A frustrating glitch in Baldur’s Gate 3 forces characters to be permanently encumbered, preventing them from running on the overworld. Luckily, there’s an easy fix for it, and how you resolve the problem might seem counter-intuitive, but you should have no problem getting rid of the encumbrance glitch.
Dungeons & Dragons technically has encumbrance rules, but most groups don’t use it because keeping track of item weight and carrying capacity just isn’t fun. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t so forgiving, as each character has strict carrying limits determined by their Strength stat. Once you carry too much, your character will receive the “Encumbered” debuff, severely slowing down their movement.
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Baldur’s Gate 3: What is the Encumbrance Glitch & How to Tell if I Have it?
The encumbrance glitch causes a Baldur’s Gate 3 character to be permanently encumbered. It can happen as a result of a character dying while encumbered and then being revived. This will make the game borderline unplayable, especially if it happens to your protagonist, whose movement speed will slow to a crawl.
The first thing you need to do is 100% confirm that your character is encumbered due to item weight and not the glitch. To do this, save your game first, strip your character naked, and drop every item in their inventory. If the character is still encumbered, then you have the glitch. You save the game first so you can avoid having to pick up and re-equip every item.
Baldur’s Gate 3: How to Fix the Encumbrance Glitch
To fix the encumbrance glitch, max out the character’s encumbrance! Give them as many items as possible from the other party members, and pick up as much random junk from the ground. You’ll eventually reach a point where you cannot give the character any more items. Once this happens, you’ll receive a new debuff effect, reflecting their maximum encumbrance.
Wait a few seconds once you reach maximum encumbrance, and the glitched encumbrance debuff will vanish. You’re free to remove all items you don’t need from the character, and they should be fixed once you hit their correct carry weight. They will no longer be encumbered and can move at their normal speed.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3: What’s The Level Cap?
An Alternate Way to Fix the BG3 Encumbered Bug
By killing the encumbered character, patiently waiting until the debuff vanishes from their icon, and subsequently reviving them, it’s possible to bring them back into action without the encumbrance issue. This allows for a smooth return of their inventory, making the process more manageable.
Hopefully, Baldur’s Gate 3’s encumbrance glitch will be fixed in a future update, as the game still has many issues that need to be resolved. At least the encumbrance glitch is easily fixed and doesn’t destroy any save files, so it’s likely not a big priority for updates for the time being.
