Heward's Handy Haversack is not an attuned item. So when anyone looks inside it, they find the item they desire magically on top.
A City Guard should be looking for contraband, so I would expect that whatever you are trying to hide from the guard will magically be on top. Now, if it is a vile of poison, I suggest you label it "Super Healing Potion" and everything will be OK. But if it is the King's Golden Crown, a label will not help you.
Stick your hand in a Handy Haversack with the intent of "I want something incriminating", and the sack produces nothing. 'Something Incriminating' is not an object contained in the bag. That descriptor may or may not apply to one of the objects in the bag, depending on the observer, but the usual rule at the table I run with is "If you don't know exactly what you're reaching for, you find nothing." You have to be able to picture the specific item in your head when reaching for it.
A guard who's searching for 'contraband' doesn't find the pouch of suude in your Haversack because he didn't know that specific pouch of suude was there to be looked for.
A guard looking for "the King's stolen crown" may or may not find the Crown in your Haversack, depending on how familiar he was with said crown and how well he could visualize it.
A guard searching for the dungeon key ring you nicked off him six hours before would absolutely find that keyring in your Haversack, at which point you would have some explaining to do.
As for what the guard sees if he just opens the sack and stares inside? Typically, a black void. The game does not say, so the DM gets to make that call. Most DMs I've seen/played with call it out as a black void, or as a nebula mosaic of sparkles and starlight a'la 'Cosmic' video game effects. Some DMs, though, may well say "they see a much larger space than should be there, stuffed with all y'all's shit", and they'd be as right as anyone else.
If the guard is intent enough on looking for things, they could turn the haversack inside out to get *all* of the stuff out of it and then inspect them in a mundane way once they're outside.
Such things should be covered by what I think of as "Actually Sane Security" in highly secure places. In a world where magic exists and has since the dawn of creation, those of exceptionally high rank and wealth would have ways of securing themselves against magical threats. Any given high-ranking nobleman has an Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location on their person at all times, and many/most will also have a Ring of Mind Shielding. Close guardsmen - the highly trained bodyguards and close-quarters servants of the nobleman, not the five-silver-a-day door schmucks - will know what magical storage looks like, as well as being trained to recognize many other 'innocuous' magical item - and/or they will be equipped with a Wand of Magic Detection. Meeting places will be warded, and 'black rooms' may well be set up with permanent antimagic zones. Noblemen themselves (and other similarly high-ranking individuals) will often have the [feat]Magic Initiate[/feat] feat; if they've no need of other spells, they'll learn things like Shield, Blade Ward, or Thunderclap - spells to protect themselves, or spells that both deal damage and create a great deal of noise so their defense also turns into an alarm. Which, speaking of - Alarm will be omnipresent in such a house, often in variations unavailable to adventurers.
The most powerful, influential, and wealthy people in a nation will have protections against magical dickery in place. They'll have had many years to build up those protections, and any noble house that doesn't have such protections will likely not last very long given that their rivals will be able to hire magical ***** (i.e. PCs) to engineer their downfall.
A guardsman to anyone or anywhere of import that does not recognize magical storage and at the least turn it inside out into a crate is a guardsman who has most egregiously failed in their duty and is liable for termination. Probably of the most terminal sort.
I stick my hand into a haversack and ask for my Potion of Healing.
But nothing comes because I actually have a "Blue Potion of Healing, brewed by Jalar Pincushion"
Will a dwarf be able to get the potion of healing, even though he asked for it in dwarvish and it was produced by an elf who named it in elvish?
The question is how accurate does the description of the item have to be and you guys are demanding EXTREME accuracy.
If I put an unidentified potion in my bag, would you require me to say "unidentified potion", or let me get away with 'potion'? If I then identify it, does it change anything?
Be honest - if I had not pointed out the 'guard' scenario, you would be much more generous. Any reasonable DM would let you get away with asking for "the potion", which is no more precise than 'contraband'.
I stick my hand into a haversack and ask for my Potion of Healing.
But nothing comes because I actually have a "Blue Potion of Healing, brewed by Jalar Pincushion"
Will a dwarf be able to get the potion of healing, even though he asked for it in dwarvish and it was produced by an elf who named it in elvish?
The question is how accurate does the description of the item have to be and you guys are demanding EXTREME accuracy.
If I put an unidentified potion in my bag, would you require me to say "unidentified potion", or let me get away with 'potion'? If I then identify it, does it change anything?
Be honest - if I had not pointed out the 'guard' scenario, you would be much more generous. Any reasonable DM would let you get away with asking for "the potion", which is no more precise than 'contraband'.
That is because the PC has a clear concept of that potion in their mind. It has nothing to do with the words “the potion” but instead to do with the PC’s concept of that potion.
