Encumbrance

[SmellyCat]

So there is individual and party encumbrance.

Does it matter if the individual had medium encumbrance if the party has medium encumbrance anyway? Are the penalties additive in some way?
I'm asking this because I find it almost impossible to keep my party encumbrance to light after exploring a bit and getting loot. Now I'm sacrificing some AC by switching to lighter armor on my characters and keep the individual encumbrance to light. However, if the individual suffers from medium encumbrance from the party, then this might actually be a waste, and I should just equip for medium encumbrance for everyone.

[Gregorovitch]

When you are travelling on the map the overall party encumbrance is what matters. When you are inside a location individual party member encumbrance is what matters (too each char individually). This means that even if one of your characters is heavily encumbered individually the party may still be lightly encumbered for travel purposes.

Travel encumbrance becomes less of a problem as the game progresses since some chars will usually get significant STR boosting items. However it is still massively beneficial to travel light.

The simplest way to travel light is to be picky about your loot. Early game I would loot only +1 or better armour and Masterwork of better weapons and leave the dross. If a masterwork sword is worth 100gp why bother picking up an ordinary one worth only 4 or 5 for the same weight? The equation is even more stark for armour 'cos it's a lot heavier.

Mid-game on I don't bother with Masterwork weapons or even +1 weapons and I pretty soon give up taking +1 armours too. If you are picking up items worth 10, 20, 30k each right and left why bother with stuff wortth a few measly hundred? It's not worth it for the encumbrance issues involved and you just don't need the miniscule extra dosh.

[SmellyCat]

Thanks Gregorovitch. That is useful information.
The most heavy stuff I am carrying is the camping equipment. Because I read that I should not hunt for rations to save time I am bringing some camping equipment.
I almost have enough money for a medium bag of holding. I think that is going to help.

[Swordman_Red]

Originally posted by SmellyCat:

Thanks Gregorovitch. That is useful information.
The most heavy stuff I am carrying is the camping equipment. Because I read that I should not hunt for rations to save time I am bringing some camping equipment.
I almost have enough money for a medium bag of holding. I think that is going to help.

Also there is two Medium bags of holding, i believe, you should get both, it's effects stack.

[lemurs2]

I travel with fairly good Con characters so I do not need to rest too much so I usually just travel with 6 rations which cuts down load. I do hunt... but I really need to analyze if the time I spend hunting outweighs the light weight I carry.

[Gregorovitch]

Originally posted by SmellyCat:

The most heavy stuff I am carrying is the camping equipment. Because I read that I should not hunt for rations to save time I am bringing some camping equipment.

I never take camping rations anywhere unless I'm planning on delving into a dungeon (except late game when I'm very strong and don't really care that much about ordinary loot anymore I keep 12 or 18 handy just in case I find a hole in the ground I want to explore). I always hunt. I always travel light. I'm always picky about loot. I've never really had any problems since I started doing that.

My view is the advice to use rations on the world map is highly questionable. The fact that you have had issues following it and I don't doing the opposite would back that view up I suggest.