Load limits that don't suck the realz [PEACH]

[Eulalios]

I rolled up a female halfling rogue who weighs 47 lbs, STR 12, and can carry nearly three times her own weight without becoming severely encumbered.

Ant-like POWWWERRZ ftw ...... or not.

Here's a suggestion for revising the encumbrance rules to make them not laughable.

1/3 body weight + (x)STR, where


Race
x


Gnome or halfling
1


Human, elf, or other
1.5


Dwarf or orc
2



Even at 18 STR, my 47 lb halfling rogue now would be able to wear and carry only 34 lb before becoming severely encumbered.

Oh by the way, we should also consider halving the weights of armor and clothing and rations for Small sized folks.

[Eulalios]

See here: http://www.d20srd.org/srd/carryingCapacity.htm#biggerandSmallerCreatures
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/armor.htm#armorForUnusualCreatures

Debby

Thank you. Hopefully this stuff will be in the 5e PHB. :smallsmile: But I feel that enabling someone with moderate STR to carry twice their weight is utterly off.

[Debihuman]

Yeah, I posted that before I realized that this was a 5e post (which is why I deleted it). I have never been a fan of WotC's ability to follow their own rules, much less edit and proofread. Str 12 isn't moderate, it's above average. Str 10 is average unless 5e is doing weird things with the numbers.

Debby

[Domriso]

I've been thinking the same thing, actually. After looking at a few different systems, this is the metric I came up with:

(Weight / Size Modifier) x (Strength score + Constitution score) / 20

Weight is in pounds, and the size modifier is as follows:



Fine
Diminutive
Tiny
Small
Medium
Large
Huge
Gargantuan
Colossal


.0625
.125
.5
2
4
6
8
10
12



And this gives us what is the upper limit of their light load. Double it for medium load, triple it for a heavy load, and sextuple it for the maximum "totter and stagger around while lifting it" weight.

So, to give an example, a completely ordinary human, Strength and Constitution of 10, decides to lift. Being average, she weighs 137, meaning her formula looks like this:

(137 / 4) x (10 + 10) / 20

Which gives us 34 pounds as a light load, 68 as a medium load, 102 as a heavy load, and 204 as a totter load. Now, it should be noted that pretty much all D&D characters are assumed to be peak trained condition, so this works out pretty well. For non-peak humans, this is probably high.

This even works for quadrupeds and the like, based on my very simple calculations.

The only major problem with this calculation is that is assumes 10 is the average physical trait for every size category; in other words, a Human as a medium creature would have a 10 in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, while a Halfling as a small creature would also have a 10 in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, and a horse as a Large creature would also have a 10 in Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. and that would be perfectly acceptable, because the calculations already take that into account. Personally, I think this makes sense, so I have no problem with it, but others might find it strange.

[Eulalios]

I think I'll just go with the following as my houserule:

(weight / 3) * (STR / 10) = encumbered
2 * encumbered = staggering
3 * encumbered = max deadlift

and then x 1.5 for size Small humanoids (based on watching little girls pick each other up and walk around)