Pathfinder - Handy Haversack/ Mule

[Decade]

Hi there, like many people, I'm using VTT for the 1st time for the obvious reason.
Playing Pathfinder 1E (and maybe 2E later), where I'm the GM.
So far, the experience has been really great, I'm quickly getting to grips with making items & effects.
My party have a Pack Animal - Mule (from core rulebook equipment chapter), as well as a handy haversack on loan from an NPC. MY question is - what's a convenient way to represent this storage capacity in FG ? I basically want either a character or an area, or something, where I can put equipment that the PCs can access, but without adding to their encumberance.
Bonus question - anyone know how to do a Masterwork backpack, where the character counts as higher strength only for calculating encumberance limits ?
Thanks

[tahl_liadon]

.
you may put as many items in a pc's inventory as you like,
then in the "carried / equipped" column (bag/shirt icons),
click-toggle until it's blank inside circle ("not carried") to indicate no weight.

so,
1) create a mule as an item under name column
(someone in the party will have to be the one managing the mule, so it would be in that pc's inventory,
or create an npc as a mule -- similar to ranger's animal companion --
and have someone control it, which sounds like fun but not a great idea)
2) add all items which the mule would carry into pc's inventory
3) under "location" column, enter the word "mule" (and copy it) to the first item that mule would carry; then hit tab
4) then systematically paste "mule" into every item the mule would carry; hit tab each time
5) everything with "mule" under location column should be sub-catergorized under the mule item
6) click-toggle so that mule is "not equipped"
voila!

bonus question: if i understand your question correctly,
mw backpack doesn't make the pc's strength stat change (even for the purpose you want);
simply change the weight (under "wt" column) to half that of a common backpack (4lb).
this would auto-adjust the total weight.

[edit] just read your title -- you mean adjust weight of handy haversack, not mw backpack, right?
if that's the case, do same as instruction for mule above, then set everything inside the haversack to "not carried",
then if haversack is set as 5 lb (per rule), then weight is correctly set. no need to change str stat at all.

[Llisandur]

"When wearing a masterwork backpack, treat your Strength score as +1 higher than normal when calculating your carrying capacity."

A masterwork backpack does actually change your effective strength score for carry weight.

To change your effective strength for encumbrance in the Pathfinder ruleset, go to the character's Inventory tab and click on the magnifying glass next to the encumbrance numbers. You'll get a popup window where you can change your strength adjustment and carry weight multiplier (for larger/smaller characters, or characters with more than two legs).

32720

[tahl_liadon]

"When wearing a masterwork backpack, treat your Strength score as +1 higher than normal when calculating your carrying capacity."

A masterwork backpack does actually change your effective strength score for carry weight.

i'll be a monkey's uncle! learned a new rule today.

[Decade]

Great tips - thanks you both. I'll try some of these out tomorrow !

[Sudain]

Love the tip, thank you!

Do you know if there is a way to culculate/show the weight the mule is holding? I'm looking at the effects of a bag of holding.

[bmos]

Do you know if there is a way to culculate/show the weight the mule is holding? I'm looking at the effects of a bag of holding.I just added this to Total Encumbrance v3.0.0 which is pre-release right now but will be fully released shortly. It also comes with a lot of other features and rules-automation :)
Other than that, you could set everything else to not carried and then only carry the mule (but then you have to subtract the weight of a mule).

EDIT: it's available now (https://github.com/bmos/FG-PFRPG-TotalEncumbrance/releases/tag/v3.0.0) :)
I suggest naming your mule "mule of holding" so that the extension picks it up as that sort of "container"