Do You Even Lift Bro/ How To Get The Maximum Carrying Capacity

[Allistar]

I know that carrying capacity does absolutely nothing for a character, but I thought it would be fun to make a build around it anyways. The build is fairly straightforward, we want to dead lift the heaviest thing in the city and throw it at somebody, so without further ado lets get into this.

You don't really have to do a lot in fact there's only 4 things you really have to do

Be a goliath, and get the ability "Powerful Build" in order to double your cap
Be a barbarian and go down the "Path of the Totems"
When you get your ASI take the "Brawny" feat in order to double it again
At level 6 take the "Bear Aspect" in order to double it yet again

Assuming you can boost your strength score to 20 this gives you a carrying capacity of 2400 lb. and a push, pull lift and drag weight of 4800 lb. Being able to lift an adult great white shark is cool

But Wait There's More

If you are able to get a belt of storm giant strength, your strength score becomes 29
This in conjunction with a few wizards casting enlarge on you so that you become gargantuan gives you an utterly ridiculous carrying capacity of 27,840 lb. and a push pull lift and drag weight of 55,680 lb. You can litterally dead lift a Spinosaurus without breaking a sweat, and you're only a ton or so off of being able to pick up a Brontosaurus

To my knowledge these are all of the ways to increase carrying capacity, but there are multiple ways to go about making this kind of build. Tell me if I missed anything, and share your builds if you have any.

[GreyBlack]

I know that carrying capacity does absolutely nothing for a character, but I thought it would be fun to make a build around it anyways. The build is fairly straightforward, we want to dead lift the heaviest thing in the city and throw it at somebody, so without further ado lets get into this.

You don't really have to do a lot in fact there's only 4 things you really have to do

Be a goliath, and get the ability "Powerful Build" in order to double your cap
Be a barbarian and go down the "Path of the Totems"
When you get your ASI take the "Brawny" feat in order to double it again
At level 6 take the "Bear Aspect" in order to double it yet again

Assuming you can boost your strength score to 20 this gives you a carrying capacity of 2400 lb. and a push, pull lift and drag weight of 4800 lb.

But Wait There's More

If you are able to get a belt of storm giant strength, your strength score becomes 29
This in conjunction with a few wizards casting enlarge on you so that you become gargantuan gives you an utterly ridiculous carrying capacity of 27,840 lb. and a push pull lift and drag weight of 55,680 lb.

To my knowledge these are all of the ways to increase carrying capacity, but there are multiple ways to go about making this kind of build. Tell me if I missed anything, and share your builds if you have any.

Casting Enhance Ability (Bull's Strength) doubles this again, bringing the carrying capacity to 55,680 lbs. and the pull/push/lift/drag weight to 111,360 lbs.

[Allistar]

Casting Enhance Ability (Bull's Strength) doubles this again, bringing the carrying capacity to 55,680 lbs. and the pull/push/lift/drag weight to 111,360 lbs.

Nice catch. I think my party has only ever used this spell 4 times over the years, but it was always to make sure the rogue would have an absolute 0% chance to fail his stealth rolls.

[Galithar]

You can't stack Enlarge. You could only use it to become large because spell effects don't stack, only one will take effect. Which sadly cuts your total from Gargantuan at 8x multiplier to just large for a 2x multiplier.

Though as stated above using enhance ability makes up for some of that.

[Allistar]

You can't stack Enlarge. You could only use it to become large because spell effects don't stack, only one will take effect. Which sadly cuts your total from Gargantuan at 8x multiplier to just large for a 2x multiplier.

Though as stated above using enhance ability makes up for some of that.

Why would enlarge not stack, all it says is the target's size increases by one category for the duration?

The first person would make you large when they cast it, then the next person would cast it and because you're already large you would presumably go to huge, then the final person casts it and because you're already huge you would presumably become gargantuan.

[Sigreid]

Why would enlarge not stack, all it says is the target's size increases by one category for the duration?

