Average Heights and Weights of DnD Races

Why have I calculated the average heights and weights of DnD Races? I’ve been looking into the carrying capacity of creatures and what the rules in the D&D 5e Player’s Handbook say about it. It came to my attention recently that I was using house rules for how it works when a character carries or movies another. Because of that, I needed to figure how much a character weighs on average.

This article was originally published in October of 2023, and has been updated to include new information regularly. It now includes the update from the 2024 Player’s Handbook, which greatly simplify heights ande exclude weights.

This is not the first time I’ve done an unreasonable amount of math for D&D and it probably won’t be the last. You can find the tables these calculations were based on in the following books: 5e Players Handbook, Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, Volo’s Guide to Monsters and Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica. All that said, you should probably just buy Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, which contains updated stat blocks for many of the creatures Volo’s and the first Mordenkainen’s.

PHB 2024 Heights

In the 2024 Players handbook, no weights are provided for playable species. The calculations are gone for this update, and now the players are just given a height range based upon their size category.

Average Heights and Weights of DnD Races from 2014 Content

If you’re looking for the average heights and weights of Humblewood Campaign Setting, you can find them here.

Moving a Grappled Target

The rules for moving a grappled target are available in the Basic Rules:

When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.

5e Basic Rules

That’s pretty straight forward, which is good. However, it feels a little to strict. I would think that a goliath can probably carry a halfling without incurring half movement speed. Or maybe the halfling is struggling so much that it throws the goliath off balance, and that’s what reduces the movement speed. Would restraint take care of that? What if the grappler has a Belt of Storm Giant Strength? With a 29 strength, a creature’s carrying capacity 285 lbs. That halfling is only 40 lbs on average, according to the calculations. Seems like a pretty easy carry to me…

Next, I’ll put together an article on how dragging unconscious allies works in the arena. I’ll link it here in case you’re interested. Until then, maybe take a look at these stat blocks I created for some famous D&D characters.