Armor Training and Encumbrance by weight


Rules Questions


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I am familiar with encumbrance by armor, and was working on a home built charactersheet, when I noticed something odd.

When a fighter gets Armor Training, he can move normally in med armor. Which means, using encumbrance by armor, he moves like he is in light armor. However, if you do encumbrance by weight, the fighter can easily fall into the med load category and his training no longer counts. (This is as written, as I read it -- which may be lacking.)

I ran some numbers and discovered that there are lots of cases, Str 13-14 or less where you can be in light armor, NOT be weak - str 9 or less, NOT a lot of gear, yet you fall into med load.

This got me to wondering if Armor Training also kicks in with encumbrance by weight? This seems the most logical, since otherwise, you have to define "lots of gear" and weak. Further, it would render useless the fighter's cornerstone ability.

If Armor Training does not effect encumbrance by weight, then you can end up in the situation where you should be moving normally, applying your high dex, using skills without penalty, but your 7th level fighter cannot, because his gear is too heavy.

What is the official position? How does Armor Training work with Encumbrance by Weight?

The Exchange

As a fighter if you don't have sufficient strength to carry your gear and not be encumbranced then something is wrong. If said fighter is based more on Dex and movement then generally they carry less of said gear.

As far as RAW goes, Armor Training only helps with encumbrance by armor, not by weight.

Scarab Sages

+1

A melee fighter (who needs the movement because they're wearing heavy armor) will also be pouring all of their stat increases into Str. Or at least, they should be for a lot of reasons. :)

A ranged fighter (who doesn't need as much armor and thus likely has a good movement rate to begin with) doesn't need to worry too much about encumbrance since they're going to be wearing lighter armor and carrying less gear. That's what the handy haversack is all about. :) And for those without an HH, I've had players tell me they were having backpacks built with a single latch release in the front so they could unlatch it and the backpack falls to the ground (as a move action) thus removing the weight penalty (and potentially losing some gear, but that's another story).


Thank you gentlemen. I appreciate the interest.

I had hoped to get the company position. Failing that I will use my own solution; armor proficiency will negate the weight of proficient armor for purposes of calculating encumbrance by weight.

Armor still limits your Dex and impacts your skills and the weight of the armor counts against max load. All in line with the encumbrance rules and it keeps Armor Training effective.


lordrichter wrote:

Thank you gentlemen. I appreciate the interest.

I had hoped to get the company position. Failing that I will use my own solution; armor proficiency will negate the weight of proficient armor for purposes of calculating encumbrance by weight.

Armor still limits your Dex and impacts your skills and the weight of the armor counts against max load. All in line with the encumbrance rules and it keeps Armor Training effective.

I like that solution. If I ever actually use encumbrance by numbers instead of instinct I am totally stealing that.

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