The guard looking for “contraband” has no clear concept of what, if anything were in that Haversack.
Hi, if e.g. a city guard looks inside a character's Handy Haversack, what will he see? Nothing? All items? Some Items?
Heward's Handy Haversack is not an attuned item. So when anyone looks inside it, they find the item they desire magically on top.
A City Guard should be looking for contraband, so I would expect that whatever you are trying to hide from the guard will magically be on top. Now, if it is a vile of poison, I suggest you label it "Super Healing Potion" and everything will be OK. But if it is the King's Golden Crown, a label will not help you.
I would say that looking for “contraband” would garner nothing, they would have to be looking for something specific.
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Stick your hand in a Handy Haversack with the intent of "I want something incriminating", and the sack produces nothing. 'Something Incriminating' is not an object contained in the bag. That descriptor may or may not apply to one of the objects in the bag, depending on the observer, but the usual rule at the table I run with is "If you don't know exactly what you're reaching for, you find nothing." You have to be able to picture the specific item in your head when reaching for it.
A guard who's searching for 'contraband' doesn't find the pouch of suude in your Haversack because he didn't know that specific pouch of suude was there to be looked for.
A guard looking for "the King's stolen crown" may or may not find the Crown in your Haversack, depending on how familiar he was with said crown and how well he could visualize it.
A guard searching for the dungeon key ring you nicked off him six hours before would absolutely find that keyring in your Haversack, at which point you would have some explaining to do.
As for what the guard sees if he just opens the sack and stares inside? Typically, a black void. The game does not say, so the DM gets to make that call. Most DMs I've seen/played with call it out as a black void, or as a nebula mosaic of sparkles and starlight a'la 'Cosmic' video game effects. Some DMs, though, may well say "they see a much larger space than should be there, stuffed with all y'all's shit", and they'd be as right as anyone else.
Please do not contact or message me.
If the guard is intent enough on looking for things, they could turn the haversack inside out to get *all* of the stuff out of it and then inspect them in a mundane way once they're outside.
Such things should be covered by what I think of as "Actually Sane Security" in highly secure places. In a world where magic exists and has since the dawn of creation, those of exceptionally high rank and wealth would have ways of securing themselves against magical threats. Any given high-ranking nobleman has an Amulet of Proof against Detection and Location on their person at all times, and many/most will also have a Ring of Mind Shielding. Close guardsmen - the highly trained bodyguards and close-quarters servants of the nobleman, not the five-silver-a-day door schmucks - will know what magical storage looks like, as well as being trained to recognize many other 'innocuous' magical item - and/or they will be equipped with a Wand of Magic Detection. Meeting places will be warded, and 'black rooms' may well be set up with permanent antimagic zones. Noblemen themselves (and other similarly high-ranking individuals) will often have the [feat]Magic Initiate[/feat] feat; if they've no need of other spells, they'll learn things like Shield, Blade Ward, or Thunderclap - spells to protect themselves, or spells that both deal damage and create a great deal of noise so their defense also turns into an alarm. Which, speaking of - Alarm will be omnipresent in such a house, often in variations unavailable to adventurers.
The most powerful, influential, and wealthy people in a nation will have protections against magical dickery in place. They'll have had many years to build up those protections, and any noble house that doesn't have such protections will likely not last very long given that their rivals will be able to hire magical ***** (i.e. PCs) to engineer their downfall.
A guardsman to anyone or anywhere of import that does not recognize magical storage and at the least turn it inside out into a crate is a guardsman who has most egregiously failed in their duty and is liable for termination. Probably of the most terminal sort.
Please do not contact or message me.
I stick my hand into a haversack and ask for my Potion of Healing.
But nothing comes because I actually have a "Blue Potion of Healing, brewed by Jalar Pincushion"
Will a dwarf be able to get the potion of healing, even though he asked for it in dwarvish and it was produced by an elf who named it in elvish?
The question is how accurate does the description of the item have to be and you guys are demanding EXTREME accuracy.
If I put an unidentified potion in my bag, would you require me to say "unidentified potion", or let me get away with 'potion'? If I then identify it, does it change anything?
Be honest - if I had not pointed out the 'guard' scenario, you would be much more generous. Any reasonable DM would let you get away with asking for "the potion", which is no more precise than 'contraband'.
That is because the PC has a clear concept of that potion in their mind. It has nothing to do with the words “the potion” but instead to do with the PC’s concept of that potion.
The guard looking for “contraband” has no clear concept of what, if anything were in that Haversack.
Creating Epic Boons on DDB
DDB Buyers' Guide
Hardcovers, DDB & You
Content Troubleshooting