At last, inventory containers are here for your character sheet! You can finally put things in bags! And chests! And airships! You can put all of the things into all of the other things and finally have that meticulously organized inventory you’ve dreamed of. But in order to start putting stuff into other stuff, you’ll need to know how to use containers, so let’s get started!
- Directions for mobile users
- Directions for desktop users
- Cointainers and mounts
- Using containers in the D&D Beyond App
- Quick tips when using containers
Mobile browser: Finding, adding, and using containers
Adding containers
Once you’ve signed into your D&D Beyond account, you’ll want to navigate to your character sheet. You can do this by clicking the menu button () at the top right corner of the page and selecting "My Characters," found under "Collections." From there, select “View” under the character whose inventory you want to manage.
The first thing you’ll want to do is add a container to your inventory. There are several different types of containers in the game. The easiest way to find them is by using the container filter when adding items to your character sheet. To do this from your character sheet, swipe over to "Equipment" and then select the “Manage Inventory” button. This will open a side panel. Check the “Container” box.
Once you check that box, you’ll see a nice list of containers. You can even filter further by selecting “Wondrous” or “Other Gear” (or both) to see handy haversacks, portable holes, and more. Find your vessel of choice and click “Add.”
Once you do, you’ll see a new section in your inventory, either above or below where it says “Equipment.” (Your containers are sorted alphabetically.)
Putting items in containers
There are two ways you can add items to a container: by moving it from your equipment or another container or adding it in directly.
To move an item between containers and your equipment, click the item and scroll to the bottom of the description. There, you’ll see a “Move” button with a down arrow. If you click that, you will see a list of all of the possible containers, excluding the one the item is currently in. Select the container of your choice and the item will be moved into it.
Alternatively, you can click the “+Add items to your…” option below your container of choice to directly put items into it.
Equipping containers and managing weight
Much like your typical equipment, you’ll see an "Active" toggle next to each container. Selecting this will make the container active, meaning that its weight and the weight of its contents will count toward your character's encumbrance. This is useful for tracking the weight of gear you’re carrying, such as your backpack or coin purse, as opposed to gear that is either being carried for you (such as in a cart) or is being stored elsewhere.
Additionally, magic items that allow you to carry more than you normally would, such as a bag of holding, handy haversack, or portable hole, won't increase your encumbrance even as you fill them up!
Desktop browser: Finding, adding, and using containers
Adding containers
Once you’re signed in to your D&D Beyond account, hover over "Collections" and select "My Characters." Find the character whose inventory you want to customize and select “View.” This will take you to the character sheet.
Adding a container to your inventory is the first step. There are different containers you can choose from, with the container filter being the easiest way to find them. From your character sheet, select “Inventory” and then the “Manage Inventory” button. This will open a side panel. Select the “Container” box.
Checking that box will give you a list of containers to choose from. It’s possible to filter further by selecting “Wondrous” or “Other Gear” (or both). Doing so will show you items such as the efficient quiver or instant fortress. Click “Add” to add the container to your inventory.
Having done that, a new section will appear in your inventory, either above or below where it says “Equipment.” (Your containers are sorted alphabetically.)
Putting items in containers
Adding items to containers can be done in one of two ways: moving it from your equipment or another container or adding it in directly.
Moving an item between containers and your equipment is done by clicking the item and scrolling to the bottom of the description. There, you’ll find a “Move” button with a down arrow. If you click that, you’ll see a list of your available containers (excluding the one the item is currently in). Select the container of your choice and the item will be moved into that container.
Alternatively, you can click the “+Add items to your…” option to add them in directly. This will open a side panel that allows you to add items much in the same way you would normally, except they are added directly to the container.
Equipping containers and managing weight
Next to each container, you’ll see an "Active" toggle. Tapping this will cause its weight and the weight of its contents to count toward encumbrance. This is useful for managing the weight of the gear you're carrying, compared to what you might have in a cart or stowed away in a keep.
Additionally, magic items that negate the weight of their contents, such as a bag of holding, handy haversack, or portable hole, will not increase your encumbrance. Magic!
Cointainers and mounts
There are two special types of containers you can use on the character sheet that you may not initially realize are options: "cointainers" and mounts.
Cointainers is a feature currently in beta which allows you to store currency in individual containers. To enable this feature, go to "Inventory" and select the currency icon in the top right, above "Manage Inventory." From the menu that opens, select "Settings" and then enable “Put coins in containers (beta)." Once this is enabled, each container will have its own currency section where you can track coinage.
Mounts are another special container option. If you add a mount to your inventory (not Extras), it’ll now appear as a container. The currently supported container mounts are axe beak, camel, donkey (or mule), draft horse, elephant, mastiff, pony, riding horse, and warhorse. You can customize these as with other containers, meaning you can name your mount and even increase their capacity to represent them pulling a wagon or cart should you wish.
Using containers in the D&D Beyond App
Containers in the D&D Beyond App work much in the same way that they do on the mobile version of the website, with two exceptions:
- Currently, you can’t add items directly from within a container. Instead, they must be first added to your equipment via the "Manage Inventory" button at the top of your inventory. An item can still be added directly to a container and moved between them just like on the mobile site.
- Containers can’t be set as active or unequipped at this time.
