D&D 5E Is Grapple forced movement supposed to care about carrying capacity?

[Oofta]

Related question to this - how often does this come up? In the years of playing 5E I've seen it once in a Ravenloft game when someone didn't have a silver weapon so they threw a werewolf off a cliff. Other than that? Nada.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Related question to this - how often does this come up?

It doesn't, yeah. And people I've played with have already been confused by grappling existing as a skill check, let alone if it interacted with other systems and the GM judgement calls on someone's bodyweight + equipment weight.

It's not like you could ever drown someone by the rules, anyway, which would be my favorite application for handling resistant/caster enemies. Takes ConMod+1 minutes for them to start drowning... that's a lot of combat turns to never fail a grapple check.

 

[BookTenTiger]

Aa, the official name isn't variant encumbrance, implying the default is encumbrance, but it's variant: encumbrance. Oops.


It literally states the limit is twice your carrying capacity, though? Your speed is 5ft if it goes over once your carrying capacity.

You are right! My reading comprehension failed.

That said, for an average character they can lift anything 300 lb overhead, so that would be most Medium Size and smaller opponents they might be grappling.

 

[ninjayeti]

As a general matter I would say carrying capacity does not come into play. That said I as a DM I would disallow anything patently absurd. I don't care what the rules say, an elf can't put a stone golem in a headlock and drag it around.

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

I haven't yet decided how I feel about a tabaxi taking the stone golem's hand and sprinting up a tree with it.

 

[James Gasik]

Sure, not taking carry capacity into account can lead to some silly moments. But taking it into account can prevent some awesome moments. The way I see it, we don't really need to limit characters who would want to attempt a grapple more than necessary, nor should we overcomplicate the grapple rules.

That way leads to madness.

 

[Hriston]

But as fluffybunbunkittens has already mentioned, the movement rules with respect to moving around the creature you're grappling already deviate from the rules for dragging and carrying.

I'm not sure what you mean by "deviate". The rules for moving a grappled creature state your speed is halved unless the creature is at least two sizes smaller than you, and the push, drag, or lift rules state your speed drops to five feet while pushing or dragging something over your carrying capacity, so it stands to reason that, when dragging a grappled creature that's not two sizes smaller than you, your speed is two and a half feet. This seems coherent to me.

So any inference that you should interpret drag and carry as using the same rules on page 176 is weakened. Better to just not worry about it since there's already a rule in place to keep a player from grappling (and thus moving) anything 2 sizes larger than themselves.

And none of this seems to follow,

 

[jasper]

I think this thread is going to DRAG on for a while.

 

[ad_hoc]

As a general matter I would say carrying capacity does not come into play. That said I as a DM I would disallow anything patently absurd. I don't care what the rules say, an elf can't put a stone golem in a headlock and drag it around.

Agreed but Enlarge that Elf and give them a potion of storm giant strength and I'm on board.

 

[FarBeyondC]

Carrying Capacity mattering for grapple movement means that mechanically, a roc possibly cannot pick up a elephant and definitely cannot pick up a whale, which goes against stated lore.