5e Sheet - Encumbrance not Calculating (Maybe for Goliath?)

Hi all, I'm struggling with Encumbrance in the 5e sheet for a particular character. No matter how much weight I give this character, I never see any indication of encumbrance, such as a visual indicator or drop in speed. I 've tried playing with the settings at both the game level and the character sheet level. Nothing I do seems to have an impact. The Encumbrance attribute in the character sheet just always remains blank. I've tried changing the name of the sheet - no dice. I tried a second character, and it seems to work fine (set to Simple).  The problematic character is a goliath from Explorer's Guide to Wildemount. They have a trait called "Powerful Build" that is supposed to affect carrying capacity. I'm not sure if something related to this race is what's impacting things. I tried creating a second goliath - same issue. Also, even with the character who "works," all it seems to do is display "Over Carrying Capacity." It doesn't impact the character's speed. Is that the expected behavior? Thanks!

if you'd like, I can come into the game and check it out for you? Discord name Novercalis#4303 just hmu

Hi Steven! The encumbrance field only indicates the encumbrance level, it does not alter any other stats. As for your character that is not calculating a weight total, try looking at the values in the equipment. In theory, it should ignore any weight value that is non-numerical. I.e. "25" is counted, but "*25" is not. This allows you to discount things in a bag of holding or carried on your mount. Although you should be able to peut weird values in there without an issue, there's always the possibility of an edge case.

keithcurtis said: Hi Steven! The encumbrance field only indicates the encumbrance level, it does not alter any other stats. As for your character that is not calculating a weight total, try looking at the values in the equipment. In theory, it should ignore any weight value that is non-numerical. I.e. "25" is counted, but "*25" is not. This allows you to discount things in a bag of holding or carried on your mount. Although you should be able to peut weird values in there without an issue, there's always the possibility of an edge case. Nope, nothing there, unless zero weight items are somehow throwing something off. The weight values in the inventory are: 0,0,10,2,2,4,25,4,0,5,7,1,1,1,2,5,10. Plus 10 gp.

OK, I went back and re-read your first post. Although you said "I've tried playing with the settings at both the game level and the character sheet level", i t sounds like the results you would see if encumbrance were set to "Simple". If you have not already tried this, switch Inventory on the sheet settings tab to "Compendium Compatible". It will then give you the different levels of encumbrance.

keithcurtis said: OK, I went back and re-read your first post. Although you said "I've tried playing with the settings at both the game level and the character sheet level", i t sounds like the results you would see if encumbrance were set to "Simple". If you have not already tried this, switch Inventory on the sheet settings tab to "Compendium Compatible". It will then give you the different levels of encumbrance. So, curiouser and curiouser. Today I went back into my settings to try your suggestion, and it had mysteriously changed, at both the game and sheet level, to "Compendium Compatible." I don't know if you have magic powers to do that, but I definitely didn't do that. Regardless, the same issue persists. The goliath doesn't register as encumbered.

The values you posted only total 80 pounds. That should not encumber the typical goliath in any way. But in any case, I gave you bad direction above. The actual attribute to change is just above that. You need to change "encumbrance" to "Variant (PHB p. 176)". This should give you the varying degrees.

I’ll give it a try when I get back to my computer! But I also upped my gold so that the weight was 320 and it still didn’t do anything. I’m not looking to use variant tho, just RAW encumbrance. 

The variant is the version that determines levels of encumbrance. The standard rules just determine carrying capacity. Also, a goliath with 16 strength would need to cary 321 pounds to be over capacity. Variant: Encumbrance The rules for Lifting and Carrying are intentionally simple. Here is a variant if you are looking for more detailed rules for determining how a character is hindered by the weight of Equipment. When you use this variant, ignore the Strength column of the Armor table. If you carry weight in excess of 5 times your Strength score, you are encumbered , which means your speed drops by 10 feet. If you carry weight in excess of 10 times your Strength score, up to your maximum carrying Capacity, you are instead heavily encumbered , which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on Ability Checks, Attack rolls, and Saving Throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution.

OK, I'm not sure why this is so confusing for me, but so, under variant encumbrance, a 19 str goliath would be: Unencumbered up to 19x10= 190 lbs Encumbered between 191 and 380 (speed -10) Heavily encumbered between 380 and 570 (speed -20 and disadvantage on ability checks, attack rolls, and saving throws that use Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution) Immobile over 571 And for any other race without the Powerful Build trait, it would be half that. Does that sound about right? (And also, with everything set to Variant rules, I am now (finally) seeing the categories! Thank you!)

I think that is accurate. Keep in mind that the sheet won't apply any of the speed and Save modifiers, Just remind you of your encumbrance levels. There are lots of variables that might affect speed and saving throws, and building that logic into the sheet would open up a case of cans of worms.

Awesome, I think I'm good for now then! Thanks, as always!