The first person would make you large when they cast it, then the next person would cast it and because you're already large you would presumably go to huge, then the final person casts it and because you're already huge you would presumably become gargantuan.

The rules say the same spell effect from multiple spells don't stack. Instead, the strongest takes precedence.

[nickl_2000]

Two levels of Moon Druid allows you to wildshape into an Ox, which is a Large base creature and has "beast of burden" causing it to count as huge for carrying capacity.


So, with two levels, now you can consider yourself huge as a base. Then you get to add everything else in.

[Sigreid]

Don't centaurs get the 4 legged benefit?

[Naanomi]

Why belt or giant’s strength instead of a ton of Manuals of Strength for 30 STR?

[Aprender]

If a wizard casts enlarge on you every day for a year, do you permanently grow to the bigger size? At that point, can a new casting raise you by an additional size? Rinse and repeat, as my shampoo bottle says.

[Allistar]

The rules say the same spell effect from multiple spells don't stack. Instead, the strongest takes precedence.

Dang, didn't know that...... there's probably a few other ways to increase size though. I can't recall anything, but I guarantee there is some way to become gargantuan


Two levels of Moon Druid allows you to wildshape into an Ox, which is a Large base creature and has "beast of burden" causing it to count as huge for carrying capacity.


So, with two levels, now you can consider yourself huge as a base. Then you get to add everything else in.

Yeah, I didn't really think about that. I suppose you could get polymorphed, but I forget whether or not you get to keep your racial features while you're in the other shape. I think It's the case with true polymorph but I don't have my books on me right now.


Don't centaurs get the 4 legged benefit?

I have no Idea what you're talking about. If I remember correctly they have equine build which was basically powerful build, but you could also let somebody ride you as a mount, but I don't know because I've never run them. (again I don't have my books)


Why belt or giant’s strength instead of a ton of Manuals of Strength for 30 STR?
Fair enough, although this boi would have to have a lot of money or a lot of time.

That would increase the carrying cap by 1,920 lb and the push/pull by 3840 lb.


If a wizard casts enlarge on you every day for a year, do you permanently grow to the bigger size? At that point, can a new casting raise you by an additional size? Rinse and repeat, as my shampoo bottle says.

This is kind of reminding me of a layer of hell that I made for one of my games. Basically a mad titan was chained to the bottom of the plane by massive planewide network of massive immovable rods and forced to hoist it up for all of eternity. I think I was going to do something with him escaping at one point, but my group kind of moved away before I could.

[Cerefel]

I know that carrying capacity does absolutely nothing for a character, but I thought it would be fun to make a build around it anyways. The build is fairly straightforward, we want to dead lift the heaviest thing in the city and throw it at somebody, so without further ado lets get into this.

You don't really have to do a lot in fact there's only 4 things you really have to do

Be a goliath, and get the ability "Powerful Build" in order to double your cap
Be a barbarian and go down the "Path of the Totems"
When you get your ASI take the "Brawny" feat in order to double it again
At level 6 take the "Bear Aspect" in order to double it yet again

Assuming you can boost your strength score to 20 this gives you a carrying capacity of 2400 lb. and a push, pull lift and drag weight of 4800 lb. Being able to lift an adult great white shark is cool

I think there's a rule that you're not accounting for here. Effects that double something (in this case carrying capacity) stack additively, not multiplicatively. In short, two doublings is a tripling, not a quadroupling. The carrying capacity here would be 1200, not 2400

[Sigreid]

So, this is DM dependent, but it's definitely in the DMG. You can mix potions of enlarge with other potions hoping that the potion of enlarge becomes permanent. The catch is, this is really dangerous with a good chance you'll die. :smallbiggrin:

[Dalebert]

My firbolg moon druid did pretty well just from being a firbolg moon druid. They are treated as one size bigger. So when he turned into a Quetzlecoatl, a huge flying dinosaur, he was treated as gargantuan. We figured out he could easily lift the entire party and their gear, much of which could merge with him and not even count, and we made a sort of carrying cart with seats and a big handle across the top to travel in style.

