Carry Capacity

Carrying capacity determines how much a character’s equipment slows him down. Encumbrance comes in two parts; encumbrance by armor and encumbrance by total weight.

Encumbrance by Weight

While armor that is too heavy for a character may slow them down, if your character carries too much they can also be slowed. The total weight of all the character’s items, including armor, weapons, and gear. Compare this total to the character’s Strength on Table: Carrying Capacity. Depending on the character’s carrying capacity, he or she may be carrying a light, medium, or heavy load. Like armor, a character’s load affects his movement speed, as well as cause him to take additional penalties to attack rolls and strength/dexterity based skill checks. A medium or heavy load is similar to being 2 or 4 below the strength rating requirement of armor. In addition a character at their heavy load is treated as similar to a character wearing heavy armor, in which they do not receive their dexterity bonus to their AC; similar to armor this is not the same as being denied their dexterity. These penalties are in addition to those normally incurred by their armor and their strength rating penalties.

Adjustments for Medium and Heavy Load

Load	Attack Penalty	Skill Check Penalty	Speed Penalty	Dex to AC
Medium	-2	–2	-10ft	Yes
Heavy	-4	–4	-20 ft.	No

Lifting and Dragging

A character can lift as much as his maximum load over his head. A character’s maximum load is the highest amount of weight listed for a character’s Strength in the heavy load column of Table: Carrying Capacity.

A character can lift as much as double his maximum load off the ground, but he or she can only stagger around with it. While overloaded in this way, the character loses any Dexterity bonus to AC and can move only 5 feet per round (as a full-round action).

A character can generally push or drag along the ground as much as five times his maximum load. Favorable conditions can double these numbers, and bad circumstances can reduce them by half or more.

Bigger and Smaller Creatures

The figures on Table: Carrying Capacity are for Medium bipedal creatures. A larger bipedal creature can carry more weight depending on its size category, as follows: Large ×2, Huge ×4, Gargantuan ×8, Colossal ×16. A smaller creature can carry less weight depending on its size category, as follows: Small ×3/4, Tiny ×1/2, Diminutive ×1/4, Fine ×1/8.

Quadrupeds can carry heavier loads than bipeds can. Multiply the values corresponding to the creature’s Strength score by 2, this value is additive with size multiplifers (example: large creature would be a x3 not double the value twice)

Strength Formulas

If you would like to calculate the carry capacity yourself here is the formula, but its recommended that most players simply refer to the table regarding carrying capacity. This generally makes strength a tiered based system, but tries to demonstrate how monstrously strong something becomes as they continue to stray from the average strength score of 10.

Calculations for Medium Load is always ⅔ of heavy load, and Light Load is ⅓ of heavy load.

If Strength score is less than 11: Strength Score * 10

If Strength score is 11 to 14: (Strength Score * 10) + ((Strength Score - 10) * 5))

If Strength score is 15 to 29: Carry Capacity Heavy Load of Strength Score -5 multiplied by 2. (ie 20 strength is the 10 strength value x 2)

If Strength score is 30 or above:  Carry Capacity Heavy Load of Strength Score -10 multiplied by 4. (ie 30 strength is the 20 strength value x 4).

Table: Carrying Capacity

Strength Score	Light Load	Medium Load	Heavy Load
1	3 lbs. or Less	4-6 lbs.	7-10 lbs.
2	6 lbs. or Less	7-13 lbs.	14-20 lbs.
3	10 lbs. or Less	11-20 lbs.	21-30 lbs.
4	13 lbs. or Less	14-26 lbs.	27-40 lbs.
5	16 lbs. or Less	17-33 lbs.	34-50 lbs.
6	20 lbs. or Less	21-40 lbs.	41-60 lbs.
7	23 lbs. or Less	24-46 lbs.	47-70 lbs.
8	26 lbs. or Less	27-53 lbs.	54-80 lbs.
9	30 lbs. or Less	31-60 lbs.	61-90 lbs.
10	33 lbs. or Less	34-66 lbs.	67-100 lbs.
11	38 lbs. or Less	39-76 lbs.	77-115 lbs.
12	43 lbs. or Less	44-86 lbs.	87-130 lbs.
13	48 lbs. or Less	49-96 lbs.	97-145 lbs.
14	53 lbs. or Less	54-106 lbs.	107-160 lbs.
15	66 lbs. or Less	67-133 lbs.	134-200 lbs.
16	76 lbs. or Less	77-153 lbs.	154-230 lbs.
17	86 lbs. or Less	87-173 lbs.	174-260 lbs.
18	96 lbs. or Less	97-193 lbs.	194-290 lbs.
19	106 lbs. or Less	107-213 lbs.	214-320 lbs.
20	133 lbs. or Less	134-266 lbs.	267-400 lbs.
21	153 lbs. or Less	154-306 lbs.	307-460 lbs.
22	173 lbs. or Less	174-346 lbs.	347-520 lbs.
23	193 lbs. or Less	194-386 lbs.	387-580 lbs.
24	213 lbs. or Less	214-426 lbs.	427-640 lbs.
25	266 lbs. or Less	267-533 lbs.	534-800 lbs.
26	306 lbs. or Less	307-613 lbs.	614-920 lbs.
27	346 lbs. or Less	347-693 lbs.	694-1040 lbs.
28	386 lbs. or Less	387-773 lbs.	774-1160 lbs.
29	426 lbs. or Less	427-853 lbs.	854-1280 lbs.
+10	x4	x4	x4

Example Ranges Above 29:

30	533 lbs. or Less	534-1066 lbs.	1067-1600 lbs.
31	613 lbs. or Less	614-1226 lbs.	1227-1840 lbs.
32	693 lbs. or Less	694-1386 lbs.	1387-2080 lbs.
33	773 lbs. or Less	774-1546 lbs.	1547-2320 lbs.
34	853 lbs. or Less	854-1706 lbs.	1707-2560 lbs.
35	1066 lbs. or Less	1067-2133 lbs.	2134-3200 lbs.
36	1226 lbs. or Less	1227-2453 lbs.	2454-3680 lbs.
37	1386 lbs. or Less	1387-2773 lbs.	2774-4160 lbs.
38	1546 lbs. or Less	1547-3093 lbs.	3094-4640 lbs.
39	1706 lbs. or Less	1707-3413 lbs.	3414-5120 lbs.
40	2133 lbs. or Less	2134-4266 lbs.	4267-6400 lbs.
41	2453 lbs. or Less	2454-4906 lbs.	4907-7360 lbs.
42	2773 lbs. or Less	2774-5546 lbs.	5547-8320 lbs.
43	3093 lbs. or Less	3094-6186 lbs.	6187-9280 lbs.
44	3413 lbs. or Less	3414-6826 lbs.	6827-10240 lbs.
45	4266 lbs. or Less	4267-8533 lbs.	8534-12800 lbs.
46	4906 lbs. or Less	4907-9813 lbs.	9814-14720 lbs.
47	5546 lbs. or Less	5547-11093 lbs.	11094-16640 lbs.
48	6186 lbs. or Less	6187-12373 lbs.	12374-18560 lbs.
49	6826 lbs. or Less	6827-13653 lbs.	13654-20480 lbs.
50	8533 lbs. or Less	8534-17066 lbs.	17067-25600 lbs.