Bag of holding
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In the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, a bag of holding is a famous magical item, capable of containing a lot more than one would expect. It has been used in many other roleplaying games since its introduction.
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[edit] Use
While it appears to be a common cloth sack of about 2 by 4 feet (0.6 by 1.2 m) in size, it opens into a nondimensional space (similar to magic satchel), making its inside larger than its outside dimensions. Each bag always weighs the same amount, between 15 and 60 pounds (7 and 27 kg), regardless of what is put into it. It can store a combined weight of up to forty times its own weight, and a combined volume of 30 to 250 cubic feet (0.8 to 7 m³). Even if the bag is filled to capacity the objects inside never damage or even touch one another, which means that a character could fill a bag of holding full of eggs and weapons, for example, without any fear of breaking the eggs. A living creature put in a bag of holding will suffocate ten minutes later.
If a bag of holding is overloaded, or if sharp objects pierce it (from outside or inside), the bag will rupture and be ruined, the contents lost forever in non-space.
In the physics of Dungeons & Dragons, putting one bag of holding inside another, or into a portable hole will result in a rift to be opened to the Astral Plane, and both items will be lost forever. If said portable hole is placed within the bag, it instead opens a gate to the Astral plane, sucking in every creature in a 10 foot radius, and destroying both the bag and hole. The contents of the bags are either scattered throughout the Astral Plane or destroyed. These rules are all subject to the whim of the Dungeon Master, of course[1].
Bags of holding make appearances outside of Dungeons & Dragons, including in such games as NetHack.
Other magical bags similar to the Bags of Holding exist, these include:
- Lesser Bags of Holding - These reduce only part of the weight within them, usually between 10% and 50%.
- Bag of Tricks - By reaching into this bag, the bearer can pull out some type of animal, such as rabbits, weasels, rats and bats, or even wolves, bears, horses, or rhinos.
- Hewards Handy Haversack - This backpack always weighs 5 pounds and is always the size of a normal backpack. It has two small side pouches that, like a bag of holding, can hold two cubic feet, much more than normal, or 20 pounds of material, while the larger central portion can hold 8 cubic feet or 80 pounds. The best part is that (unlike a bag of holding) when you reach into this haversack to find a specific item, it is always on top despite what you may have put in after it. You could put a sword into it, then 3 pounds of paper, completely covering the sword, and when you reach in to retrieve the sword, it will be on top, instead of the paper.
[edit] Cursed bags
There are also a number of bags outwardly indistinguishable from a bag of holding but with some highly undesirable qualities. They are created by spellcasters either as a result of a failed spell in the process of creating a bag of holding or purposefully (especially in the case of a bag of devouring).
[edit] Bag of devouring
This bag appears to be a normal sack, like a bag of holding, and seems to be a bag of holding on closer inspection. However, the bag is a lure used by an extradimensional creature - this is one of its feeding orifices. Issue 271 of Dragon magazine[2] featured an article titled "The Ecology of a Bag of Devouring" that discussed the nature of such a creature.
Any substance of animal or vegetable matter put into the bag has a chance of being swallowed over time. Even a person reaching in to retrieve or place an item, after the initial time, has a chance of being completely dragged into the bag and swallowed. The bag of devouring will act as a bag of holding, but every hour it has an increasing chance of swallowing the contents. Any plants or animals swallowed by the bag in this way are transported to the creatures stomach, digested, and lost forever, while unedible items are swallowed and spit into another plane.
[edit] Bag of transmuting
This magical sack will perform as a bag of holding for 2-10 uses. At some point, however, the magical field will waver, and metals and gems stored in the bag will be turned into common metals and worthless stones. Any magical items placed in the bag will become ordinary lead, glass, or wood as appropriate once the transmuting effects have begun.
[edit] Bagworld
The Bagworld is the basis of especially capacious holding devices (e.g. the fanny pack of hefty capacity) in the Knights of the Dinner Table HackMaster RPG (originally a fictionalized form of D&D). The Bagworld is another planet (possibly located on another plane of reality) that is accessed via bag devices, enabling characters to cache enormous amounts of materials. From the bagworld point-of-view, there are a great many holes in the sky from which giants deposit and retrieve items. Adventurers entering bagworld to plunder caches and seek other advantages are the basis of the Bag War plot line.
[edit] Nethack
In the classic text-graphic video game Nethack, a bag of holding has slight different properties:
- There is no limit on the amount of material a bag can hold.
- The bag does not have a constant weight; it varies with the items it holds.
- A cursed bag will be proportionally heavier than the items it contains.
- An uncursed or blessed bag will be proportionally lighter, with a blessed bag being much lighter.
- A bag will explode (destroying all contents) if a wand of cancellation is placed inside.
[edit] References
- ^ "I just read the "Golems are fantasy robots" thread, and this caught my eye. I wanted to see if anyone else had something to add. This is a proposal that some GMs may allow, maybe not, but it is an argument for why bags of holding should be allowed into each other." Strolen's Citadel
- ^ "It all made sense, then. Why something as useful as a bag of holding would be left in the wizard's chest, empty and neglected. Why it had closed up, sealing me in." Issue 271, Dragon magazine, The Ecology of the Bag of Devouring' By Kevin Haw