So my thought is go primarily moon druid for the size and a boosted str and then stack as much of the rest of that as dips to enhance further.

From "Size and Strength" p. 176 of the PHB:

For each size category above Medium, double the creature’s carrying capacity and the amount it can push, drag, or lift.

[Lupine]

Couldn't you just have your high level wizard buddy cast wish so that you have no limits to your carry capacity? It would take DM's decision, but if we're allowing characters to get hundreds of thousands of carry capacity, that already isn't anything anyone will remotely get close to. So I ask, Why not?

If your DM says no, then ask if when mixing potions, you can chose the effect. then simply do as another poster said, and permanently enlarge yourself, make yourself stronger (Side note, you could get haste as a permanent effect, resolving "how fast can you go" as well.)

EDIT, that was Sigreid

[MaxWilson]

This in conjunction with a few wizards casting enlarge on you so that you become gargantuan gives you an utterly ridiculous carrying capacity of 27,840 lb. and a push pull lift and drag weight of 55,680 lb. You can litterally dead lift a Spinosaurus without breaking a sweat, and you're only a ton or so off of being able to pick up a Brontosaurus

Huh. I had no idea Brontosauruses were so light. I figured they were forty or fifty tons or so, but they're not. (I could have sworn that brachiosauruses were a hundred tons, but apparently those estimates have been revised since I was a kid. Blue whales are still up to 165 tons though, according to Google.)

[Allistar]

So, this is DM dependent, but it's definitely in the DMG. You can mix potions of enlarge with other potions hoping that the potion of enlarge becomes permanent. The catch is, this is really dangerous with a good chance you'll die. :smallbiggrin:

Nice, and it's totally worth it if you get to do stupid stuff.


My firbolg moon druid did pretty well just from being a firbolg moon druid. They are treated as one size bigger. So when he turned into a Quetzlecoatl, a huge flying dinosaur, he was treated as gargantuan. We figured out he could easily lift the entire party and their gear, much of which could merge with him and not even count, and we made a sort of carrying cart with seats and a big handle across the top to travel in style.

So my thought is go primarily moon druid for the size and a boosted str and then stack as much of the rest of that as dips to enhance further.

From "Size and Strength" p. 176 of the PHB:

That sounds awesome, and like the best way to make an entrance with style. I'm looking into the build but as a druid and it's weird how much flavor you can put into this build as well as all of the stupid stuff. (barbarian and druid spirituality stuff is always neat)


Couldn't you just have your high level wizard buddy cast wish so that you have no limits to your carry capacity? It would take DM's decision, but if we're allowing characters to get hundreds of thousands of carry capacity, that already isn't anything anyone will remotely get close to. So I ask, Why not?

If your DM says no, then ask if when mixing potions, you can chose the effect. then simply do as another poster said, and permanently enlarge yourself, make yourself stronger (Side note, you could get haste as a permanent effect, resolving "how fast can you go" as well.)

EDIT, that was Sigreid

I mean casting wish really cracks open a lot of builds, but yeah I guess that works. As long as your wizard buddy is willing to risk the 1/3 chance that he'll never be able to cast the spell again in exchange for now having a titan for a friend, go for it.

Mixing potions of haste until it becomes permanent also reminded me of the flash build that I made a while ago. I forget exactly how fast we got, but I think it was somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 MPH.

[suplee215]

Giant soul sorcerer if UA is allowed (which brawny is). Unsure if it outpaces barbarian but you can get to huge size by using enlarge and 2 instances of a high level subclass ability.

[Lupine]

I mean casting wish really cracks open a lot of builds, but yeah I guess that works. As long as your wizard buddy is willing to risk the 1/3 chance that he'll never be able to cast the spell again in exchange for now having a titan for a friend, go for it.

True. That's kind of the point of wish though.

[GlenSmash!]

Becoming a Werebear will let you be size large in Hybrid form.