Nebulous
Legend
So, we have a player with a birdman barbarian with an 18 Strength in the party,
and he is becoming prone to picking up other characters and shuttling them around
to various spots, which is essentially a permanent fly spell. My DM senses are tingling, and
this usually means that something is being abused and I need to take a closer
look at it. There is little to go on except that the Max carrying capacity for a PC is their
strength score (18) x 15, so he could max out at 270 pounds. The game does not
differentiate between walking and flying (although it probably should).
So basically, at what point is an 80 to 100lb birdman encumbered to the point that it
cannot lift an ally off the ground? I think the example yesterday would have included a roughly 200+ lb ally (including gear). I don't know how much gear the aarakroca himself had, and I wasn't going to stop play to have him calculate everything, but it would have to include tents, water,
weapons, and all the other stuff they need to navigate Chult.
I don't want to nitpick this too much, but I also feel like the player is assuming that his
18 Strength is a do whatever I want card, and I would like some kind of solid book rules
to make a convincing argument, OR, if I'm plain wrong, at least know that.
This is an instance where the simplification of 5e is getting in the way of logic. The birdman
weighs so little so that by design his wings are powerful enough to lift him, and not another
entire character.
and he is becoming prone to picking up other characters and shuttling them around
to various spots, which is essentially a permanent fly spell. My DM senses are tingling, and
this usually means that something is being abused and I need to take a closer
look at it. There is little to go on except that the Max carrying capacity for a PC is their
strength score (18) x 15, so he could max out at 270 pounds. The game does not
differentiate between walking and flying (although it probably should).
So basically, at what point is an 80 to 100lb birdman encumbered to the point that it
cannot lift an ally off the ground? I think the example yesterday would have included a roughly 200+ lb ally (including gear). I don't know how much gear the aarakroca himself had, and I wasn't going to stop play to have him calculate everything, but it would have to include tents, water,
weapons, and all the other stuff they need to navigate Chult.
I don't want to nitpick this too much, but I also feel like the player is assuming that his
18 Strength is a do whatever I want card, and I would like some kind of solid book rules
to make a convincing argument, OR, if I'm plain wrong, at least know that.
This is an instance where the simplification of 5e is getting in the way of logic. The birdman
weighs so little so that by design his wings are powerful enough to lift him, and not another
entire character.