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View Full Version : fun fillers: bags of holding



Stix
2009-10-04, 01:24 AM
so i was thinking. the bag of holding is so often thought of solely as a really handy item holder, but there has to be other uses for them.

1. everyone has thought of the last laugh plan of dropping a portable hole into it while the tarrasque digests you

2. had a bard a while back that filled a small one with caltrops and glass dust in case we needed to run from something or mess with something below us.

... other ideas?

taltamir
2009-10-04, 01:33 AM
shrink the party, carry them in the bag.
Shrink some undead, carry them in the bag.

herrhauptmann
2009-10-04, 01:34 AM
shrink the party, carry them in the bag.
Shrink some undead, carry them in the bag.

Those things can only carry so much air. Your party would suffocate after just a few minutes. Unless they're air genasi or something.

EnnPeeCee
2009-10-04, 01:36 AM
For a while, my party would stick one of the guys in it when teleporting, since our wizard wasn't a high enough level to take everyone.

taltamir
2009-10-04, 01:39 AM
Those things can only carry so much air. Your party would suffocate after just a few minutes. Unless they're air genasi or something.

there are a plethora of magical ways to not need air to breath

Zaydos
2009-10-04, 01:39 AM
I've had a character that went out into a haunted forest and hid in a bag of holding and shot wandering t-rex's with magic arrows for sneak attack damage (apparently shooting into the soft-palette of it's mouth was neither a bonus to hit or damage). It was fun it was silly, but not effective.

I actually had PCs use the climb into bag of holding and get teleported technique.

And I've seen someone carry a small library in a bag of holding. They were contemplating a second one since it got filled.

Paulus
2009-10-04, 01:39 AM
I always planned on somehow trying to formulate a way to grow plants in a bag of holding to provide air and refuge for people contained within for a generally long period of time. But then I found the amulet of Adaptation and figured everyone should have one and thus be easy to stuff in my magical bags.

Idea still intrigues me though...

taltamir
2009-10-04, 01:40 AM
I always planned on somehow trying to formulate a way to grow plants in a bag of holding to provide air and refuge for people contained within for a generally long period of time. But then I found the amulet of Adaptation and figured everyone should have one and thus be easy to stuff in my magical bags.

Idea still intrigues me though...

they would need water and light too...

Temet Nosce
2009-10-04, 01:43 AM
Factory, that you carry around. Have a creature inside making items for you (whether magical or mundane). It's also possible to make a magical assembly line.

Xenogears
2009-10-04, 01:44 AM
shrink the party, carry them in the bag.
Shrink some undead, carry them in the bag.

Make the bag of holding into a warforged compartment magic item in its chest, turn the undead into constructs, now you are SOUNDWAVE!

Deth Muncher
2009-10-04, 01:47 AM
Make the bag of holding into a warforged compartment magic item in its chest, turn the undead into constructs, now you are SOUNDWAVE!

That reminds me of a thread from a while back that had a warforged with a portal to the astral plane or somesuch nonsense in its chest.

Katana_Geldar
2009-10-04, 01:55 AM
I have heard fun things can happen when you put them inside each other.

CrazySopher
2009-10-04, 02:10 AM
Interesting uses for a Bag of Holding:

1.) Dig a hole, open the bag, put it in there, cover it with leaves. Enemy walks over the hole, falls in, run up and close the bag. Portable insta-prison. Already in the bag: Bottle of Air with written instructions. "We got you, sucka. Open the bottle in ten minutes if you'd like to live."

2.) Get a sizeable amount of bags and open them at the bottom of a small body of water to lower the water level.

3.) For commoners unfamiliar with the Bag of Holding concept: Put family/friends inside the bag with portable air sources for a minute or two, wait for commoner to come hope and "unwrap birthday present". Surprise the living hell out of them with the best surprise birthday party idea ever.

4.) Attach chassis, engine, wheels. Patent your clown car.

5.) Make sure inside of bags are clean. Buy alcoholic beverages, mixers, etc. in great bulk. Take ranks in Profession: Bartender. Fill with beverages, shake vigorously. Open your brand new Bar For Larger Than "Large" Size Intelligent Creatures.

6.) For commoners now familiar with the Bag of Holding concept: bring commoner who slept with your wife after throwing him an excellent surprise birthday party last year into his home, with a Bag of Holding all tied up with bows on the table. Tell him he has a present, watch him open it. Repeat events of previous party to a tee if all possible, and reinforce the idea of another "surprise" birthday party. Before hand, fill the bag with swarm of Stirges.

7.) Hide the bodies.

8.) Repeat 6, replace with 7.

9.) Assuming modern campaign setting: Confuse the living balls out of Airport Security.

10.) Attach to mouth of dragon costume for Chinese New Years parade equivalent in game world. Roll bluff checks until you make 20, rerolling as soon as part of crowd viewing last attempt are out of view. "Eat" commoner. Watch chaos ensue. Laugh.

11.) Complete item 1 on list, only capture a monster of Large size and drop the newly opened Bottle of Air in afterwards. Bring to home of disliked NPC or building of enemy organization. Open the bag.

