Min-maxing your weight limit

[Dannyalcatraz]

I would side with the player, personally, agreeing with the logic that he's dropping weight by tossing his mundane equipment and replacing it with the magical attire.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I allow my players to do it. In fact I specifically told them about this logic myself. Unless your PC likes wearing 2 pairs of boots or 2 cloaks then magical versions of these items replace them on the standard explorer/travelers/any outfit.

However I did not know that clothing your character wears doesn't count against his carrying capacity! What a ridiculous rule. I'll house rule it. Next thing you know a player will be trying to convince me that Full plate is clothing.

 

[Frostmarrow]

The player's reasoning is quite clever. He just wants his character to work when fully dressed. He is not asking to be running on walls in plate.

 

[aurance]

I would side with your player.

By the way I'm also from Columbus...

 

[Bauglir]

I allow my players to do it. In fact I specifically told them about this logic myself. Unless your PC likes wearing 2 pairs of boots or 2 cloaks then magical versions of these items replace them on the standard explorer/travelers/any outfit.

However I did not know that clothing your character wears doesn't count against his carrying capacity! What a ridiculous rule. I'll house rule it. Next thing you know a player will be trying to convince me that Full plate is clothing.

Be prepared for disgruntled players running around naked to avoid encumbrance

 

[Scharlata]

Anyway, rationalizations aside, the conclusion of the story is that I stuck by my guns and my player thought I was being an evil DM. What do you other DMs think?

Hi!

Go YOUR way.

I'm a nitpick DM when I do the "encumbrance thing".

Instead I'd be threatening my players with the diversification of clothing and other gear like in the Arms and Equipment Guide and make them pay the encumbrance cost for every little piece of underwear the PCs are wearing.

P.S.: I even split the weight of a quiver with 20 arrows in 20 separate items...

 

[Thanee]

BTW, one way to min/max encumbrance (and perfectly legal, but also perfectly silly), is to take off your heavy full plate armor and strap it to your backpack (given your strength is high enough) to ignore the armor check penalties for climbing, swimming, etc.

Bye
Thanee

 

[The Gryphon]

I agree with the player. As long as they throw away the common items of clothing they wish to replace and the weight of the replacement items aren't above the norm I don't see a problem.

The idea behind the clothing you "wear" weighing nothing is that it is a fairly inconsequential weight you commonly wear every day, and thus are used to carrying around (outside the limitations of your strength).

 

[Calico_Jack73]

So my player reasoned that if he threw away his old boots and cloak (the ones he had from his explorer's outfit), the new magical boots and cloak should not count against his encumbrance limit.

I disagreed. I said that if the DMG had wanted these items to not affect a character's carried weight, then the DMG would not have included a weight for these items. My player objected forcefully that this made no sense. Why should one mundane pair of "sturdy boots" weigh nothing, but a master-crafted pair of magical boots designed for sneaking weigh his character down?

Personally I think you let your interpretation of the rules get in the way of common sense... your player had a perfectly valid point. I believe the reason a weight was listed was so that if you choose not to wear them constantly then you can add the weight up for the haul. If I were playing a character who had winged boots and I found a pair of elven boots then I'd apply the weight of the elven boots to my encumberance because there is no way in hell that I'd give up my winged boots but I'd also want to take the elven boots back to town to find a buyer.

 

[Calico_Jack73]

Not to enforce reality into somebody's fantasy....

I know what the rules say about sturdy boots wieghing nothing, but try going walking wearing a pair of high quality work boots instead of sneakers for a day. You'll agree, heavy boots do affect encumbrence over a long period of time (such as hiking for an entire day).

As for your ruling about encumbrence. Remember heavy boots weigh a lot more than say... Slippers (of spider climbing). I's say an explorer's outfit's boots are the equivalent of modern heavy duty hiking boots (the cheap, heavy kind, not the expensive, light kind

Um... have you ever actually worn a good pair of boots. As a former military member who wore combat boots every day I can testify that your "endurance" when it comes to walking long distances is greater when wearing a good pair of boots than when wearing sneakers or anything else. I know it doesn't make sense from a weight perspective but trust me... I'd rather wear combat boots on a long hike over any other form of footwear.