How Much Does Gold Weigh In D&D? (5th Edition)

If you’re anything like the adventurers who have come before you, then you’re going to be carrying a lot of stuff around with you. This is completely normal – it’s hard to leave loot lying on the ground.

Sooner or later you’re bound to find yourself over-encumbered, and you might have to start thinking a little more carefully about the weight of individual items in your inventory.

What about smaller things such as gold? D&D Currencies have many different forms depending on rarity, so you might be wondering how much weight this takes up in your inventory?

How would you calculate this as you gain and lose gold? If you’re wondering about this, then you’ve come to the right place!

In the article below we’re going to be explaining everything to do with weight in D&D and how it works. It’s an important section of the game that not everybody thinks about.

We’ve also made sure to give you some handy tips and tricks on how to manage inventory weight, and currency, and we’ve also made sure to include some additional answers to some of the most common questions around this issue.

Let’s get into it!

First up we’re going to explore a little about how weight works in D&D.

Almost every item in the game has a certain weight which will affect how your character will be able to move around. This topic can be split into three separate sections – lifting, carrying and encumbrance.

This is linked to your carrying capacity. In 5e D&D, your carrying capacity is your strength stat multiplied by 15.

So let’s say your base strength is 15, if this was the case then your carry capacity would be 75. What does 75 represent? Well it’s just 75 pounds.

Generally in D&D, your carry capacity is going to be slightly over what is realistic in the real world, this is so that you have lots of cool items to take with you on your adventures.

It’s worth noting that some DMs may put additional caps onto this.

To go a little deeper on this, encumbrance is what happens when you carry over your capacity.

When this happens, your character will still be able to move around, only you will move much slower per turn and have disadvantage on a whol host of physical checks (including saving throws).

Lifting is way more to do with the physical power of your character. Depending on what you are lifting, your character is likely to have to make an ability check of some form.

This could be strength or athletics. The heavier the object you want to lift in relation to your character, the harder it will be to pass the check.

So now we have gone over the basics of weight management within D&D 5th Edition, let’s answer the initial question of how much does gold weigh.

There are two answers on this question depending on the kind of gold you mean.

In this instance, gold refers to the currency within the game. This is broken up into copper, silver, electrum, gold and platinum. Typically, platinum is valued to 100 gold pieces.

By the later stages of a campaign, you’re likely to have a lot of different coins in your wallet, and you might begin to ask yourself – just how heavy is all of this?

Is it possible for your character to carry around with them hundreds and hundreds of gold coins?

Well, the answer to this question is that coins typically weigh 1 pound for each 50 coins. This means that you won’t really need to worry unless you have a total excess of gold.

Gold is also a metal within D&D, but the weight of this can vary massively depending on the amount you have.

It’s worth noting that in real life gold is a precious metal for its rarity, but not for its utility. Golden armor is rather useless compared to something like steel.

This is an important thing to consider. Many D&D campaigns don’t bother with the weight of gold, as it is additional inventory management that not everyone finds fun.

Other campaigns aim for ultra realism and in that case the DM may care. It’s worth asking about it before the beginning of a campaign so that you know for future reference.

There are also alternative methods for dealing with large inventory sizes. For example, there is an object called the ‘bag of holding; which allows you to you have additional space through way of a magical, enchanted fabric.

You might think of this as the Tardis in Doctor Who – a bag that is much larger on the inside than it is on the outside. Items like this can allow your party to bypass items altogether.

It’s also worth noting that banks probably exist within your campaign, and can be a great way to store valuables you don’t want to take out with you into the great wide world.

In 5th Edition of D&D the weight of gold is an issue that you may need to overcome, especially if your character comes across a large pile of gold and wants to take it all with them.

That said, most Dungeon Masters know to find ways around this issue, as having to constantly deal with inventory management isn’t all that fun.

We hope that this article has given you some good insight into the world of weight and inventory management within D&D, and that you’ll be able to use this knowledge in your next session or campaign. Happy adventuring!