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.
Any update about items inside bag of holding and encumbrance?
Next logical Step, shared inventory in a campaign. "What's in the cart?" wonders the rouge.
I gave one player a blank character sheet to use as the handy haversack to count the weight. It also lets all the playera view the sheet while only one is responsible for it. Until both weight is calculated by container and that container is viewable by others, we're going to stick to our method.
I'd like to put my bag of holding into my back pack, but i'd probably forget where it is.
++
Containers are bollocks.
This is awesome but please please please make the weight of containers amd everything inside toggle-able for use with the encumbrance system.
bag of holding still adds its contents weight to your current carrying capacity. is there a way to fix this?
change its name instead of the note
Yeah it's really stupid, and by default, if you add a carriage, it shows that your character is severely encumbered /facepalm
I don't know if this would work as a workaround, but what about changing the weight of a bag of holding to -495 pounds? I realize this may cause new problems, but I'm just spitballing.
Unfortunately, you would still have to keep track of all of the items' inside weights manually, making sure their weight is zero and the weight of the Bag of Holding increases from -495 when you add stuff. At that point, it is far easier to keep track on a different character sheet that's just a Goliath with a carry weight of 500lbs, or just keep track of it on a spreadsheet that adds up the numbers in a column for you to show how much weight you are holding in the bag.
There is also the problem that it still doesn't work for Custom Items for some reason, which is a problem when the DM gives you a little trinket or something small that creating a brand new homebrew item for would just be a headache. As of right now, the container system is an ugly UI addition and not much more.
I'd hope that the ability to at least better organise your inventory is a good first step. Being able to intelligently manage weight is 100% something the team is working on, along with cool stuff like shared containers within a campaign, and the ability to equip items from within containers (shared and normal). The team envisions the system being more robust than just carrying things, it just needs to get there.
Containers will be coming to the app eventually; the app update process just means it takes a little longer.
Not yet, but the team is working on it.
More advanced weight management is something that is coming, this is just the first implementation of containers.
Coin management is 100% something the team wants to expand this feature to encompass!
Outstanding update, thank you Davyd!
Thank you very much for your answer.
Super-duper underdog update, after using it for a bit:
1) It would be great if you could turn weight on or off for any container.
2) It would be even more awesome that, if a character was a part of a campaign, a container could be shared by all the characters in that campaign like a cart, wagon, or the inevitable party-wide bag of holding (I understand the tediousness of this request).
Thanks for everything!
Nearly 2 months now since the feature was initially added.. not to sound impatient or anything, but I hope we hear something soon about the container weights for Bag of Holding etc, or adding custom items to containers. I love the system in principal, but those 2 missing features are just a pain in the ass and an OCD nightmare lol
Can these containers calculate the total weight of stuff inside?
Not yet, it's a planned feature to show that, and allow the weight to be toggled/overridden by the container (so a Bag of Holding will nullify the weight of its contents).
I don't think we've had any word on when such a feature might be implemented though; any staff able to weigh in on whether it's a short or long term goal? The feature as implemented so far works really well aside from custom items, so I assume fixing custom items maybe is more of a priority as it's a bug (
I can't even find where to create them anymore, so I'm thinking it was disable until fixed?), but being able to manage the weight is the biggest reason to implement container support so it'd be nice to see it sooner rather than later.You can still make custom items, but only under the "equipment" subsection. If you click on equipment to bring up the sidebar, it's at the bottom of the list where it always was.