It's perfectly fine to carry ten short swords, five crossbows, six quarterstaffs, five sets of leather armor, a set a scale mail, two greatswords, and twelve goblin short bows, but picking up a barrel is a step too far?
Yes it is because the five sets of leather and ten short swords aren't weapons of mass destruction and generally follow the rules of real world physics.
I can assume the loot is dropped to the ground when battle begins, but plopping down a huge barrel out of nowhere is stupid enough to lower the immersion level down to that of a cartoon.
That said, I'd be ok with the barrels being smaller 20lbs smokepowder kegs and much
much more rare, since that stuff is magical in Forgotten Realms.
