D&D General weight of equipment

[delph]

Hi, I'm doing my halfling paladin mounted on mastiff. And when I was watching mastiff carrying capacity, I've started looking for weight of halflings. When I compared it with weight of splint armor, than was just "wait a second! wtf is that?" moment. Armor was heavier than person...

I believe UaW (use as written) things are balanced for medium characters. Do you change weight of things for small characters as halflings and gnomes? Or increas for large?

I've change weight of armor, shield, bedroll, cloths around 1/4 down. Thinking about decrease weight of rations and water, but halflings are know they eat and drink a lot.

And increase weight of halfling from 30 lbs to 50 lbs.

 

[Ancalagon]

This (weight of equipment being reduced for smalle characters) is something that was done in prior editions of D&D - 3e at least - so I would consult that for a guide.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I've change weight of armor, shield, bedroll, cloths around 1/4 down. Thinking about decrease weight of rations and water, but halflings are know they eat and drink a lot.

1/4 weight is a good idea for small equipment.

 

[James Gasik]

Really, you have to take any weights D&D gives you with a grain of salt anyways. I really doubt anyone did any hard research on the equipment chapter.

 

[Oofta]

Personally I wouldn't change the weights since there's no penalty for small size characters and what they can carry. Perhaps things should be half weight, but a halfling with a 20 strength doesn't really make sense either.

Basically I don't worry about adjusting anything. If we're talking tiny characters, that's a different story since their carrying capacity is cut in half.

 

[Bayushi_seikuro]

I'm not sure where I had stumbled across, and it's possible I dreamed it up accidentally, but it seems to me that the question of weight of gear/money wasn't just weight but an abstraction of the BULK of the item in question. So, scale may not actually weigh what it's listed as, but the bulkiness is represented as the coin-weight. YMMV

 

[Clint_L]

Personally I wouldn't change the weights since there's no penalty for small size characters and what they can carry. Perhaps things should be half weight, but a halfling with a 20 strength doesn't really make sense either.

Basically I don't worry about adjusting anything. If we're talking tiny characters, that's a different story since their carrying capacity is cut in half.

But...but...that poor imaginary mastiff!

 

[Oofta]

But...but...that poor imaginary mastiff!

If your small character and their equipment weighs more than 195 pounds (see chapter 5 PHB mounts and other animals) you should consider getting a doggy cart which apparently is a thing.

 

[J.Quondam]

If your small character and their equipment weighs more than 195 pounds (see chapter 5 PHB mounts and other animals) you should consider getting a doggy cart which apparently is a thing.

View attachment 281684

That makes me wish I was smol.

 

[kigmatzomat]

Hi, I'm doing my halfling paladin mounted on mastiff. And when I was watching mastiff carrying capacity, I've started looking for weight of halflings. When I compared it with weight of splint armor, than was just "wait a second! wtf is that?" moment. Armor was heavier than person...

I believe UaW (use as written) things are balanced for medium characters. Do you change weight of things for small characters as halflings and gnomes? Or increas for large?

I've change weight of armor, shield, bedroll, cloths around 1/4 down. Thinking about decrease weight of rations and water, but halflings are know they eat and drink a lot.

And increase weight of halfling from 30 lbs to 50 lbs.

Not going to justify any weights in the books but provide some real world context.

A 6ft human weighs around 4-6x of a 3ft halfling. However the 6ft human's clothing weighs only 2-3x as much as the 3ft halfling's clothing. (I am basing this on clothing patterns for children vs adults). This is the difference between surface area and volume. Double the dimensions and the area could go up by 4x but volume goes up 8x.

This would explain why armor doesn't get as light as you would expect.

Weapons have minimal dimensions to survive contact with the other races which sets a floor. (A car antenna is not a good weapon)