Encumbrance rules determine how much a character’s armor and equipment slow him or her down. Encumbrance comes in two parts: encumbrance by armor and encumbrance by total weight.

Encumbrance by Armor: A character’s armor defines his or her maximum Dexterity bonus to AC, armor check penalty, speed, and running speed. Unless your character is weak or carrying a lot of gear, that’s all you need to know. The extra gear your character carries won’t slow him or her down any more than the armor already does.

If your character is weak or carrying a lot of gear, however, then you’ll need to calculate encumbrance by weight. Doing so is most important when your character is trying to carry some heavy object.

Weight: If you want to determine whether your character’s gear is heavy enough to slow him or her down more than the armor already does, total the 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 how the weight compares to 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 or her maximum Dexterity bonus to AC, carries a check penalty (which works like an armor check penalty), reduces the character’s speed, and affects how fast the character can run, as shown on Table: Carrying Loads. Additionally, a character’s base speed is affected when carrying a medium or heavy load, as shown on Table: Reduced Speeds for Encumbered Characters. A medium or heavy load counts as medium or heavy armor for the purpose of abilities or skills that are restricted by armor. Carrying a light load does not encumber a character.

If your character is wearing armor, use the worse figure (from armor or from load) for each category. Do not stack the penalties.

Load	Max Dex	Check Penalty	Run Speed
Medium	+3	-3	×4
Heavy	+1	-6	×3

Base Speed	Reduced Speed	Base Speed	Reduced Speed
20 ft.	15 ft.	70 ft.	50 ft.
30 ft.	20 ft.	80 ft.	55 ft.
40 ft.	30 ft.	90 ft.	60 ft.
50 ft.	35 ft.	100 ft.	70 ft.
60 ft.	40 ft.

Lifting and Dragging: A character can lift as much as his or her maximum load over his or her head.

A character can lift as much as double his or her 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 or her maximum load. Favorable conditions can double these numbers, and bad circumstances can reduce them to one-half or less.

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 ×¾, Tiny ×½, Diminutive ×¼, Fine ×⅛.

Quadrupeds can carry heavier loads than characters can. Instead of the multipliers given above, multiply the value corresponding to the creature’s Strength score from Table: Carrying Capacity by the appropriate modifier, as follows: Fine ×¼, Diminutive ×½, Tiny ×¾, Small ×1, Medium ×1½, Large ×3, Huge ×6, Gargantuan ×12, Colossal ×24.

Tremendous Strength: For Strength scores not shown on Table: Carrying Capacity, find the Strength score between 20 and 29 that has the same number in the "ones" digit as the creature’s Strength score does and multiply the numbers in that for by 4 for every ten points the creature’s strength is above the score for that row.

Strength Score	Light Load	Medium Load	Heavy Load
1	3 lb. or less	4-6 lb.	7-10 lb.
2	6 lb. or less	7-13 lb.	14-20 lb.
3	10 lb. or less	11-20 lb.	21-30 lb.
4	13 lb. or less	14-26 lb.	27-40 lb.
5	16 lb. or less	17-33 lb.	34-50 lb.
6	20 lb. or less	21-40 lb.	41-60 lb.
7	23 lb. or less	24-46 lb.	47-70 lb.
8	26 lb. or less	27-53 lb.	54-80 lb.
9	30 lb. or less	31-60 lb.	61-90 lb.
10	33 lb. or less	34-66 lb.	67-100 lb.
11	38 lb. or less	39-76 lb.	77-115 lb.
12	43 lb. or less	44-86 lb.	87-130 lb.
13	50 lb. or less	51-100 lb.	101-150 lb.
14	58 lb. or less	59-116 lb.	117-175 lb.
15	66 lb. or less	67-133 lb.	134-200 lb.
16	76 lb. or less	77-153 lb.	154-230 lb.
17	86 lb. or less	87-173 lb.	174-260 lb.
18	100 lb. or less	101-200 lb.	201-300 lb.
19	116 lb. or less	117-233 lb.	234-350 lb.
20	133 lb. or less	134-266 lb.	267-400 lb.
21	153 lb. or less	154-306 lb.	307-460 lb.
22	173 lb. or less	174-346 lb.	347-520 lb.
23	200 lb. or less	201-400 lb.	401-600 lb.
24	233 lb. or less	234-466 lb.	467-700 lb.
25	266 lb. or less	267-533 lb.	534-800 lb.
26	306 lb. or less	307-613 lb.	614-920 lb.
27	346 lb. or less	347-693 lb.	694-1,040 lb.
28	400 lb. or less	401-800 lb.	801-1,200 lb.
29	466 lb. or less	467-933 lb.	934-1,400 lb.
+10	×4	×4	×4