Im afraid we will have to use MATH!!!: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems
A bag of holding is 2 ft diameter at the mouth and 4 ft deep and has 64 cubic feet in volume inside it (1.8 cubic meters because Im Canadian). So it's more of a pear shape inside like a sac than a tube. This comes into play for actually getting into a sac. Im 6'2'' and I can not fit through a 2 ft diameter hole even if you greased me up like Willie from the Simpsons. Good luck to your Dragonborn in Plate armor getting in.
- So Humans breath 250 mL/min of oxygen so lets use that.
1.8m cubed & 21% of which is Oxygen - if we assume a reasonable "Earth-Like breathable atmosphere inside"
That means the oxygen will last for 1512 min, which is over 25 hours - quite a bit more than the 10 min the item says. And far shorter that 525600 minutes if you like RENT.
- But don't forget humans also breath out Carbon Dioxide. The longer you are in there, the higher the concentration of carbon dioxide will become. Perhaps to lethal levels well before your 25 hours is up. CO2 makes up only about 0.04% of the atmosphere. A reasonable limit for humans would be to say no more than a 3% Carbon Dioxide concentration because at that level for a human a bunch of unfortunate things start to happen ( breathing rate doubles / headache / panting / dizzy / liking Justin Bieber music).
So at a regular breathing rate, how long would it take a human to reach 3% Carbon Dioxide concentration in an enclosed 1.8 cubic meter space?
About 145 min or 2hrs 25 min (call it 2.5 hrs for ease of saying).
- Now this is obviously just for fun to science up a bag of holding and we made a lot of assumptions here. Different fantasy races could have different breathing rates. A gnome or a halfling might only breath at half the human rate. Or it could be double, who knows? Air Genasi and Warforged don't need to breath at all and Tortle can hold their breath for 10 min on their own. Also the atmosphere inside the bag of holding could have a different oxygen or carbon dioxide concentration than Earth. Maybe there is a magical radiation unique to bags of holding that suffocates you after 10 min. Or perhaps the oxygen slowly drains out of a bag of holding when it is closed and completely empties after 10 min. Like a balloon with a slow leak.
Saying you can stay in a bag of holding for two and a half hours certainly is not RAW. But there is no harm if you as a DM want to use these numbers instead of the flat 10 min. Enjoy the shenanigans creative players can come up with.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
An interesting thought experiment; I would add that you need to subtract the volume of a creature from the volume of the space...although the average 150 pound human takes up only about 2.5 ft^3 of volume, for complete accuracy you need to factor that in;
Also, assuming you aren't carrying around an empty bag for the purposes of stuffing people into it, there is also likely displaced volume due to other objects in the bag as well...that can't really be calculated uniformly but would be a factor as well.
shenanigans. Ok. Since if ripped or torn, it empties out to the Astral Plane. So it a container floating across the Astral Plane. Roll 1d10 per minute per creature in bag. Add 1 to die roll. Any result higher than 10 results in a wandering monster encounter. The encounter is breath stealer. A CR 125 monster which steals 125 hp per round. Save for half damage. As it leaves not marks on the body, sages just thing the bag holds 10 minutes of air.
Maybe the bag isn't really a physical space, that's just how mortal minds conceptualize and manifest it while interacting with it. For the first ten or so minutes after it's opened, that psychic force of being observed by its occupant is enough to keep it "real"... but as time goes on stranded within its magical pocket, the true magical pseudo-state starts to creep in, phasing the bag and all its contents back into the magical gray soupy mist that is its normal state of being while not being observed. Mortal creatures can't hope to survive this process, as their unobserved internal parts (lungs and heart etc.) start to become less real first, leaving the rest of their body gasping for air without a mechanism to breathe...
So the question is not, "How long can you stay in a Bag of Holding?", but rather, "How long can you stay alive in a Bag of Holding?"
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Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
1- You cannot fit through a 2-foot diameter hole? What is your waist diameter? Are you sure you didnt confuse diameter and circumference?
2- You made a common error on the bag dimensions: the exterior is 4 ft deep by 2 ft diameter, while the interior is only listed as 64 cubic feet (no shape given). Admittedly, the wording is poor enough to make this mistake, so no foul, just know it can make a difference. (check dandwiki to look at wording for prior editions, it helps)
3- Since the interior of the bag is an extradimensional space, it doesnt have to contain air like we expect. Consider, regardless of the number of creatures within, there is a minimum of 1 minute of air RAW, even though the maximum is 10 minutes.
