Some of my favorite parts of D&D are the places left intentionally vague so I, as the DM, can make up whatever sounds fun and interesting. So when the Bag of Holding came up in yesterday's Beyond Heroes game, despite knowing that the internet has asked questions about this magic item at great length, I not only indulged in several "what if" conversations with my husband about it but enjoyed a lengthy Q&A about it on our Discord.
These aren't question that can be answered RAW. There's no wrong answers to these questions! They're just fun things to think about, and ponder over, and come up with different answers to...mostly because I find when I go through these ponderings I eventually write a silly D&D adventure based on what we just talked about. That's how I have one shots based on Foosball, bee keepers, and what animals eat birds.
Do objects inside of a Bag interact with each other? Does that bucket of water I dumped in there make the sandwich I put in there earlier wet?
If a creature is in the Bag, can THEY interact with objects in the Bag? Can I jump in my Bag and eat that wet sandwich? Do I need to choose to interact with objects?
Is there gravity in the Bag? Or does everything just float around?
"Breathing creatures inside the bag can survive up to a number of minutes equal to 10 divided by the number of creatures (minimum 1 minute), after which time they begin to suffocate." Does that mean the bag has 10 minutes worth of air, or is it recycled air the creature brings in with them? How do you refill the air in a bag of holding so you get a new 10 minutes? Do you need to "place" air inside of it? Just open the flap? A straw? Can a creature inside the Bag use a snorkel sticking out of the bag for air?
The Portable Hole has rules for escaping, but the Bag does not. So can you escape? If so, how?
If I fart in the Bag, does the fart smell stay in the Bag when I get out? Does everything else in the Bag now smell like a fart?
I like to refer to old-school rules in this case. Older editions had rules for creating magic items where you had to be able to cast a relevant spell. For a Bag of Holding I'd presume it's some version of Demiplane.
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// I am Arenlor Developers should read This Changelog Moderator for D&D Beyond's YouTube, Twitch, and Discord.
Just because I, in turn, enjoy overanalyzing the absolute mutherfudge out of shit...
1.) I would imagine so. The bag has an overall weight and volume limit - five hundred pounds and/or sixty-four cubic feet. Which is an excessively high number given the bag's stated interior dimensions of two feet round by four feet deep, but sure. Nevertheless, the bag is given overall limits rather than "no item can exceed [X] dimensions, and the bag can only contain [Y] pounds of items". This suggests that all items occupy the same extradimensional space, and thus all items interact with each other. Which means maybe stop shoving naked sword blades into your Sacks of Looting, people. it's not good for anybody involved. DX.
2.) A curious question indeed. I would assume so, for the same reason as above - the bag has a single interior space in which all items are jumbled together. The bag has the Power of Convenience when you rummage around inside it and pushes whatever you want closest to hand, but otherwise is fluffed/described as being just a big ol' extradimensional sack. If you're in that sack? You can likely get at whatever is there. If nothing else, there's nothing stopping you from using an action to make the bag give you something you know is in it, same as whoever's holding it. Which, again...naked sword blades. Bad idea. DX.
3.) God, I hope not. Not for any real reason, but just because it's more fun that way. Tiny little astronaut training, floating around in the Void (void, void...). Would also explain why the bag is able to so easily rearrange items, I suppose - shuffling junk around in a weightless microplane is easier than in the punishing confinement of a planetary gravity well.
4.) I always kinda hated this rule, so arbitrary. I imagine that any space within the bag that isn't filled with stuff is filled with air, instead. it gets in there when the bag is open and does not when it's closed, so it'd be recycled air. If a critter sticks a snorkel out the top of the bag, that's absolutely breathing space. I mean, just imagine the hilarity in a game where your wizard is trying to sneak the halfling rogue through a series of checkpoints in the Bag, keeps shoving the snorkel back down only to have it pop up at the worst times because the poor sorry mother in the bag is trying to Not Die. I'd run that, from either side of the screen.
