Understanding Carrying Capacity in D&D 5e

Issued on January 15, 2024

Calculating carrying capacity in D&D 5e is easy, but there’s more to it than meets the eye when determining how much loot you can carry.

Capacity 5e

Welcome, intrepid adventurers, to an often overlooked yet crucial aspect of dungeon delving and dragon slaying: managing your loot and gear without becoming a walking storehouse. Today we’re diving into the world of carrying capacity in D&D 5e. Buckle up your backpack and prepare to shoulder this wealth of information.

How to calculate capacity 5e

In D&D 5e, your carrying capacity is determined by a simple formula: your Strength score multiplied by 15. This number represents the amount of weight (in pounds) you can carry. This is easy to calculate, but is often ignored until the DM asks, “Are you really trying to carry three chests of gold, a statue, and a sleeping ogre?”

Example: If a character has a Strength score of 10, their carrying capacity is 150 pounds, which is the equivalent of carrying another entire person or carrying a very heavy pile of treasure.

What happens if a character exceeds this limit? In games played with vanilla carrying capacity, characters cannot carry more than their allotted amount. However, for games where you want to make inventory management a bit more complicated, you can use the weight limit variant rules.

Capacity anomalies: Burden

If you’ve played Baldur’s Gate 3 and liked how capacity was managed, we have good news for you: the game uses variant rules (found in the base rules) that aim to add a bit more nuance to capacity.

Under these rules, if you carry more than five times your Strength score, you are loaded. Being loaded means that your movement speed is reduced by 10 feet.

Carrying a load that is 10 times your Strength value results in you being overburdened, which is a much more serious condition than simply carrying a load. When you are overburdened, you are affected in the following ways:

Your movement speed is reduced by 20 feet, and you have disadvantage on ability checks that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution, attack rolls, and saving throws.

However, one interesting benefit of using the weight limit variant rules is that there is no longer a minimum Strength requirement to wear heavy armor, since the weight of the armor and the devastating effects of a heavy weight limit already provide plenty of incentive to increase Strength before wearing heavy armor.

Push, pull, lift

Sometimes you might need to push, drag, or lift something heavy in a short amount of time, such as when you need to drag a heavy bookcase out of a secret passageway. You can push, drag, or lift up to twice your carrying capacity. If you exceed your carrying capacity while pushing, dragging, or lifting, your speed is reduced to 5 feet.

In this situation, you can’t walk in balancing a bookshelf on your back, but you can at least push it aside and sneak in.

Size and Capacity

In D&D, a creature’s size directly affects how much weight they can carry. If they’re Small or Medium, they have the standard carrying capacity. For each size category above Medium, a creature’s carrying capacity doubles. And, unfortunately for fairy characters, if they’re Tiny, their carrying capacity is halved.

Size Carrying Capacity Modifier Strength 10 Carrying Capacity Tiny x0.5 75 lbs Small – 150 lbs Medium – 150 lbs Large x2 300 lbs Huge x4 600 lbs Giant x8 1,200 lbs

Spells to lighten the burden

Tensor’s Floating Disk: This is a spell used by any loot-laden adventurer. It creates a circular horizontal disk that floats 3 feet off the ground and can support up to 500 pounds. It’s like having a magical minecart that chases you for an hour. Perfect for carrying dragon treasure out of a cave! Levitation: This spell can lift a subject weighing up to 500 pounds. Telekinesis: For more advanced magic users, this spell can move objects weighing up to 1,000 pounds. Zoom In/Out: Using the (Zoom Out) option reduces the subject’s weight to 1/8 of normal. Note that this spell only lasts for 1 minute, so you’ll need to work quickly! Bigby’s Hands: These magical hands have a Strength score of 26 and a carrying capacity of 390 pounds. Enhanced Ability: Using the “Bull’s Strength” option with this spell not only gives you advantage on the subject’s “Strength” checks, but also doubles the subject’s carrying capacity. Summoning/Conjuration/Searching Spells: “Searching Horses” is a great spell to increase your party’s carrying capacity in the long run, but never underestimate how much a trio of brown bears summoned with “Summon Animals” can accomplish in an hour. Wizard’s Hands: While they can only lift 10 pounds, they’re great for when you need an extra pair of hands.

Clever wizards have been known to combine spells for optimal effect, for example using the Reduce enlarge/reduce to shrink a heavy object, then magically move it (or levitate it, if there are two wizards with free concentration slots).

Race and subclass abilities that affect carrying capacity

Racial Traits: Some races, such as firbolgs and orcs, have the racial trait powerful build, which allows them to treat their carrying capacity as one size larger. Most character races are Medium, so they are considered Large and therefore double their carrying capacity. Subclass Abilities: Certain classes offer unique ways to enhance carrying capacity. For example, a Totem Barbarian with the beast bear aspect at 6th level doubles their carrying capacity. They can also rely on subclass effects that increase their size, such as a Rune Knight’s giant strength making them Large and doubling their carrying capacity.

Packing Smart: Tips for Heavy Adventurers

Are you carrying a lot of luggage? Here are some easy tips to make your luggage less of a burden.

Magic Items: Items like the Bag of Holding and Portable Holding, which weigh 15 pounds no matter what you put inside, are a packrat’s dream. Teamwork: Remember, you’re part of a team! If you can’t push, drag, or lift something that’s too heavy, ask a party member to help you with your back. An average party of five adventurers should be able to move something that weighs 1,500 pounds (5 adventurers x (150 carrying capacity x 2)). Mounts and Vehicles: A packhorse is 50 gp, a wagon is 15 gp. The 65 gp you get to spend so you don’t have to worry about the loot you’re carrying (until you find the Bag of Holding) is well worth it!

do you even lift?

Carrying capacity may not be the flashiest aspect of D&D, but it’s important to keeping adventures realistic (well, as realistic as possible in a game of dragons and magic). It’s not how much you can carry that matters, it’s how you carry it. Smart packing and resource management can be the difference between succeeding on a quest or being crushed under a pile of your own loot.

The next time you’re tempted to loot every weapon in a goblin’s arsenal or carry an extra layer of armor “just in case,” remember these guidelines — your back (and the DM) will thank you!