DotMM: Encumbrance

In an xp-for-treasure system, carrying capacity becomes meaningful. Treasure can vary not only in its worth but also its weight, and there is a risk/reward tradeoff when deciding to haul a heavy item back to civilization. Expendable resources such as torches and rations add another layer of decision-making to the game.

Unfortunately, the encumbrance system in D&D kind of sucks. There is too much math and bookkeeping involved. Let’s simplify it.

The misunderstood encumbrance rules

The (optional) encumbrance rule in the Player’s Handbook reads as follows:

“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.”

There are lots of complaints online about how strict this rule is. And, looking at some of the pre-generated characters on WotC’s site, you can see why:

These basic characters are all very close to (if not already) being heavily encumbered! If you want to play a game of heroic D&D, without disadvantage on all checks, this is a nuisance.

For us, however, it’s exactly what we want. What good is an encumbrance system that doesn’t get in the players’ way? And honestly, if you’re descending into the pits wearing a chain mail and carrying a shield, pike, longsword, javelins, food and water for 10 days, and a 50 feet rope, then you should be having a bad time.

Slots

A solution to the bookkeeping problem is to use item-slots. There are some variants of this online, but they don’t really work for me. What I want is:

• It needs to be easy to know how many slots an item takes.
• The balance must be close to the existing encumbrance rules.

Going by the above I’ve landed on the following:

• Each character has Item Slots available equal to 4 + their Str score.
• Items take up slots as follows:
• Containers. These don’t take up any slots since everybody is expected to have them (if a smart-ass decides to go in without a backpack, deduce 4 slots). Examples: Quivers, pouches, backpacks.
• Coins and gems. One slot holds 500 coins.
• Buy-in-bulk. Anything that’s priced per some set amount in the equipment table’s gonna use one slot for that amount. Examples: iron spikes (10), arrows (20), ball bearings (1000)
• Stackables. Any item you could comfortably hold a few of in your hand. Fit 5 to a slot. Examples: javelins, potions, torches, rations
• Small items. An item you could conceivably hide on your person, or pickpocket off of an NPC. This is the vast majority of common items. They use half a slot. Examples: dagger, shortsword, crowbar, waterskin, book, mirror
• Large items. Anything else. Usually weaponry. Uses one slot. Examples: longsword, bagpipes, tent, grappling hook, shovel
• Armor. This uses slots equal to the AC minus 10. Examples: hide (2), breastplate* (4), chain mail (6), plate (8)

With this system, you’ll usually just need to answer the question “stackable, hideable, or large?” and the answer is obvious most of the time. When in doubt, be a benevolent DM and choose the smaller option :).

So does it pass the test? Well honestly, no. Stuff ends up weighing more in this system than it should, most of the time. And that’s where those 4 bonus slots come in – they drag things back to normalcy. That does mean that this system skews towards weak characters a bit, but I can live with that.

Let’s see how our pregens fare:

Still scraping that limit – almost exactly like before!

Some final notes

One: note that a character can carry half their slots again over and above their heavy encumbrance limit before they’re too packed to move.

Two: in this system, a slot equals roughly 10 pounds, so if a DM needs to improvise how many slots a 200-pound treasure chest occupies – the answer is 20!

Three: I would allow breastplates to be the exception to the armor rule and require a mere 2 slots, as their (lack of) weight is a unique selling point.