5.) One can "escape" the bag by rupturing it with a blade - I would figure that the bag is sturdy enough that sticking a naked sword blade in it doesn't instantly destroy your item (even though by all accounts it probably should. DX), but simply containing a sharp object is not the same as a struggling creature trying to get free. Of course, rupturing the bag means you're on the Astral Plane, not the Prime Material, with only whatever supplies were in there with you to get by and/or back. Sooooooooo....maybe not ideal. As for forcing one's way out through the proper exit, that feels like either a Strength or, more likely, a Dexterity check to find where the opening should be and try to jimmy it. Or, if the player was particularly clever, I'd consider allowing them to try to draw themselves from the bag as an action...which, by the rules of the bag, would produce them at the mouth of the bag and give them advantage on their Jimmy check. Provided they came up with it themselves and didn't read it here, anyways.
6.) It does until you air the thing out. Which would be a priority in that particular event. Dragon farts are Srs Bsns, one does not let them fester unless you're ready for some Lair Outhouse Effects you will not enjoy.
I know it's been awhile since this was last responded to but this is the closest thread I've seen to answering a question I had about bag of holding contents.
My questions would be:
1.) If things do interact with each other in a bag of holding, would potion bottles stored inside be at risk of breaking?
2.) As stated above, items interacting means wet items would ruin dry items in the bag? I.E. wet clothes ruining spell scrolls.
3.) Since its well established that fresh items stored in the bag will rot, clearly there is air in the bag of holding. However if something cold was placed in the bag, would that bring down the interior temperature potentially providing a cooler space to preserve perishables? Provided you don't open the bag and let out the cold air.
I know it's been awhile since this was last responded to but this is the closest thread I've seen to answering a question I had about bag of holding contents.
My questions would be:
1.) If things do interact with each other in a bag of holding, would potion bottles stored inside be at risk of breaking?
2.) As stated above, items interacting means wet items would ruin dry items in the bag? I.E. wet clothes ruining spell scrolls.
3.) Since its well established that fresh items stored in the bag will rot, clearly there is air in the bag of holding. However if something cold was placed in the bag, would that bring down the interior temperature potentially providing a cooler space to preserve perishables? Provided you don't open the bag and let out the cold air.
Not from each other - moving a bag of holding moves the entrance to the pocket universe, not the pocket universe. From something else, sure. For example, if your party has a warforged in it and you've stuck the warforged into the bag for ease of transport, the warforged could break bottles while in there.
Strictly in theory. 5E hasn't got any RAW for a spell scroll taking damage from being dunked in water directly, let alone what you're describing, but the RAW on a bag of holding makes it clear that the bag has atmosphere (as opposed to hard vacuum) inside it, so presumably its interior will act very similarly to how a closet would in the "real" world.
The reason there's air in the bag is that the bag says so; rotting fruit has nothing to do with it. The temperature inside the bag is one of 5E's unstated rules that the game breaks down without: pocket dimensions are assumed to be at room temperature unless we're told otherwise. That temperature has to come from somewhere and it can't be from outside the bag, or all bags of holding would all be so cold inside that you'd lose your hand sticking it inside, as they spend so much of their time not having things put inside them. The only possible answer is that the pocket universe is self-heating, at a rate determined by the DM. I would not let you modify the temperature inside a bag of holding with hot or cold objects placed inside - the bag would magically assert its temperature over its interior space.
As for the items being in the same space and interacting with each other I wouldn't think so. I think of it like creating memory allocations. Each item gets its own space. That's why you can't just reach in and feel for things. You have to know what you are pulling out in order to get it.
If the portable hole specifies how to get out and the BOH does not then I would say you cannot get out. Maybe you could use a plane shift?
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InsiderSome of my favorite parts of D&D are the places left intentionally vague so I, as the DM, can make up whatever sounds fun and interesting. So when the Bag of Holding came up in yesterday's Beyond Heroes game, despite knowing that the internet has asked questions about this magic item at great length, I not only indulged in several "what if" conversations with my husband about it but enjoyed a lengthy Q&A about it on our Discord.
These aren't question that can be answered RAW. There's no wrong answers to these questions! They're just fun things to think about, and ponder over, and come up with different answers to...mostly because I find when I go through these ponderings I eventually write a silly D&D adventure based on what we just talked about. That's how I have one shots based on Foosball, bee keepers, and what animals eat birds.