The waist isn't usually the widest part on a person.. it's generally the shoulders for men, and the hips for women. I'm not really a huge guy, but I do have fairly broad shoulders.. I would fit, but just barely, provided that I didn't have any armor or possible even heavy clothing... and I would definitely need help. I know this for a fact, because I happen to have a barracks bag that's 2 ft wide, and I couldn't get it over my shoulders by myself.
Every time this topic comes up (or an old thread gets bumped) I always end up picturing the hilarious image of a person hiding inside a bag of holding with only their head sticking out for air.
A couple of notes ... the portable hole has the same time limit for air as the bag of holding despite a much larger volume.
"If the hole is folded up, a creature within the hole’s extradimensional space can use an action to make a DC 10 Strength check. On a successful check, the creature forces its way out and appears within 5 feet of the portable hole or the creature carrying it. A breathing creature within a closed portable hole can survive for up to 10 minutes, after which time it begins to suffocate."
A portable hole has a volume of 282 cubic feet (6 foot diameter, 10 foot depth) vs the 64 cubic feet for the bag of holding. Yet both have a 10 minute limit for breathable atmosphere. This would tend to indicate that the length of time a creature can breath in the extra dimensional space has more to do with magic than physics.
The portable hole also has some rules for a creature escaping from it and I'd likely use the same for a bag of holding even though it isn't included in the bag of holding description. Unfortunately, the bag of holding gives no explanation of how things are actually removed from the bag other than it takes an action. It doesn't say whether you have to be able to see into the bag and search or whether you just put your hand in and whatever you want to pull out of the bag appears in your hand. Given that there are no details on any of this, I would have no problem implementing some mechanics for a creature in a bag of holding to climb out.
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Im afraid we will have to use MATH!!!: The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems
A bag of holding is 2 ft diameter at the mouth and 4 ft deep and has 64 cubic feet in volume inside it (1.8 cubic meters because Im Canadian). So it's more of a pear shape inside like a sac than a tube. This comes into play for actually getting into a sac. Im 6'2'' and I can not fit through a 2 ft diameter hole even if you greased me up like Willie from the Simpsons. Good luck to your Dragonborn in Plate armor getting in.
- So Humans breath 250 mL/min of oxygen so lets use that.
1.8m cubed & 21% of which is Oxygen - if we assume a reasonable "Earth-Like breathable atmosphere inside"
That means the oxygen will last for 1512 min, which is over 25 hours - quite a bit more than the 10 min the item says. And far shorter that 525600 minutes if you like RENT.
- But don't forget humans also breath out Carbon Dioxide. The longer you are in there, the higher the concentration of carbon dioxide will become. Perhaps to lethal levels well before your 25 hours is up. CO2 makes up only about 0.04% of the atmosphere. A reasonable limit for humans would be to say no more than a 3% Carbon Dioxide concentration because at that level for a human a bunch of unfortunate things start to happen ( breathing rate doubles / headache / panting / dizzy / liking Justin Bieber music).
So at a regular breathing rate, how long would it take a human to reach 3% Carbon Dioxide concentration in an enclosed 1.8 cubic meter space?
About 145 min or 2hrs 25 min (call it 2.5 hrs for ease of saying).
- Now this is obviously just for fun to science up a bag of holding and we made a lot of assumptions here. Different fantasy races could have different breathing rates. A gnome or a halfling might only breath at half the human rate. Or it could be double, who knows? Air Genasi and Warforged don't need to breath at all and Tortle can hold their breath for 10 min on their own. Also the atmosphere inside the bag of holding could have a different oxygen or carbon dioxide concentration than Earth. Maybe there is a magical radiation unique to bags of holding that suffocates you after 10 min. Or perhaps the oxygen slowly drains out of a bag of holding when it is closed and completely empties after 10 min. Like a balloon with a slow leak.
Saying you can stay in a bag of holding for two and a half hours certainly is not RAW. But there is no harm if you as a DM want to use these numbers instead of the flat 10 min. Enjoy the shenanigans creative players can come up with.
