Not sure how falls within normal rules, so feel this is the right place to enquire.
First one I can see being plausible, just perhaps outside of the viewed use... Trapping. can you lay the bag open on the floor so if someone walked over it they would fall within the bag, and potentially be scooped up captured, Would need to be mindful of air within bag unless not concerned for them living. Thinking perhaps an Artificer could craft a bag which could be quickly deployed, so if fleeing could through one down when lose line of site to defend their escape.
My other curiosity is can an artificer create multiple bags of holding which open to the same point. While the capacity might be that of one bag having a means to have a shared storage between the party could work to good use. Although equally could have means to be broken, As would allow a means to communicate with notes, although guess that would still require someone looking in the bag. The more potential to be broken would be if the trap idea could work, as could hang an open bag like a tapestry within a safe location. This then opens a potential travel network. Along with emergency escape routes. Although on the counter side to this, if you placed a bag within a bag causes "Any creature within 10 feet of the gate is sucked through it to a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes." So if you did this on a linked bag could argue the effect would occur at each point. Causing all trusted with bag to become scattered around the Astral Plane. Although does this risk balance out the potential gain, I guess advantage is
I guess the linked desire would require a lot of skill and ability. So a challenging success roll could hinder the speed to make a network, That or perhaps sending them on a quest first to gain a greater understanding and mastery of the bag, to then be able to focus in with its craft clearer. Which could equally open the possibility to break into someone else.s bag should they be permitted time to study it.
So I'm curious to how far this steps away from use within normal rules, how broken it maybe and how best to permit within trying to allow freedoms, while not causing an OP for the party within game balancing. I guess with this being a possible environmental OP and not combat, should remember anything they can think up and use so could a rival NPC group to cause balance and obstacles. Like to try and encourage creativity were I can, may not have things work quite to the path wanted, as sometimes the intent is clearly just after a power gain and not balanced so then a detrimental effect here or there can keep some order
In 5e, the Bag of Holding has an opening about 2ft across and is about 4ft deep. That's a little bit small for a trap, although a character might be able to craft or commission one with different dimensions. Back in 3.5e there was an "Enveloping Pit" item that was basically a Portable Hole, but 50ft deep, so a trapped creature could be easily scooped up and carried away -- although creatures get a saving throw to avoid falling in. The suffocation rules might allow killing too easily (depends on your game, I suppose), but one could easily rule that a customized item for trapping isn't meant for storage, and spits out its contents after a certain amount of time-- a trade-off for the greater size capacity, which would also prevent suffocating so quickly.
If an artificer is modifying the bags, it's possible that the "gate to the astral plane" effect is also changed (with or without the artificer's knowledge). If another bag of holding enters the modified one, it might simply cease to be a magical item, or disintegrate. Personally, I feel like that "gate to the astral plane" wasn't meant to be a feature, but just a measure to prevent players from attempting an "infinite storage" exploit, from a version of the rules that were much more unforgiving. But that's just my opinion, and I use tons of homebrew items in my campaign, so it really depends on the DM.
I like to let my players tinker with magic items and see what they'll come up with. But if I could give any advice on the matter, I'd suggest starting with small, minor items and effects, to see how "muchkin-like" your players get with it, before allowing big effects. For example, I actually did give my players some "linked boxes" where they could place an item into one, and take it out of the other-- it just isn't bigger on the inside. That didn't cause any problems, and my players have had some fun coming up with uses for it- storing gold back at home, getting hot meals while traveling, etc. So now they've got a bigger version they use as a quick travel point to a place with no teleportation circle.
So, I guess my point is: in my experience, if you don't mind homebrewing a bit, it's not too difficult to balance out some of the possibilities of modified bags of holding, so they don't break the game.
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Not sure how falls within normal rules, so feel this is the right place to enquire.
First one I can see being plausible, just perhaps outside of the viewed use... Trapping. can you lay the bag open on the floor so if someone walked over it they would fall within the bag, and potentially be scooped up captured, Would need to be mindful of air within bag unless not concerned for them living. Thinking perhaps an Artificer could craft a bag which could be quickly deployed, so if fleeing could through one down when lose line of site to defend their escape.
My other curiosity is can an artificer create multiple bags of holding which open to the same point. While the capacity might be that of one bag having a means to have a shared storage between the party could work to good use. Although equally could have means to be broken, As would allow a means to communicate with notes, although guess that would still require someone looking in the bag. The more potential to be broken would be if the trap idea could work, as could hang an open bag like a tapestry within a safe location. This then opens a potential travel network. Along with emergency escape routes. Although on the counter side to this, if you placed a bag within a bag causes "Any creature within 10 feet of the gate is sucked through it to a random location on the Astral Plane. The gate then closes." So if you did this on a linked bag could argue the effect would occur at each point. Causing all trusted with bag to become scattered around the Astral Plane. Although does this risk balance out the potential gain, I guess advantage is
I guess the linked desire would require a lot of skill and ability. So a challenging success roll could hinder the speed to make a network, That or perhaps sending them on a quest first to gain a greater understanding and mastery of the bag, to then be able to focus in with its craft clearer. Which could equally open the possibility to break into someone else.s bag should they be permitted time to study it.
So I'm curious to how far this steps away from use within normal rules, how broken it maybe and how best to permit within trying to allow freedoms, while not causing an OP for the party within game balancing. I guess with this being a possible environmental OP and not combat, should remember anything they can think up and use so could a rival NPC group to cause balance and obstacles. Like to try and encourage creativity were I can, may not have things work quite to the path wanted, as sometimes the intent is clearly just after a power gain and not balanced so then a detrimental effect here or there can keep some order
In 5e, the Bag of Holding has an opening about 2ft across and is about 4ft deep. That's a little bit small for a trap, although a character might be able to craft or commission one with different dimensions. Back in 3.5e there was an "Enveloping Pit" item that was basically a Portable Hole, but 50ft deep, so a trapped creature could be easily scooped up and carried away -- although creatures get a saving throw to avoid falling in. The suffocation rules might allow killing too easily (depends on your game, I suppose), but one could easily rule that a customized item for trapping isn't meant for storage, and spits out its contents after a certain amount of time-- a trade-off for the greater size capacity, which would also prevent suffocating so quickly.
If an artificer is modifying the bags, it's possible that the "gate to the astral plane" effect is also changed (with or without the artificer's knowledge). If another bag of holding enters the modified one, it might simply cease to be a magical item, or disintegrate. Personally, I feel like that "gate to the astral plane" wasn't meant to be a feature, but just a measure to prevent players from attempting an "infinite storage" exploit, from a version of the rules that were much more unforgiving. But that's just my opinion, and I use tons of homebrew items in my campaign, so it really depends on the DM.
I like to let my players tinker with magic items and see what they'll come up with. But if I could give any advice on the matter, I'd suggest starting with small, minor items and effects, to see how "muchkin-like" your players get with it, before allowing big effects. For example, I actually did give my players some "linked boxes" where they could place an item into one, and take it out of the other-- it just isn't bigger on the inside. That didn't cause any problems, and my players have had some fun coming up with uses for it- storing gold back at home, getting hot meals while traveling, etc. So now they've got a bigger version they use as a quick travel point to a place with no teleportation circle.
So, I guess my point is: in my experience, if you don't mind homebrewing a bit, it's not too difficult to balance out some of the possibilities of modified bags of holding, so they don't break the game.