Quick tips when using containers
Be careful when removing containers
You can remove any container from your inventory by clicking or tapping the name of the container, then scrolling to the bottom and selecting “Remove.” But be careful when doing this: Removing a container from your inventory will also remove all of the items inside of it.
Customizing your containers
Using the “Customize” menu within a container, you can adjust its details and how it functions. To access these options, click or tap the name of the container, and then click or tap the “Customize” option at the top.
- Cost Override: This lets you specify the value of the container. This can be useful for magic containers you might later sell, or even for tracking the total value of everything contained within it.
- Weight Override: You can adjust the weight of the container itself. Say you’ve found a [Tooltip Not Found] that always weighs 10 lbs instead of 5 lbs. You’d set that here.
- Capacity Weight Override: This allows you to adjust how much the item can carry.
- Name: Change the displayed name of the container. For example, you could name a chest “Fangorn Keep” or a wagon “Bessy’s Hauler.”
- Notes: Add some quick reference information here, if you need it.
Davyd is a moderator for D&D Beyond. A Dungeon Master of over fifteen years, he enjoys Marvel movies, writing, and of course running D&D for his friends and family, including his daughter Willow (well, one day). The three of them live with their two cats Asker and Khatleesi in south of England.
That as well as things that might be stowed away in personal chests! Right now I have another character created that has all my chest items inside of it but having it right on my character sheet would be nice!
It should be noted that D&D Beyond can't invent items that don't exist. So until Wizards of the Coast adds such options as equipment, the best bet would be to rename containers
I second this.
I'm so, so very happy that this was added, thank you!
Seconding requests though for encumbrance to properly handle bags of holding, wagons, chests back at home, etc. with item weights that shouldn't actually encumber the character. Just need an "ignore contained weight" customization option.
Also think reliquary should be added to the container set, though it's rare enough a use I'm fine with just continuing to handle this manually.
Edited to include my workaround for anyone else reading through this in the meantime: Custom negative weights DO work. I put an Abacus in the Bag of Holding, renamed it the "Abacus of Weight-Cancelling", and customized its weight to -194 lb. Have to manually add up all the item weights in the bag and manually edit the Abacus when stuff is added/removed but it's slightly less awkward than editing the weight of the Bag of Holding itself (since it weighs 15 lb, you have to add 15 to the negative number each time otherwise) and much less awkward than editing the weights of every single item to/from 0 as they're added/removed.
We can add custom items in the regular equipment, but can't add them into a container.
I am missing a weight sum for each container.
I am missing the weight of the container it self in the overview.
For containers with a weight limit I am missing an indication of if a container is over capacity.
I am missing the option of adding custom items to other containers than equipment.
I am missing the option to either having the note of the container shown, or have a textual contents (e.g. for keys and other mundane items), which is shown in the overview.
I am missing the option of choosing if a container is carried or not. Eg. for leaving a bag or box, to be picked up later (possibly also useful for saddlebags and such which are not commonly carried by one self.)
But otherwise nice feature, for a first version.
I hope this isn't something answered somwhere else, I read the comments and I didn't find it. In the mobile app I don't find a way to use the contaniers.
Is there really no option to move custom items to a bag? The only method seems to be re-inputting the whole thing...
I love this! Another thing that would be amazing is being able to give items or whole containers to other players in the same campaign.
I believe shared containers are on the list of future improvements; not sure exactly what that will mean, probably containers tied to a campaign that any player can put stuff into? May not be quite as neat as transferring from one player to another, but you'd only need to track who currently has each shared container at least.
Very good change. Makes it easier to use different types of tools and as DM an idea o bag being stolen etc. is much easier to execute.
I might have just missed it or someone else may have already pointed this out, but the containers don't seem to show you the overall weight contained inside? Obviously you could add it up individually but it might be a nice feature to have, so that it's easy just to look at your backpack and see it has say 26 lb stored inside.
Overall a very nice addition to D&D Beyond though!
A feature that could be good is a way to identify party funds.
Second (to notes about ignoring weight of contents within bags of holding, etc)! I thought this feature would be available at launch. Would be a great improvement!
Thank you all very much for adding this. I hope the development work on this feature continues as there's a lot of opportunity for a lot of users here. It's something that helps dndbeyond stand out.
You can not add coin into any container at this point in time. Hopefully this gets fixed in a further update.
Gotta love the new containers, yet the weight of the item is still there (a bag of holding weighs 15 lbs. no matter what you put in it up to the limit).
Did anyone explain to the developers that many of these items, like Bags of Holding weigh a certain amount but negate the weight of the items in them? or that, as noted by several other contributors to this thread, that PC's rarely walk about with a warship or wagon in their backpack? Saddlebags are generally carried on saddles, which are usually on your mount, not you. It makes me wonder how much thought was put into this update, because, as a programmer myself, it's a much worse thing to have to now go back and fix all of this base level programming to make it work "as it should have initially". I love the concept, but not the fact that it was designed without very critical concepts in mind.
They spoke about the weight issue and also customs items going into containers on the Dev Update today. What we have now is first step of this feature. Weight and other items be able to go into containers is on their radar for further improvements of the container feature.
Well, from a developer standpoint, I would never do this. You loose too many people's interest in your product when you do a half-release of a feature. But as they currently have a bit of corner on the market for 5e, I guess they can do it however they please.