I don't like the idea of not having water on me and when my spell slots are out I can use one kit to help a friend in need.
Anyway, I hope you understand why the 85 lbs are the limit in the example.
What I find frustrating is that equipping a Donkey or Mule to your inventory does not allow you to take away encumbrance, despite it being in the creatures description that it helps take the weight of items.
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Hi Friends,
Just a doubt which I would like to gather some tips from you and also ask for guidance to understand better about the carrying capacity and encumbrance variant (PHB pg 176).
Carrying capacity is calculated by Strenght score X 15, which gives, for instance, for a character with 16 STR, 240LB (16X15).
1) That means he can load as many weapons + shield + all "gadgets" up to 240LB without any problem such as getting an exhaustion penalty, is that right?
After that 240LB, will the character be encumbered and his speed drops by 10ft (as well as his performance in combat?)
I am not willing to bring all his gadgets to a combat, like his explorer's kit for instance.
It seems that most of the adventures start when the characters are located in an Inn. Part of the equipment can be left in the room and effectively, the character carries his weapons, armor and maybe rations of food, healer's kit, and a few items which will not affect his performance. The total weight will be much less than the carrying capacity.
When the character goes to a mission part of the equipment can be left in the room and effectively, he carries his weapons, armor and maybe rations of food, healer's kit, and a few items which will not affect his performance to the battle. The total weight will be much less than the carrying capacity.
Considering if the character carries a lot of items, when he reaches 241 LB he will be encumbered and his speed will decrease, like from 30 ft to 20 ft, and maybe his performance in battle.
2) His Push/Drag/Lift capacity is 30X STR (16 X 30) = 480LB. When he reaches that his speed drops to 5ft. What about between 240LB and 480LB, how that affects his speed and performance?
So, the sequence for carrying items would be:
However, encumbrance is a variant used instead of carrying weight (that "sucks" because of a character, such as a fighter, easily reaches 5 X his Strenght score). the DM chooses what he wants?
The DM chooses what he wants?
Could anybody provide me some better enlightenment on this topic?
Thanks a lot for your attention.
Sincerely,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
You've actually kind of gotten the two different rules in the book confused for each other.
If you are using the standard rules, a character can carry up to their strength score x 15 pounds without penalty. They can also push, drag, or lift up to twice that amount, but while doing so their speed drops to 5 feet.
If you are using the variant rule for encumbrance, the above push, drag, or lift rules are unchanged and the carrying limit is split into three categories: up to your strength x 5 pounds which has no penalty; more than strength x 5 pounds but not more than strength x 10 pounds which is called "encumbered" and reduces your speed by 10 feet; and more than strength x 10 pounds but not more than strength x 15 pounds which is called "heavily encumbered" and reduces your speed by 20 feet and gives you disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.
Yes, the DM chooses whichever they want to use (though it's worth noting more than a few DMs choose to use a math-free "just don't be ridiculous about what you try to carry" rule instead of either of those from the book). Presumably, though, the DM has a sense of what their group likes/dislikes, so there shouldn't ever be a "that sucks" response - if a group is using the variant encumbrance rules, presumably it is because they like having to be more mindful of what they are carrying.
Hi AaronOfBarbaria,
Thanks for the reply. I am currently playing a campaign as a War Cleric, who recently got an plate armor, which increased my AC to 20. I thought that would be OK until last session I was "penalized" in my speed, during the combat, by the encumbrance. My Strength is 17, but adding my regular cleric weapons, water skin, food rations, healer's kit and a component pouch (which I acquired some time ago to carry some other small items), I am over the 85LB.
As I never had this problem before, I was surprised by getting my speed reduced during the combat. Comparing to other players who are heavily armoured and "weaponized" but don't have problems with encumbrance and making some math, I got confused.
I will Talk to the DM to "understand" better the rules that he applies concerning to the encumbrance. Maybe it was my misunderstanding of the rules that got me out of guard.
Thanks again for your time and attention.
Sincerely,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
If your character has a backpack with all that heavy gear in it when combat starts you could always state that you are dropping the pack as you draw weapons. I'm a pretty fair DM, and I would let you drop a pack as a free action, and then you aren't encumbered, or rather your speed isn't affected while fighting. I'm not certain I would penalize your speed anyway, but I like the idea of players choosing to drop their packs for combat. What if the fight goes awry and your group loses the ground? If you dropped your pack and get driven away you lose your gear. Raises the stakes and consequences of a fight.
A lot of adventures start at the inn, but I like for things to be complicated. When traveling from an inn for a dungeon or whatever the next leg of the adventure is I prefer to make it far enough away so that my players have to camp at least one night. I love when the players have to choose to leave some of their gear at a campsite to explore the dungeon.
I think the rules for encumbrance are great if a little math heavy. I am usually willing to wing the math as long the players are reasonable about what they are carrying. I assume we are following the encumbrance guidelines, but if a player tries to tell me they are carrying five swords, two bows, most of the party treasure, nine bottles of wine, three months of rations, and four hundred feet of rope, we might take a few minutes and a math and logic heavy discussion. Having to make choices about what to leave or bring back is interesting.
