Strength of 1?

[buchw001]

According to the rules, if a character has a strength of 0, he/she will simply lie helpless. However, other than the table for carrying capacity and the obvious stats for ability modifiers, what happens to a PC with strength 1?

I ask based upon the ray of enfeeblement spell that caused a fellow PC to end up with a strength of 1. Can he even walk or use a weapon? The DM ruled that the PC must drop his gear (backpack with items), remove armor, and could only use dex weapons (by that I mean ranged and finessed).

I thought that was pretty generous. Should there have been other consequences?

 

[Derren]

Having a Str score of one doesn't give any special penalties. The character can still use weapons normally, even great axes and therelike. The only real disadvantage is that his carrying capacity is very low (Check the table in the PHB) so it is most likely that he has to drop everything he has to not be helpless but as long the Str score isn't 0 there is no special penalty.

 

[UltimaGabe]

That's one instance of the rules not agreeing with common sense at all. By the rules, anyone with an ability score of 1 could go about their daily life exactly the same as someone with an ability score of 18, they would just take penalties on certain actions (such as attacking, if their Strength was 1, or Running, if their Constitution was 1). However, there's no possible way a person with a Constitution or Strength of 1 would be able to go about daily life, feel like they weren't about to die, or do anything requiring any sort of work whatsoever. The DM should feel free to tie any sort of consequences onto extremely low ability scores that he feels like, so I think your DM did a pretty good job.

 

[Sejs]

A strength 1 character doesn't have to do anything. It just means that their strength mod is -5 and their carrying capacity is crap. Their normal gear will probably encumber them, possibly to the point of not being able to walk around, but that doesn't preclude them from doing things like holding objects, manipulating things or wielding normal weapons. Just means that if they do try to use normal weapons they're probably gonna miss (-5 to hit) and if they do connect, it's not going to hurt very much (-5 to damage).

 

[Thanee]

My take on the situation:

A character with a Str of 1 can hold 20 lb. max.

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).

Anything else must be dropped immediately, since the character is unable to carry it. If dropping is not immediately possible (i.e. worn, like a backpack), the character should drop to the ground, unable to hold the stuff worn and being drawn to the ground from the heavy weight, unable to move, obviously.

Up to 10 lb. would still enable him to act normally under the penalties of a heavy load.

Anything more counts as overloaded and IMHO he wouldn't be able to take any actions (except for mental, or those that require no actual movement) in that state (rules are not explicit here, however).

A character overloaded or even drawn to the ground that way, would still be able to cast spells (unless both hands are not free), but not able to swing a weapon, for example.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Darklone]

We had that group once, a limp kobold sorcerer, a one-legged limp gnome illusionist and a half-orc barbarian with all available speed increase feats who carried the other two on his back and ran faster than any horse... Plus a human cleric who got reduced now and then before the half-orc grabbed him to run away.

Noooo problem with str 1 for the kobold