Dwarf Question of Armor and Movement?

[John Mark Brown]

I made my first cleric, and he is a dwarf. In the rules it says he can move 20 feet, without modifications by armor or encumbrance.

Does that mean I can wear any armor and can still move 20 feet?

Am I reading that right?

Thanks for any help!

John

[Jeraa]

Correct. Normally, medium and heavy armor slow a character down. If that character was a dwarf, he speed remains unchanged.

[John Mark Brown]

Jeraa wrote:

Correct. Normally, medium and heavy armor slow a character down. If that character was a dwarf, he speed remains unchanged.

Ok, thank you so much!

[jerrys]

but you'd still have the armor check penalty, right? Particularly in the case of a cleric wearing heavy armor, for which he is not proficient - I think you get the penalty on your attack rolls.

[Jeraa]

jerrys wrote:

but you'd still have the armor check penalty, right? Particularly in the case of a cleric wearing heavy armor, for which he is not proficient - I think you get the penalty on your attack rolls.

Correct. The only thing being a dwarf does is remove the speed penalty - any other penalties (such as armor check penalty, or arcane spell failure chance) still apply.

Someone who is wearing armor they are not proficient in takes the armors Armor Check Penalty as a penalty on all attack rolls, in addition to the normal penalty (the penalty on Strength and Dexterity-based skill checks). Which is why mithral bucklers and mithral chain shirts are commonly used - with an ACP of -0, there is no penalty while wearing them if you are non-proficient.

[John Mark Brown]

Jeraa wrote:

jerrys wrote:

but you'd still have the armor check penalty, right? Particularly in the case of a cleric wearing heavy armor, for which he is not proficient - I think you get the penalty on your attack rolls.

Correct. The only thing being a dwarf does is remove the speed penalty - any other penalties (such as armor check penalty, or arcane spell failure chance) still apply.

Someone who is wearing armor they are not proficient in takes the armors Armor Check Penalty as a penalty on all attack rolls, in addition to the normal penalty (the penalty on Strength and Dexterity-based skill checks). Which is why mithral bucklers and mithral chain shirts are commonly used - with an ACP of -0, there is no penalty while wearing them if you are non-proficient.

Okay, I see what your saying. Thanks again!

[Dragonchess Player]

Also note that, if you take the Travel domain, your movement increases to 30 ft, which remains 30 ft in medium or heavy armor. Additionally, if under the effect of expeditious retreat, longstrider, or haste (or other effects granting enhancement bonuses to movement), your effective movement is still not reduced for medium or heavy armor.

[John Mark Brown]

Dragonchess Player wrote:

Also note that, if you take the Travel domain, your movement increases to 30 ft, which remains 30 ft in medium or heavy armor. Additionally, if under the effect of expeditious retreat, longstrider, or haste (or other effects granting enhancement bonuses to movement), your effective movement is still not reduced for medium or heavy armor.

Cool, good to know. Thanks!

[Eirvit]

Recently my Dwarf wearing Stoneplate Armor was reduced to 1 Strength. I'm not exactly certain how the lifting and encumbrance rules work out in this situation, but it appeared that the blanket rule that a Dwarf always can move 20 feet overruled any of these considerations. I let him walk right on out of the dungeon to see to his situation. I think this is hilarious, and I love it, but if I'm running the game right, it does seem like an illogical freak of the system.

[_Ozy_]

Pretty sure you can't move if you can't lift your load. Surely you wouldn't let a normal dwarf carry a 10 ton rock because his 'movement isn't slowed by encumbrance'...

[kinevon]

In the end, it depends on how he got to an effective Strength of 1.

Damage or penalty? No effect on his carrying capacity, neither of those actually reduce the score.
Drain? Yes, that will affect his carrying capacity, as that actually reduces the score.

[Mysterious Stranger]

The strange thing is a dwarf armored hulk barbarian actually increases his speed when wearing heavy armor after 5th level. They go from 20 feet to 30 feet movement. It’s kind of cheesy and to be honest I probably would house rule against it in one of my games, but according to RAW it is true.

[Diego Rossi]

Eirvit wrote:

Recently my Dwarf wearing Stoneplate Armor was reduced to 1 Strength. I'm not exactly certain how the lifting and encumbrance rules work out in this situation, but it appeared that the blanket rule that a Dwarf always can move 20 feet overruled any of these considerations. I let him walk right on out of the dungeon to see to his situation. I think this is hilarious, and I love it, but if I'm running the game right, it does seem like an illogical freak of the system.

PRD wrote:

Slow and Steady: Dwarves have a base speed of 20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or encumbrance.

PRD wrote:

Table: Carrying Capacity
Strength Score
Light Load 3 lbs. or less
Medium Load 4–6 lbs
Heavy Load 7–10 lbs.

....

A character can lift as much as double his maximum load off the ground, but he or she can only stagger around with it. While overloaded in this way, the character loses any Dexterity bonus to AC and can move only 5 feet per round (as a full-round action).

A character can generally push or drag along the ground as much as five times his maximum load. Favorable conditions can double these numbers, and bad circumstances can reduce them by half or more.

So a Dwarf with 1 strength can move at 20' with 20 lbs of encumbrance while losing his dexterity bonus.

More than that and he need to remove the armor and drag it along.
He can't still move more than 50 lbs of material.

Stoneplate weight 75 lbs, so he was unable to move it.

[Eirvit]

Nice! Thank you! This was breaking the mind of one of my players. I'm definitely going to link our group page here for his edification!