If you were carrying your "max amount" of 240 lbs, you could not lift/drag/push another 480 lbs on top of that. You could, at most, lift another 240 lbs before suffering penalties to movement. Ultimately, yes, what happens is entirely up to the DM
Hi ElectricOuija,
first of all, thanks for your reply, I really appreciate your time in helping me with this doubt. Second of all, sorry for taking a little longer to message you, but I have been really busy for the last days.
Anyway, I agree with you on some points, especially that if the character drops the backpack on the floor, while it is fighting, there is the risk of losing it if he runs away or something else happening which you can not come back to recover the backpack.
After being surprised by the encumbrance rule, I was thinking.... and for a DM, it is easier to use the encumbrance.
Long story short, my war cleric doesn't have that much equipment to carry if I consider the regular carrying rule. In terms of weapons, he has the regular equipment, 1 heavy armor, 1 shield, 1 war hammer, 1 light cross bow, 1 dagger and 1 set of ammo/bolts (20) that he carries in a quiver.
I acquired 01 component pouch which I have 4 darts inside and 1 healer's kit. However, I also have an explorer's kit and I acquired also a herbalist kit, which increased the weight.
As the campaign is a homebrew one and the DM likes making the characters going to one region, where very often there is an inn or another place where the group can rent rooms and from there we go to the adventure itself, I am thinking of buying a mule or a riding horse (or maybe both) to carry some of my equipment and I can leave my "companion", safely, in a stable and my equipment in my room while I go to the adventure carrying the necessary and enough weapons and gadgets that are not going to affect my encumbrance.
I guess that is the best way of dealing with that issue which surprised me. I know that it will add costs to my character in terms of expenses with the animal (food/stables/saddle, etc) but at the end, it will be cool to have a "companion".
Thanks again for your attention and I hope to "see" you again in the forum.
Just to extend the topic, I bought from a friend the Lost Mines of Phandelver and I will start DMing the adventure for 3 players on Tuesdays evenings. It is going to be exciting to DM; I will face some challenges, and I will use encumbrance in my campaigns. I definitively will subscribe the Master tier to have some fun (maybe as DM too) around here.
Sincerely,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
Hi large_charles,
Thanks for your reply. Within the last days, I have been busy but I checked the PHB and I got a better understanding of that particular rule. Also, I talked to the DM and it seems that I "forgot" that he decided to use encumbrance in the game. So...., encumbrance it is (from now on).
Your warning about the remaining 240 lbs is more than valid; numbers don't lie.
Thanks again for the comment.
Sincerely,
Drakortex.
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
Hi Bjarrald,
Thanks for your comment. The best reference for you is the PHB pages 176/177 where you can find the rules for Carrying and Lifting.
If the DM follows those rules, the character is able to carry 15 times its strength, in the example 17 STR x 15 = 255 lbs. You are right. You need to consider "everything" you are carrying on you as any item adds up to your weight.
The pushing, dragging and lifting capacity for your character would be 17 STR x 30 = 510 lbs.
Pay attention, as our adventurer friend, large_charles, said above, that in a certain situation if you are already carrying some weight on you, for instance, 100 lbs, you would be able to push another 410 lbs and not the entire 510 lbs. And in this case, while you are pushing, dragging, lifting your speed drops to 5 feet.
The DM has another option to make this carrying/lifting capacity even easier in terms of math, which is the encumbrance. Using that rule, the character can carry up to 5 times the STR without suffering a penalty in the speed (please check again the PHB page 177).
In my example, my war cleric who has 17 STR, with encumbrance, can carry 17 STR X 5 = 85 lbs. As he has a heavy armor plate (65 lbs), light crossbow (5 lbs), 1 quiver (1 lb), 20 bolts (1.5 lbs) warhammer (2 lb), shield (6 lbs), waterskin (5 lbs), 1 component pouch (2 lbs), 1 dagger (1 lb), 04 darts (1 lb)..... well all this weapons and items added up to 89.5 lbs.
I also carry, in a fantasy world, rations of food (2 lb) and a healer's kit (3 lbs) in my pouch, that brings up my weight away over the 85 lbs I am supposed to carry without encumbrance. At the end, I am carrying 94.5 lbs when in combat. All those items I consider the minimum necessary to be "ready" and in a decent way to battle.
Maybe I should replace my light cross bow by a longbow (2 lb) and its ammo/arrows are 1 lb, that gives me less 3.5 lbs, reducing my weight to 91 lbs. It is still over the 85 lbs.
I can "lose" the waterskin, and the healer's kit, after all, I am a cleric and I can heal my friends without a healer's kit. But I don't like the idea of not having water on me and when my spell slots are out I can use one kit to help a friend in need.
Anyway, I hope you understand why the 85 lbs are the limit in the example.
Sincerely,
Drakortex.
Those
Drakortex, cleric of Bahamut.
What I find frustrating is that equipping a Donkey or Mule to your inventory does not allow you to take away encumbrance, despite it being in the creatures description that it helps take the weight of items.