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ModeratorI like to refer to old-school rules in this case. Older editions had rules for creating magic items where you had to be able to cast a relevant spell. For a Bag of Holding I'd presume it's some version of Demiplane.
// I am Arenlor
Developers should read This Changelog
Moderator for D&D Beyond's YouTube, Twitch, and Discord.
Just because I, in turn, enjoy overanalyzing the absolute mutherfudge out of shit...
1.) I would imagine so. The bag has an overall weight and volume limit - five hundred pounds and/or sixty-four cubic feet. Which is an excessively high number given the bag's stated interior dimensions of two feet round by four feet deep, but sure. Nevertheless, the bag is given overall limits rather than "no item can exceed [X] dimensions, and the bag can only contain [Y] pounds of items". This suggests that all items occupy the same extradimensional space, and thus all items interact with each other. Which means maybe stop shoving naked sword blades into your Sacks of Looting, people. it's not good for anybody involved. DX.
2.) A curious question indeed. I would assume so, for the same reason as above - the bag has a single interior space in which all items are jumbled together. The bag has the Power of Convenience when you rummage around inside it and pushes whatever you want closest to hand, but otherwise is fluffed/described as being just a big ol' extradimensional sack. If you're in that sack? You can likely get at whatever is there. If nothing else, there's nothing stopping you from using an action to make the bag give you something you know is in it, same as whoever's holding it. Which, again...naked sword blades. Bad idea. DX.
3.) God, I hope not. Not for any real reason, but just because it's more fun that way. Tiny little astronaut training, floating around in the Void (void, void...). Would also explain why the bag is able to so easily rearrange items, I suppose - shuffling junk around in a weightless microplane is easier than in the punishing confinement of a planetary gravity well.
4.) I always kinda hated this rule, so arbitrary. I imagine that any space within the bag that isn't filled with stuff is filled with air, instead. it gets in there when the bag is open and does not when it's closed, so it'd be recycled air. If a critter sticks a snorkel out the top of the bag, that's absolutely breathing space. I mean, just imagine the hilarity in a game where your wizard is trying to sneak the halfling rogue through a series of checkpoints in the Bag, keeps shoving the snorkel back down only to have it pop up at the worst times because the poor sorry mother in the bag is trying to Not Die. I'd run that, from either side of the screen.
5.) One can "escape" the bag by rupturing it with a blade - I would figure that the bag is sturdy enough that sticking a naked sword blade in it doesn't instantly destroy your item (even though by all accounts it probably should. DX), but simply containing a sharp object is not the same as a struggling creature trying to get free. Of course, rupturing the bag means you're on the Astral Plane, not the Prime Material, with only whatever supplies were in there with you to get by and/or back. Sooooooooo....maybe not ideal. As for forcing one's way out through the proper exit, that feels like either a Strength or, more likely, a Dexterity check to find where the opening should be and try to jimmy it. Or, if the player was particularly clever, I'd consider allowing them to try to draw themselves from the bag as an action...which, by the rules of the bag, would produce them at the mouth of the bag and give them advantage on their Jimmy check. Provided they came up with it themselves and didn't read it here, anyways.
6.) It does until you air the thing out. Which would be a priority in that particular event. Dragon farts are Srs Bsns, one does not let them fester unless you're ready for some Lair Outhouse Effects you will not enjoy.
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I know it's been awhile since this was last responded to but this is the closest thread I've seen to answering a question I had about bag of holding contents.
My questions would be:
1.) If things do interact with each other in a bag of holding, would potion bottles stored inside be at risk of breaking?
2.) As stated above, items interacting means wet items would ruin dry items in the bag? I.E. wet clothes ruining spell scrolls.
3.) Since its well established that fresh items stored in the bag will rot, clearly there is air in the bag of holding. However if something cold was placed in the bag, would that bring down the interior temperature potentially providing a cooler space to preserve perishables? Provided you don't open the bag and let out the cold air.
I did not expect a reply so soon! Cheers!
As for the items being in the same space and interacting with each other I wouldn't think so. I think of it like creating memory allocations. Each item gets its own space. That's why you can't just reach in and feel for things. You have to know what you are pulling out in order to get it.
If the portable hole specifies how to get out and the BOH does not then I would say you cannot get out. Maybe you could use a plane shift?