Strength

Strength measures bodily power, athletic training and the extent to which you can exert raw physical force.

Strength Checks

A Strength check can model any attempt to lift, push, pull, or break something, to force your body through a space, or to otherwise apply brute force to a situation. The Athletics skill reflects aptitude in certain kinds of Strength checks.

The GM might also call for a Strength check when you try to accomplish tasks like the following:

Force open a stuck, locked, or barred door
Break free of bonds
Push through a tunnel that is too small
Hang on to a wagon while being dragged behind it
Tip over a statue
Keep a boulder from rolling

Attack Rolls and Damage

You add your Strength modifier to your attack roll and your damage roll when attacking with a melee weapon such as a mace, a battleaxe, or a javelin. You use melee weapons to make melee attacks in hand-to-hand combat, and some of them can be thrown to make a ranged attack.

Lifting and Carrying

Your Strength score determines the amount of weight that you can bear.

If you want to determine whether your character’s gear is heavy enough to slow them down, total the weight of all the character’s items, including armour, weapons, and gear. Compare this total to the character’s Strength on the Carrying Capacity table. Depending on the character’s carrying capacity, they may be carrying a light, medium, or heavy load.

A light load does not encumber a character.
A medium load reduces a character’s speed by 10 feet, limits their maximum Dexterity bonus to defence to +3, and imparts disadvantage on physical ability checks.
A heavy load reduces a character’s speed by 20 feet, limits their maximum Dexterity bonus to defence to +1, imparts disadvantage on physical ability checks and attack rolls, and grants advantage to attempts to hit the character’s Strength and Dexterity defences.

A character can lift as much as their maximum load over their head. A character can lift as much as double their maximum load off the ground, but they can only stagger around with it. While overloaded in this way, the character loses any Dexterity bonus to defence and can move only 5 feet per round as an 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.

The numbers shown in the Carrying Capacity table 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. A smaller creature can carry less weight depending on its size category, as follows: Small ×3/4, Tiny ×1/2.

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: Tiny ×3/4, Small ×1, Medium ×1.5, Large ×3, Huge ×6, Gargantuan ×12.

Carrying Capacity (lbs)

Strength	Light Load	Medium Load	Heavy Load	Max Load
1	0–3	4–6	7–9	12
2	0–6	7–12	13–18	24
3	0–10	11–20	21–30	40
4	0–13	14–27	28–40	53
5	0–17	18–33	34–50	67
6	0–20	21–40	41–60	80
7	0–23	24–47	48–70	93
8	0–27	28–53	54–80	107
9	0–30	31–60	61–90	120
10	0–33	34–67	68–100	133
11	0–38	39–77	78–115	153
12	0–43	44–87	88–130	173
13	0–50	51–100	101–150	200
14	0–58	59–117	118–175	233
15	0–66	67–133	134–200	266
16	0–77	78–153	154–230	307
17	0–87	88–173	174–260	347
18	0–100	101–200	201–300	400
19	0–117	118–233	234–350	467
20	0–133	134–267	268–400	533
21	0–153	154–307	308–460	613
22	0–173	174–347	348–520	693
23	0–200	201–400	401–600	800
24	0–233	234–467	468–700	933
25	0–267	268–533	534–800	1067
26	0–307	208–613	614–920	1227
27	0–347	348–693	694–1040	1387
28	0–400	401–800	801–1200	1600
29	0–467	468-933	934–1400	1867
30	0–533	534-1067	1068–1600	2133