In an attempt to as accurately calculate as I can my character's encumberance I was looking into the carrying capacity of certain items like a belt pouch or a backpack. It seems like it'd be a simple table that one could access but I can't seem to find one. I know a standard backpack weighs 2lbs but how much can it hold (cubic feet & weight)? The dimensions of Heward's Handy Haversack are detailed well enough, but what about a normal belt pouch? Spell component pouch? Is there a chart/table/book/PDF/etc that I'm missing?
- Chris Shadowens
I do not know of a chart, but I think that the carrying specs of each item are detailed in their respective text blurb in the PHB.
Bocklin
That's a good question.
The PH doesn't have the volume of items such as pouches, sacks, or backbacks. However, that alone wouldn't be useful information, because you don't have the volume of objects contained either. . . after all what's the volume of a pint of oil, theive's tools, or a piton?
Hopefully, your DM would just rule on the total weight and say something like: 1 ounce items like potions, scrolls, spell components, would go in the pouch or in the pockets of your explorer's outfit; lanterns, torches, rations, etc. go in the backpack; and gold hordes, treasures, and bigger items go in the sacks as needed. Other items, like tents and bedrolls, are just openly strapped to your back.
I have to agree with Chris on this. I don't normally take into account volume of items. But, as a DM, I always have my players make a list of where their items are located. It wouldn't make sense for them to say their potions of cure moderate wounds were stuffed somewhere in their backpacks and that they can get to them in one round and drink the potion. No, they always carry a few in their belt pouches or in pockets. And if they do not have a bag of holding or a Haversack, then how is it that they can carry so much loot? It is the DM's responsibitly to ensure that minute details such as this are taken care of in the game.
As a player, I almost always save up for Heward's Handy Haversack. The sheer usefulness of this item throws away any need for a regular backpack and a bag of holding. Plus the enchantment brings the item(s) you are looking for directly to the top for easy access. It is a must for any adventurer!
I've been searching through the books for the answer to this question too and I'm sure it is an accidental ommission. In the magic section, the Bag of Holding has a volume and weight capacity so I don't see why the PHB doesn't have the stats for mundane containers.
Anyway, in "real rucksack world" capacity is in litres. 1 cubic foot is roughly the cube of 31 cm, or 0.03 cubic metres. There are 1000 litres to a cubic metre so a 30 litre rucksack is 1 cubic foot. Looking at retail websites and the range in capacity from 25-85 litres, you could say rucksacks come in 3 sizes (for medium-sized creatures) - small (1 cubic foot), medium (2 cubic feet) and large (3 cubic feet).
I think that works pretty neatly. Sacks would work the same way but Belt Pouches are probably too trivial to worry about. Don't have any easy answers as to the weight they could handle before breaking.
I figure a couple of pounds is all a belt pouch would hold. A small vial of a potion or some magical components is all. I don't become a rule nazi on this, but it does bring a sense of realism to the game that we all appreciate.
This is quite amusing since my group discussed this in depth during one of my most recent sessions with the theme of "How much food can we physically carry in our packs, HHH's, and sacks?" A long trek through the mountains was being planned.
What we came up with is that a backpack can hold roughly 1-2 cubic feet of volume in gear/objects/supplies (depending on the size of the pack). A sack would hold about 2-3 cubic feet of volume in stuff (again, depending on size).
About 8-10 days of trail rations could be stuffed into 1 cubic foot of the container. Thus, sacks were the most popular containers to stuff food into since this much food would leave little or no room for anything else.
I had a regular backpack nearby and since my game table is right off of my kitchen, it was kind of fun to grab a bunch of food and physically experiment with it. Yeah, we had some time on our hands, but it does help to give the game a sense of realism when you can physically see what your talking about lugging around. Figure, a small loaf of bread, a chunk of cheese, dried fruit and jerky... that kind of thing.
Real-life mechanics versus game mechanics is often fraught with perils ... In my game I adopt the UI style of many RPG computer games ... A backpack is a rectangle of small cells (representing its carrying capacity, typically 5x9 for a medium one) and various items are also rectangles that must fit within ... very small items are stackable (such as Gems: 10 to a stack, coins: 100 to a stack, etc) ... opening a container to pick somethinbg is a move action ... therefore getting gems in a small bag in a packsack requires 2 move actions ... various containers have their own capacity rectangles, for example, my rogue has a buckle-belt with 4 small utility containers (1 4x4, 2 2x4 and 1 2x2) ... it also helps formalizes such things as pick-pocket (since everything must be placed somewhere and thieves must specify a target container) ...
various magical/mundane enhancements are then possible:
A) greater "holding" rectangle than outside rectangle (bag of holding)
B) concealment (difficult for thieves to spot and target)
C) locks or complex opening/closing procedures
I also use a doll-figure approach to the character equipment ... One cannot have 2 backpacks for example, or have both a backpack and big double-axe strapped to the back ... It's more accounting but it's also more systematic ... I'm working on a little software tool to help with that ...
As a side note, that also put an end to characters hauling back to civilization bazillions of coins in their equipment without worrying about placement or weight ... they soon realized that hauling tons of small objects is not necessarily a trivial things ...
They even went as far as trading their coins for smaller but more convenient gems (the opposite of what usually happens in a typical campain) even if they were aware that they were loosing value in the exchange ... Their enthousiasm for such magical boons as "Bag of Holding" just skyrocketed (they tended to "humpf" at such paltry loot).