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Living in a Bag of Holding

   
Living in a Bag of Holding

So recently my pair of Gnomes have come into ownership of a Bag of Holding and a Bottle of Air (the Wondrous Item, not a empty bottle) and have come up with an 'insane' idea. Now, to my knowledge, a Bag of Holding only has like 10-15min of air inside. IF they were to, say, open the Bottle of Air INSIDE the Bag of Holding, could they remain inside indefinitely? They're wanting to basically turn it into an extra-dimensional tent. I've heard the idea of smuggling people in Bags of Holding before, but these guys kinda have a 'plausible' plan. From what I've read about the Bottle of Air, it doesn't fill a room, since it's only example is a vacuum. Now, the Bag of Holding is a Mk. 2, with 70 cubic foot 'space.' If I've been presented the math right, that works out to roughly a 4.1ft cubic root, which means each "side" (if you think of it like a box and not a bag) is roughly that size. The Gnomes in question are only 3ft tall, 1ft wide based on a 6ft tall human having 2 ft wide shoulders, so they SHOULD fit inside akin to it being a giant sleeping bag with some room leftover.

I'll be honest, I'm dumbfounded the amount of info these guys put into their "presentation." Their IC argument is since one has Knowledge Engineer +12 bonus, he'd be the one to understand the spacial issue. But I thought I'd ask other DMs this before I approve or deny it. I can see an adventure hook in this, but I also don't want them to think they can get away with heavy rule-bending.

Give each of them a ring of sustenance, and they should be able to pull it off. It's certainly not cheesier than, say, Rope Trick, since the bag would lie around unattended.

Just keep in mind that if they leave their bag laying around unattended, somebody could easily pick it up and be off with it. Which means when they crawl out, they're not where they were the night before.

1- NEVER EVER EVER apply "logic" to D&D or Pathfinder. It fails every time.


2- We're about to ignore that rule. The rule of exponentials apply here. A gnome may be half the *height* of a human, but they consume only an *eighth* of the overall surface area. Around the size of a five year old.

2b- It contains around four square feet of area. It can fit said small child, easily enough.

Your Mk2 bag of holding, at 15 times that size in overall volume, is more than twice that size in every dimension.

Comfortable fit? Not really. But you could wedge a twin sized bed in there, so if all they want to use it for is sleeping, they're fine. And you don't have to be an engineer to realize all that.


3- The "Bottle of Air" is your sticking point, one way or the other. RAW- it doesn't say anything about a "vacuum" (far as I know, there has never been official rules for vacuum in any 3.x product ever)- it says "environment with no air". Which generally means "underwater" or "poison gas" environ. 'Air' being a nonscientific, nonspecific term for an atmosphere that humans can breath without dying. It can do the appropriate job.

It ALSO says you have to breath out of it specifically. It's not a decanter of endless water and doesn't just "pour" its contents. At best, it would be a slow flow, and that calls into question its ability to provide enough air for them to survive without actively breathing it in.

4- Then there's the content space issue. If the bag is open, there's a passage to the outside world large enough to provide air without the bottle. If it's closed, then the bottle's contents (should you allow it to constantly fill the area) will just keep pouring out until the bag is overfilled and then ruptures. Unless Bags of Holding are porous, and I don't think that's ever really discussed.

5- 3 and 4 are basically irrelevant. The laws of physics are a houserule in D&D and Pathfinder. It's up to you, the GM, if you want to allow, or disallow, their attempt. If you don't dig too deep, their idea is on shaky ground, but can be considered acceptable.

If you dig so deep that it's time to employ the houserule known as 'air pressure'- their idea fails utterly and probably kills them in the attempt. Or strands them in the astral plane.

So you, as the GM, are within your right to rule in their favor with no fuss. Or rule against them on the grounds that that's not how the Bottle works. Or on the grounds that it does work, and the bag will be destroyed by overfilling, like any balloon ever shall suffer in the same circumstance.

OR you can rule they can nap there just fine, but can't close or open the bag from the inside, so unless they have a pal outside, that's a tent with no protective flap.


In all cases, you must ask yourself only one question: "how does this impact the campaign?". THAT is the question, the only question, that matters. If it doesn't hurt adventure narrative in any way and it makes the players happy that they have a cool little gimmick to call their own... then by all means, let them have it.

If it gets in the way of the story in any important way, then don't let them have it. The rules- either of D&D or of our reality- support your decision, either way you choose.

Note that if your campaign gets derailed by stuffing two gnomes into a bag of holding, you might want to rethink the campaign in question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by ElfenLied View Post
Note that if your campaign gets derailed by stuffing two gnomes into a bag of holding, you might want to rethink the campaign in question.
To be fair, basically the same thing would have derailed Lord of the Rings.

Ah, that old chestnut. Feels like years ago when I read it. Probably was, now that I think about it.

Gimli was awesome.




 

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