|
For those of you GMs who use encumbrance (I know not all do), do you apply the rules to mounts as well?
As far as I can tell, by RAW a "light" horse has a strength of 16 while a "heavy" horse has a strength of 20 (Bestiary: Horse, Bestiary: Advanced Template).
With those values, a light horse carrying any more than 76 pounds will be encumbered, while a heavy horse carrying any more than 133 pounds will be encumbered. (CRB 171, Table 7-4).
As a horse has a base speed of 50, its speed while encumbered would be 35 feet (CRB 170, Table under Armor and Encumbrance for Other Base Speeds).
This means that with the possible exceptions of a light horse carrying a small unarmored character, or a heavy horse carrying a very light and un-armored character, horses carrying riders would be considered encumbered and would move at the lower speed.
I'm curious how many of you use these rules, as every game I can remember had mounted horses traveling at 50.
There are modifiers for being a quad creature & maybe for the increase of size past medium. Read the rules over & you should see them (maybe on the bottom of one of the charts?). Can't look it up for you at the moment but it works out.
Large Quadrupeds multiply their carrying capacity by x3.
Each player should really enforce this themselves, the GM has enough to do besides calculating players' equipment and carrying capacity.
If you are a little heavy for your mount, a wand of Ant Haul is a good solution.
|
The light horse should be able to carry 228 lbs as a light load, which accomodates most non-melee adventurers, their armor, and their gear. A knight or any other PC who wears heavy armor should go for the heavy horse, or 399 lbs as a light load.
If you don't intend to use them in combat there isn't much reason not to push them to a heavy load unless speed of travel is essential. In this case the horses can handle 690 lbs and 1200 lbs, respectively.
A wand of Ant Haul CL 4th triples those numbers for 8 hrs/day per charge for 3,000gp, or 2hrs/day per charge for 750gp.
If I'm starting above 1st level, there are times when I have my PC buy a mule and cart.
So where are these rules about quadrupeds and carrying capacity? Not that they're specifically germane to the situation I'm thinking of, but I'd like to review them.
The encumbrance of mounts is an issue that has come up recently in our local PFS group, where a gnome sorcerer is riding his (medium sized) serpentine eidolon pretty much all the time. He already erroneously thinks that double dipping on the climb evolution somehow gave the eidolon a regular move of 40 and I really need to be sure of these rules the next time I GM him.
Serpentine eidolon's have a base move of 20 and a strength of 12. By my thinking, if its carrying more than 43 pounds it should be encumbered and moving at a reduced speed of 15, yes? Male gnomes have a base weight of 35 pounds with a modifier of 2d4 x 1 lb., so at the most that leaves 6 pounds of wiggle room.
Nobody has yet checked to see if he's using a saddle (we're just now discussing how to break the fact that we're going to start requiring Ride checks per the Ride skill and mounted combat rules), but unless he wants a -5 on those, he's going to need an exotic saddle. Those weigh either 30 pounds (riding) or 40 pounds (military) all by themselves.
Even if he talks us out of the need for a saddle (and all the other GMs will have to vote against me if that's the case), I assume he's at least, y'know, wearing clothing and has a spell component pouch. I know he has a light crossbow.
Bigger and Smaller Creatures: The figures on Table: Carrying Capacity are for Medium bipedal creatures. A larger bipedal creature can carry more weight depending on its size category, as follows: Large ×2, Huge ×4, Gargantuan ×8, Colossal ×16. A smaller creature can carry less weight depending on its size category, as follows: Small ×3/4, Tiny ×1/2, Diminutive ×1/4, Fine ×1/8.
Quadrupeds can carry heavier loads than bipeds can. Multiply the values corresponding to the creature's Strength score from Table: Carrying Capacity by the appropriate modifier, as follows: Fine ×1/4, Diminutive ×1/2, Tiny ×3/4, Small ×1, Medium ×1-1/2, Large ×3, Huge ×6, Gargantuan ×12, Colossal ×24.
Right there on p. 174! Thanks, Quatar.
Two things that jump out at me. There's nothing there about creatures that are neither bipedal nor quadrupeds, such as the serpentine eidolon I'm thinking about it.
Also, holy moly, halflings and gnomes (and other small character races) are supposed to be multiplying the values on Table 7-4 by 3/4! I never noticed that! That really diminishes the amount that those characters can carry a LOT. Those gnomish sorcerers with 5 strength are actually encumbered at 12 pounds, not 17! Good thing Ultimate Equipment clarified that clothing for small characters only weigh one-quarter the listed amounts!
If someone makes a small race AND dumps their strength down to 7 before racials... well yes, they should pay dearly for that choice.
Remember that most equipment for small chracters only weights 1/4 of the list value though.
I would treat the serpentine eidolon as a quadruped myself, as they distribute the weight in a similar manor across their back and body.
However for PFS... Uhm... best ask over there.
And yes, he would have to make Ride checks, it doesn't matter if the mount is more intelligent than usual.
Thanks again. I note that on equipment weights for small characters, weapons and armor weigh 1/2, not 1/4. And the only things I see at a quick glance that are specifically listed as being quarter-weighted for small characters are sets of clothing. I'm sure I'm missing something there though.
Ah, I see that various other items are listed as having 1/4 (and 3/4) weights when made for small characters--looking at the tables in Ultimate Equipment.