12.) Be or pretend to be an anthropomorphic cartoon coyote with a penchant for Acme products and a taste for really, really fast landbound foul. Cast Enlarge Item on bag of holding. Spread opening over entrance to tunnel. Paint inside of Bag black, leave flashlight on at closed end to simulate "light at end of tunnel". Wait for said foul to run into bag. Close bag. Dispell Enlarge Item. Wait ten minutes. Cook for 2 hours on 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook and garnish as you like. I personally suggest cracked peppercorn and typical turkey stuffing. Enjoy.

Note: Started off serious, quickly degenerated into what you see before you. 11 is actually a pretty sweet sound idea now that I think of it. Xenogears, your idea is better then anything I could come up with. I salute you, sir.

Paulus
2009-10-04, 02:22 AM
they would need water and light too...

Some mosses and fungi do not require light, but a decanter of Endless water was of course part of the theory. Even going so far as to make a sort of hanging garden on shelves and such within... portable food, water, and air.

Maybe someday...

jseah
2009-10-04, 04:07 AM
You could use a Hallow spell with Daylight stuck to it for your light source. Or a bunch of continual flames.

Korivan
2009-10-04, 07:32 AM
Those things can only carry so much air. Your party would suffocate after just a few minutes. Unless they're air genasi or something.

Teleport. Dump them out in round 2

Tyndmyr
2009-10-04, 07:35 AM
there are a plethora of magical ways to not need air to breath

Step 1: Fill bag with water
Step 2: Use water breathing

So far as I know, there's no real limitation on how much water you need to breathe normally. Plus, it makes the exit vastly more amusing.

DrGonzo
2009-10-04, 08:01 AM
Interesting uses for a Bag of Holding:

1.) Dig a hole, open the bag, put it in there, cover it with leaves. Enemy walks over the hole, falls in, run up and close the bag. Portable insta-prison. Already in the bag: Bottle of Air with written instructions. "We got you, sucka. Open the bottle in ten minutes if you'd like to live."

2.) Get a sizeable amount of bags and open them at the bottom of a small body of water to lower the water level.

3.) For commoners unfamiliar with the Bag of Holding concept: Put family/friends inside the bag with portable air sources for a minute or two, wait for commoner to come hope and "unwrap birthday present". Surprise the living hell out of them with the best surprise birthday party idea ever.

4.) Attach chassis, engine, wheels. Patent your clown car.

5.) Make sure inside of bags are clean. Buy alcoholic beverages, mixers, etc. in great bulk. Take ranks in Profession: Bartender. Fill with beverages, shake vigorously. Open your brand new Bar For Larger Than "Large" Size Intelligent Creatures.

6.) For commoners now familiar with the Bag of Holding concept: bring commoner who slept with your wife after throwing him an excellent surprise birthday party last year into his home, with a Bag of Holding all tied up with bows on the table. Tell him he has a present, watch him open it. Repeat events of previous party to a tee if all possible, and reinforce the idea of another "surprise" birthday party. Before hand, fill the bag with swarm of Stirges.

7.) Hide the bodies.

8.) Repeat 6, replace with 7.

9.) Assuming modern campaign setting: Confuse the living balls out of Airport Security.

10.) Attach to mouth of dragon costume for Chinese New Years parade equivalent in game world. Roll bluff checks until you make 20, rerolling as soon as part of crowd viewing last attempt are out of view. "Eat" commoner. Watch chaos ensue. Laugh.

11.) Complete item 1 on list, only capture a monster of Large size and drop the newly opened Bottle of Air in afterwards. Bring to home of disliked NPC or building of enemy organization. Open the bag.

12.) Be or pretend to be an anthropomorphic cartoon coyote with a penchant for Acme products and a taste for really, really fast landbound foul. Cast Enlarge Item on bag of holding. Spread opening over entrance to tunnel. Paint inside of Bag black, leave flashlight on at closed end to simulate "light at end of tunnel". Wait for said foul to run into bag. Close bag. Dispell Enlarge Item. Wait ten minutes. Cook for 2 hours on 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cook and garnish as you like. I personally suggest cracked peppercorn and typical turkey stuffing. Enjoy.

Note: Started off serious, quickly degenerated into what you see before you. 11 is actually a pretty sweet sound idea now that I think of it. Xenogears, your idea is better then anything I could come up with. I salute you, sir.

This. Is. Brilliant.

Violet Octopus
2009-10-04, 08:07 AM
Turning a bag of holding inside out ejects all its contents unharmed. Fill one with water, connect the bag opening to a pipe and do something with the resulting pressure.

Or make a small box out of walls of force (I think there's a spell that does this, intended for phylacteries). Fill the bag of holding with soot, somehow seal it to the force box, invert it, and make a giant diamond.

Speaking of phylacteries, become a lich. Find a spell/effect that works like Word of Recall, but across planes. Set the recall destination to be the inside of Bag of Holding #1. Place Bag of Holding #1 inside Bag of Holding #2. There's nothing saying you can't nest bags of holding, only bags and portable holes. With #2 and your phylactery on your person, use the recall spell. Whammo, pretty good hiding spot for your phylactery. Drop the items and plane shift out.

