I don't have a problem with the encumberance rules. The reason for that is that I don't normally track encumberance in my games, but only do so when I feel the characters are overloading themselves or in other specific circumstances when I feel it is warranted, at which point I tell my players to check their encumberance. At that point, it provides me with accurate and specific information about how much weight is too much.
That said, I can see how some groups, who do try to track encumberance all the time, would find the encumberance rules cumbersome (pun intended). I think the best approach is not to change the system, or at least not dramatically, but rather to find a way of quickly estimating whether characters are close to the tipping point when it would make sense to begin tracking encumberance. This would involve advising the DM/players not to routinelly track encumberance unless the characters come close to the encumberance limit.
This can be eyeballed, which is how I deal with it in my games, and that may well be sufficient. We can, however, also try to develop a method for quickly estimating whether a character is close to the encumberance limit.
Every character has several basic items that rarely get removed/added to the equipment list, yet that weight a lot. This refers especially to armor and weapons. There is little reason not to pre-calculate the mass of armor and weapons he character carries, since this rarely tends to change (excluding collecting loot, but that is not the character's primary equipment). The weights of the items that form the characters primary equipment should be added up and the number should be subtracted from the carrying capacity. The resulting number gives us the discretionary carrying capacity. This is all pre-calculated and only rarely changes, as I will show below.
What changes often is the loot the characters collect as well as expendable items they carry. As such, a convenient way to deal with this would be to simply say that encumberance does not need to be tracked, as long as no non-primary item is heavier than 3 pounds and the total number of items (sets of items, such as 10 arrows can count as 1 item) does not exceed a certain number. This number would be pre-calculated as follows:
Number Limit = (Carrying Capacity [Light Load] - Primary Equipment Weight) / 3
The pre-calculation isn't any easier than an initial calculation of encumberance, but the system would allow for tracking only the number of perishable/expendable/loot items, rather than having to track their weight. Exceeding the Number Limit, however, would be a red flag for the DM that the character is probably overloading too much and he might want to call on the player to begin tracking his character's encumberance normally.
Most people, of course, would still just eyeball when encumberance needs to be tracked, but the above could provide a guideline for those who want to play it safe. Regardless, it might be helful for some groups if the rules explicitly stated that encumberance only needs to be tracked if it seems the characters are overloading themselves.
It could help to deal with items weight as dollar bills (bear with me):
Use only 0 (negligeable) - 1 - 5 and 10 lbs on the gear charts and every heavy item in tens (20-30-40lbs, etc.).
The math is quick and easy.
Character sheet should have a section for easy-drop items/bags that adventurer drop when fighting (when one stops being flat-footed he's assumed to have droped that stuff in his first sqaure).
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I find the half-pound and 1/10 pound items a pain to track, not so much anything else.
Usually, encumberance is an issue in our game up to the point they all buy Handy Haversacks and Bags of Holding, and then, not so much... every once in a while I have to ask "how are you fitting 35 suits of masterwork plate into your haversack?", but not that often ...
[from the welcome tread...]
I've been using a burden system to simplify encumbrance since 2nd ed. Basically, items have a burden based on their weight and awkwardness (a ladder may not be heavy but it may be awkward to carry around the dungeon...)
Characters can carry up to their STR score worth of burden before being encumbered, and up to twice their STR score before being heavily encumbered.
As a rule of thumb burden is about 1 point for 5 lbs. A light weapon = 1 burden point, 1-handed weapon = 2 points, 2-handed weapon = 3 points. Armor burden = skill check penalty. Coins = 1 point / 100 pieces. Dry ration = 1 / week, water and perishable supplies = 1 / day, etc.
I find it a happy medium between by-the-pound tracking and mere common sense. It worked perfectly for our needs.
'findel
I find the half-pound and 1/10 pound items a pain to track, not so much anything else.
Usually, encumberance is an issue in our game up to the point they all buy Handy Haversacks and Bags of Holding, and then, not so much... every once in a while I have to ask "how are you fitting 35 suits of masterwork plate into your haversack?", but not that often ...
The same in my games. I track Encumberance early on as it forces the players to figure out who can carry what and how often they need to return to town and sell. Even then, it typically affects low strength spellcasters the most.
To off set this, I allow for masterwork backpacks (effectively hiking packs) that provide a +2 circumstance bonus to Strength for figuring encumbrance.
Once players get haversacks, it is no longer an issue. I typically award one or two as treasure early on too.
Hmm, I don't really want to change the encumberance system itself. At most, I want a method that helps the DM and Players eyeball when encumberance becomes worth tracking, though even that is not really necessary for me.
I do think the rules should explicitly state that encumberance should not be tracked unless there is reason to suspect that a character is overloading himself. That's what I do already and I suspect that's what most groups do, but it would ease the burden on those groups that want to play everything by the rules.
I find my groups generally ignore the encumbrance rules except in specific cases, such as 8 str wizards or carrying all the loot from hook mountain back to town. I don't think encumbrance needs all that much change.
Hmm, one thing that is ill-defined about encumberance is how it interacts with strength checks. For example - can a character lift a weight that is more than twice his maximum encumberance above his head with an appropriate strength check?
It would be helpful to have some sort of table for strengh checks to determine what result equals what amount of weight lifted.
There are two reasonable options as to how to do this, as derived from the current rules.
1) Lifting twice the maximum encumberance would be the equivalent of taking 10 on the strength check.
2) Lifting the maximum encumberance would be the equivalent of taking 10 on the strength check.
I did the calculations with some interesting results. I would favor using option 2 and completely rule out option 1.
Option 1 gives ridiculously high amounts of lifting power to the characters.
Option 1 Table: (2xMax. Encumberance = Taking 10 on Strength Checks)
Strength
Check DC
...........Weight Lifted (lb)
5..........20
6..........40
7..........80
8..........120
9..........160
10.........200
11.........260
12.........350
13.........460
14.........600
15.........800
16.........1040
17.........1400
18.........1840
19.........2400
20.........3600
+5.........x4
The table is derived by using the lower strength score for a given bonus to calculate the weight lifted, except for DC 5, which is based on strength 1, since there are no scores lower than that apart from score 0. It would be more consistent to use odd numbers (or to use averages), but it would increase the weight lifted even further and it seems far too high already.
Option 2 still gives considerable lifting power, but it is less egregious than in option 1.
Option 2 Table: (Max. Encumberance = Taking 10 on Strength Checks)
Strength
Check DC
...........Weight Lifted (lb)
5..........10
6..........30
7..........50
8..........70
9..........90
10.........115
11.........150
12.........200
13.........260
14.........350
15.........460
16.........600
17.........700
18.........920
19.........1,200
20.........2,240
+5.........x4
The table is derived by using the higher strength score for a given bonus to calculate the weight lifted.
Alternative Option 2 Table derived by using the average (mean) strength score for a given bonus to calculate the weight lifted:
Option 2 Table: (Max. Encumberance = Taking 10 on Strength Checks)
Strength
Check DC
...........Weight Lifted (lb)
5..........5
6..........25
7..........45
8..........65
9..........85
10.........107.5 --> rounded to either 107 or 108
11.........140
12.........187.5 --> rounded to either 187 or 188
13.........245
14.........325
15.........430
16.........560
17.........750
18.........980
19.........1,120
20.........2,120
+5.........x4
The table is derived by using the average (mean) strength score for a given bonus to calculate the weight lifted.
The first option 2 table gives neater/cleaner numbers, whereas the second option 2 table gives more accurate numbers, which also happen to be slightly lower (that's a good thing). Ultimately, though, either one would work pretty well.