Encumbrance

Heavy gear and armor can weigh heroes down, restricting their mobility. Encumbered characters suffer penalties to applicable skill checks, based on their current level of Encumbrance. Applicable skills are indicated as such in their descriptions. When heroes discard weight, their levels of Encumbrance go away. When calculating encumbrance due to load, remember to ignore the weight of the hero’s armor, which is already factored into its Encumbrance value.

Example: Arbosh wears chainmail armor. The armor’s weight gives the dwarf two levels of the condition Encumbrance. However, Arbosh possesses the special ability Inured to Encumbrance I, which lets him ignore one level of Encumbrance (i.e. two steps in the chart on the upper right). Thus he only suffers one level of the condition.

• I Mildly Encumbered: –1 penalty to applicable skill checks, –1 to AT, Defense, INI, and MOV
  
• II Encumbered: –2 penalty to applicable skill checks, –2 to AT, Defense, INI, and MOV
  
• III Heavily Encumbered: –3 penalty to applicable skill checks, 3 to AT, Defense, INI, and MOV
  
• IV Incapacitated: you can do nothing but set down the weight and rest