Check out my Disabled & Dragons Youtube Channel for 5e Monster and Player Tactics. Helping the Disabled Community and Players and DM’s (both new and experienced) get into D&D. Plus there is a talking Dragon named Quill.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPPmyTI0tZ6nM-bzY0IG3ww
An interesting thought experiment; I would add that you need to subtract the volume of a creature from the volume of the space...although the average 150 pound human takes up only about 2.5 ft^3 of volume, for complete accuracy you need to factor that in;
Also, assuming you aren't carrying around an empty bag for the purposes of stuffing people into it, there is also likely displaced volume due to other objects in the bag as well...that can't really be calculated uniformly but would be a factor as well.
shenanigans. Ok. Since if ripped or torn, it empties out to the Astral Plane. So it a container floating across the Astral Plane. Roll 1d10 per minute per creature in bag. Add 1 to die roll. Any result higher than 10 results in a wandering monster encounter. The encounter is breath stealer. A CR 125 monster which steals 125 hp per round. Save for half damage. As it leaves not marks on the body, sages just thing the bag holds 10 minutes of air.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Maybe the bag isn't really a physical space, that's just how mortal minds conceptualize and manifest it while interacting with it. For the first ten or so minutes after it's opened, that psychic force of being observed by its occupant is enough to keep it "real"... but as time goes on stranded within its magical pocket, the true magical pseudo-state starts to creep in, phasing the bag and all its contents back into the magical gray soupy mist that is its normal state of being while not being observed. Mortal creatures can't hope to survive this process, as their unobserved internal parts (lungs and heart etc.) start to become less real first, leaving the rest of their body gasping for air without a mechanism to breathe...
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I'm going to make this way harder than it needs to be.
Math? I raise you YouTube:
More Interesting Lock Picking Rules
So the question is not, "How long can you stay in a Bag of Holding?", but rather, "How long can you stay alive in a Bag of Holding?"
Tayn of Darkwood. Lvl 10 human Life Cleric of Lathander. Retired.
Ikram Sahir ibn Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad, Second Son of the House of Ra'ad, Defender of the Burning Sands. Lvl 9 Brass Dragonborn Sorcerer + Greater Fire Elemental Devil.
Viktor Gavriil. Lvl 20 White Dragonborn Grave Cleric, of Kurgan the God of Death.
Anzio Faro. Lvl 5 Prot. Aasimar Light Cleric.
Don't worry, I have plenty of extra air here in my portable hole. Oh....
A few things here.
1- You cannot fit through a 2-foot diameter hole? What is your waist diameter? Are you sure you didnt confuse diameter and circumference?
2- You made a common error on the bag dimensions: the exterior is 4 ft deep by 2 ft diameter, while the interior is only listed as 64 cubic feet (no shape given). Admittedly, the wording is poor enough to make this mistake, so no foul, just know it can make a difference. (check dandwiki to look at wording for prior editions, it helps)
3- Since the interior of the bag is an extradimensional space, it doesnt have to contain air like we expect. Consider, regardless of the number of creatures within, there is a minimum of 1 minute of air RAW, even though the maximum is 10 minutes.
The waist isn't usually the widest part on a person.. it's generally the shoulders for men, and the hips for women. I'm not really a huge guy, but I do have fairly broad shoulders.. I would fit, but just barely, provided that I didn't have any armor or possible even heavy clothing... and I would definitely need help. I know this for a fact, because I happen to have a barracks bag that's 2 ft wide, and I couldn't get it over my shoulders by myself.
Every time this topic comes up (or an old thread gets bumped) I always end up picturing the hilarious image of a person hiding inside a bag of holding with only their head sticking out for air.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
A couple of notes ... the portable hole has the same time limit for air as the bag of holding despite a much larger volume.
"If the hole is folded up, a creature within the hole’s extradimensional space can use an action to make a DC 10 Strength check. On a successful check, the creature forces its way out and appears within 5 feet of the portable hole or the creature carrying it. A breathing creature within a closed portable hole can survive for up to 10 minutes, after which time it begins to suffocate."
A portable hole has a volume of 282 cubic feet (6 foot diameter, 10 foot depth) vs the 64 cubic feet for the bag of holding. Yet both have a 10 minute limit for breathable atmosphere. This would tend to indicate that the length of time a creature can breath in the extra dimensional space has more to do with magic than physics.
The portable hole also has some rules for a creature escaping from it and I'd likely use the same for a bag of holding even though it isn't included in the bag of holding description. Unfortunately, the bag of holding gives no explanation of how things are actually removed from the bag other than it takes an action. It doesn't say whether you have to be able to see into the bag and search or whether you just put your hand in and whatever you want to pull out of the bag appears in your hand. Given that there are no details on any of this, I would have no problem implementing some mechanics for a creature in a bag of holding to climb out.