D&D 5E How do you account for Dwarves in heavy armor using variant encumbrance?

[ECMO3]

Dwarf's get the ability:

"Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor."

Using variant encumbrance:

"If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet."

The way I read this, if your Dwarf is carrying 1lb below the encumbered threshold without any armor and the he puts on his plate he still has full movement correct? It is like the plate does not count as weight for movement purposes. Likewise, since this applies only to heavy armor, if the same Dwarf donned leather he would be slowed by 10 feet.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

 

[overgeeked]

Dwarf's get the ability:

"Speed. Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor."

Using variant encumbrance:

"If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet."

The way I read this, if your Dwarf is carrying 1lb below the encumbered threshold without any armor and the he puts on his plate he still has full movement correct? It is like the plate does not count as weight for movement purposes. Likewise, since this applies only to heavy armor, if the same Dwarf donned leather he would be slowed by 10 feet.

Am I interpreting this correctly?

I use the variant encumbrance rules and that's exactly how I handle dwarfs and heavy armor.

 

[pnewman]

So a dwarf can put on 50 pounds of heavy armor and it won't reduce his speed but if he puts on 10 pounds of light armor it will reduce his speed, given that the rule only mentions heavy armor?

 

[Charlaquin]

Under the variant encumbrance rules, wearing heavy armor doesn’t reduce your speed, so that particular feature has no effect. A reasonable house rule might be that a dwarf’s speed isn’t reduced by being encumbered. In this case, I would still have dwarves be affected normally by being heavily encumbered.

 

[Irlo]

I rule that a dwarf’s armor is considered one-half it’s normal weight when calculating the carrier load.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Under the variant encumbrance rules, wearing heavy armor doesn’t reduce your speed, so that particular feature has no effect. A reasonable house rule might be that a dwarf’s speed isn’t reduced by being encumbered. In this case, I would still have dwarves be affected normally by being heavily encumbered.

This is how we did it in our campaign with three dwarves.

 

[Oofta]

Under the variant encumbrance rules, wearing heavy armor doesn’t reduce your speed, so that particular feature has no effect. A reasonable house rule might be that a dwarf’s speed isn’t reduced by being encumbered. In this case, I would still have dwarves be affected normally by being heavily encumbered.

Same here. They still have to pay attention to the max encumbrance, but heavy encumbrance doesn't affect them.

 

[overgeeked]

Under the variant encumbrance rules, wearing heavy armor doesn’t reduce your speed...

The weight of the armor itself might.

A reasonable house rule might be that a dwarf’s speed isn’t reduced by being encumbered. In this case, I would still have dwarves be affected normally by being heavily encumbered.

I wouldn't consider that reasonable.

 

[Charlaquin]

Same here. They still have to pay attention to the max encumbrance, but heavy encumbrance doesn't affect them.

Oh, I’d have heavy encumbrance (10x strength, -20 ft. speed and disadvantage on strength, dexterity, and constitution checks) affect them but not encumbrance (5x strength, -10 ft. speed). Maximum carry weight (15x strength) would also still be in place.

 

[Charlaquin]

The weight of the armor itself might.

Indeed it might.

I wouldn't consider that reasonable.

Then don’t use that house rule.