Regarding the BoH, I think they mean "open container" in the sense of "unlocked container". Mage Hand can explicitly open an unlocked container, and it can retrieve an item from the container in this opened state.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Regarding the BoH, I think they mean "open container" in the sense of "unlocked container". Mage Hand can explicitly open an unlocked container, and it can retrieve an item from the container in this opened state.
Also worth noting is that, unless you're an Arcane Trickster or are otherwise completely unable to use your own appendages, using Mage Hand has no mechanical benefit versus simply grabbing the item yourself. Both require you to burn your action.
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Also worth noting is that, unless you're an Arcane Trickster or are otherwise completely unable to use your own appendages, using Mage Hand has no mechanical benefit versus simply grabbing the item yourself. Both require you to burn your action.
Unless it's not your Bag of Holding, or you're across the room from it.
Also worth noting is that, unless you're an Arcane Trickster or are otherwise completely unable to use your own appendages, using Mage Hand has no mechanical benefit versus simply grabbing the item yourself. Both require you to burn your action.
1)Unless it's not your Bag of Holding, or 2)you're across the room from it.
Can't do unless you're an Arcane Trickster with the Mage Hand Legerdemain feature
Mage Hand still has to be within 30 feet of the object to work, and still burns your action. If your MH normally hovers by you, it's probably a wash since you could still do it yourself with the same basic cost... unless you're in a situation where you cannot/do not want to move--that's certainly where MH will shine.
If your MH is normally farther away from you, it's still probably a wash because MH's movement is capped at 30 feet, AND the MH cannot ever be more than 30 feet away from you.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
(1) if the not-your-bag-of-holding is currently unattended (not being held or carried by it's actual owner), then any Mage Hand should work, not just those of the Arcane Trickster.
(2) Thirty feet is definitely within the scope of "across the room". The house I am sitting in right now, has a twenty-by-thirty footprint; "within thirty feet" could be clear across the entire (open-plan) first floor of this house. Corner-to-corner is only thirty-SIX feet, and that's literal corner-to-corner. Center to center of the 5x5 squares on a battlemat, and you could absolutely reach corner-to-corner with a 30' range.
Just to add to this, if this is being discussed in the sense that you are trying to us MH or US to steal from someone elses bag of holding, the bag requires you to know what you are pulling out of it.
Also worth noting is that, unless you're an Arcane Trickster or are otherwise completely unable to use your own appendages, using Mage Hand has no mechanical benefit versus simply grabbing the item yourself. Both require you to burn your action.
Oh, I can think of reasons why there might be something in a Bag Of Holding that I wouldn't want to touch with my bare hands :)
Not to mention, you could use that to turn a Bag of Devouring into a Bag of Holding: you'd never be sticking your (very much organic) hand into the bag to retrieve any of the non-organic things you've "stored" inside it ...
I had always thought that since retrieving an item from a bag of holding merely takes an action, that when you reach for something, it appears at the top. Since you reach for the item , in this case with the mage hand, wouldn't it just retrieve the item from the top? In your case it would seem that one must root around in the bag to locate the item. To me this would seem to take longer than an action.
I had always thought that since retrieving an item from a bag of holding merely takes an action, that when you reach for something, it appears at the top. Since you reach for the item , in this case with the mage hand, wouldn't it just retrieve the item from the top? In your case it would seem that one must root around in the bag to locate the item. To me this would seem to take longer than an action.
For, me, this has always been a specific function of the handy haversack (When you reach into the haversack for a specific item, the item is always magically on top), which the other magical containers (bag of holding, portable hole) do not have. So, for me and I believe for RAW, this is why retrieving an item from a bag of holding is an action (it is supposed to be at least a bit organised) whereas retrieving an item from the handy haversack can be done through the free "interaction with an object" that you get each round.
No. RAW both bag of holding and handy haversack take an action. It says so right in the item description. I don't think it should be that way though. Finding an item in a bag of holding shouldn't be something you can do in combat unless there's only one thing in it. And I agree that handy haversack should be accessible as a free object interaction.
This came up in discord today, and I'm not so sure the DMG wording disqualifies the [Tooltip Not Found] action from working to retrieve an item from the bag of holding any more than using your action to pick it up off the floor would. The bag of holding does indeed take an action to retrieve an item, but it is an action that is already defined by another general rule and this item does not redefine it. I don't think that simply getting something out of the bag is activating any special aspect of the bag's magic nature, or else we should expect the description to elaborate on it. Compare this with the handy haversack where the action of retrieving an item always brings you exactly what you are looking for--which is a special feature of that item that would not occur with any nonmagical haversack.
I don't think the DMG rule is as simple as "If it's a magic item, and it takes an action, then you're activating the magic item." I would say it's more like, "If a magic item provides you with an action that does something in particular that the item describes, you're activating it rather than using it." I feel like the reason it tells you it needs an action to retrieve something from it is to let you know it is more restrictive than simply interacting with it in tandem with another action, or with your movement.
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"Not all those who wander are lost"
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Can mage hand, or unseen servant, draw items you want from a bag of holding?
For Mage Hand, as long as the Bag of Holding is open, it should work.
For Unseen Servant, I see no issues at all.
Regarding the BoH, I think they mean "open container" in the sense of "unlocked container". Mage Hand can explicitly open an unlocked container, and it can retrieve an item from the container in this opened state.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Good point! I missed that.
Also worth noting is that, unless you're an Arcane Trickster or are otherwise completely unable to use your own appendages, using Mage Hand has no mechanical benefit versus simply grabbing the item yourself. Both require you to burn your action.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
Unless it's not your Bag of Holding, or you're across the room from it.
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
(1) if the not-your-bag-of-holding is currently unattended (not being held or carried by it's actual owner), then any Mage Hand should work, not just those of the Arcane Trickster.
(2) Thirty feet is definitely within the scope of "across the room". The house I am sitting in right now, has a twenty-by-thirty footprint; "within thirty feet" could be clear across the entire (open-plan) first floor of this house. Corner-to-corner is only thirty-SIX feet, and that's literal corner-to-corner. Center to center of the 5x5 squares on a battlemat, and you could absolutely reach corner-to-corner with a 30' range.
Just to add to this, if this is being discussed in the sense that you are trying to us MH or US to steal from someone elses bag of holding, the bag requires you to know what you are pulling out of it.
Oh, I can think of reasons why there might be something in a Bag Of Holding that I wouldn't want to touch with my bare hands :)
Not to mention, you could use that to turn a Bag of Devouring into a Bag of Holding: you'd never be sticking your (very much organic) hand into the bag to retrieve any of the non-organic things you've "stored" inside it ...
I had always thought that since retrieving an item from a bag of holding merely takes an action, that when you reach for something, it appears at the top. Since you reach for the item , in this case with the mage hand, wouldn't it just retrieve the item from the top? In your case it would seem that one must root around in the bag to locate the item. To me this would seem to take longer than an action.
No. RAW both bag of holding and handy haversack take an action. It says so right in the item description. I don't think it should be that way though. Finding an item in a bag of holding shouldn't be something you can do in combat unless there's only one thing in it. And I agree that handy haversack should be accessible as a free object interaction.
This came up in discord today, and I'm not so sure the DMG wording disqualifies the [Tooltip Not Found] action from working to retrieve an item from the bag of holding any more than using your action to pick it up off the floor would. The bag of holding does indeed take an action to retrieve an item, but it is an action that is already defined by another general rule and this item does not redefine it. I don't think that simply getting something out of the bag is activating any special aspect of the bag's magic nature, or else we should expect the description to elaborate on it. Compare this with the handy haversack where the action of retrieving an item always brings you exactly what you are looking for--which is a special feature of that item that would not occur with any nonmagical haversack.
I don't think the DMG rule is as simple as "If it's a magic item, and it takes an action, then you're activating the magic item." I would say it's more like, "If a magic item provides you with an action that does something in particular that the item describes, you're activating it rather than using it." I feel like the reason it tells you it needs an action to retrieve something from it is to let you know it is more restrictive than simply interacting with it in tandem with another action, or with your movement.
"Not all those who wander are lost"