The tradeoff is that by becoming a lich, you can no longer be Soundwave.

edit: Another one. continual flame doesn't produce heat, but there must be something that does (maybe using permanency?). Presumably these pocket planes are thermodynamically isolated. Place your permanent heat effect inside the bag, close it. Wait a while. You now have:
A) Something that you can open and unleash superheated plasma that can melt through walls/foes.
B) A fusion reactor
Or replace the heat effect with a positive energy effect.

PId6
2009-10-04, 08:16 AM
Turn the Bag of Holding inside-out, wrap it around yourself, and walk through the dungeon walls.

Eldan
2009-10-04, 09:06 AM
Fill it with as many Quaal's Tree Tokens as possible, then empty them in a room through a small room in the ceiling. Watch the house explode as an instant oak forest erupts.

Reaper_Monkey
2009-10-04, 09:30 AM
Place Bag of Holding #1 inside Bag of Holding #2. There's nothing saying you can't nest bags of holding, only bags and portable holes.

I'm pretty sure placing a bag of holding (#1) inside a different bag of holding (#2) causes the first bag (#1) to just spill its contents into the second (#2) and become an ordinary bag until it is removed. Although for the life of me I can't find where its written. Perhaps it was just a house rule I encountered. :smallconfused:

Violet Octopus
2009-10-04, 09:44 AM
Turn the Bag of Holding inside-out, wrap it around yourself, and walk through the dungeon walls.
alas, bags of holding, once inverted, don't do anything:smallfrown:. If they did though, that'd be awesome.

Hm, keep the bag open, hide musicians inside and get them to play your leitmotif.

And the recall trick I mentioned before can be done with just bag of holding. Though, with the two bag version, get inside #1 and turn #2 inside out. #1 will spill out into itself, and #2 will be decoupled. Or alternately, stand inside #1, reach through the opening of #2 to grab #1 and turn it inside out.

...this is probably how vestiges get made.

Paulus
2009-10-04, 10:16 AM
alas, bags of holding, once inverted, don't do anything:smallfrown:. If they did though, that'd be awesome.

Hm, keep the bag open, hide musicians inside and get them to play your leitmotif.

And the recall trick I mentioned before can be done with just bag of holding. Though, with the two bag version, get inside #1 and turn #2 inside out. #1 will spill out into itself, and #2 will be decoupled. Or alternately, stand inside #1, reach through the opening of #2 to grab #1 and turn it inside out.

...this is probably how vestiges get made.

awww, so much for my inverted bags of holding sack races of doom.

Violet Octopus
2009-10-04, 10:24 AM
awww, so much for my inverted bags of holding sack races of doom.
I'd houserule differently, it's not like it's more broken than the bag of holding+portable hole trick.

* Crafting a Klein bottle out of bag of holding material would be confusing...what would it do?

* Doing the 1 bag recursion trick, installing a massage table with the bag underneath and giving yourself back massages.

Lycanthromancer
2009-10-04, 12:46 PM
I had a character and his cohort who (inadvertently) used a bag of holding to finally admit that they'd fallen for each other...while saving both their lives from the Illithid Apocalypse.

Warning: Don't read this if any part of my signature offends you.
This is an abbreviated account of Yarramcharadazar Resochexone, a humanoid raccoon psion, and Yantze Wolfram, an anthropomorphic fox psychic warrior.

Yantze was Yarram's manservant, long-time friend, and adventuring companion (yes, in a way, he was his Combat Butler), and they'd had a rather long (and traumatic) series of adventures struggling against an illithid uprising. The mind-flayers were using genetically-engineered elderspawn and illithid-bred disease as a means of warping the fabric of reality and initiating an eldritch cascade that eventually culminated in most of the life on the planet violently self-destructing.

Since both Yarram and Yantze had been infected by the flayer-virus, they had to find some way to avoid the psychic pulse that triggered the self-destruction sequence.

Luckily for them, Yantze had been carrying his bag of holding. They both jumped inside as the pulse began tearing through the Material Plane, closing the flap behind them. Yarram used his necklace of adaptation to breathe for the two of them in a Kiss of Life kind of way (which quickly escalated into something more desperate, giving them the outlet for emotions they'd been building for each other for some time, but wouldn't admit). It was rather inopportune timing that was perhaps a bit inappropriate all things considered, but a small part of the world found a brief moment of bliss as the rest of it went to hell. Romantic, if morose.

Once they opened the hatch a few hours later, they realized the extent of the damage done; most living things on the surface of the world had been vaporized, damaging the fabric of the Material Plane, ruining most of the ecosystems of the world, turning once-rich oceans into salt-flat deserts, and leaving vast fields of damaged and dead magic in its wake. Most of what was left was roaming bands of undead and horrifying tentacle'd aberrations. The few enclaves of civilization left would soon find the struggle for survival to be untenable.

The only thing holding Yarram and Yantze together was the deep bond of affection for each other, since at that point there was very little else to fight for, or to hold out hope for in the future.

After that began Yarram's and Yantze's fight to prevent the illithids from sling-shotting the planet into the sun, preventing the time-dilation which would send the 'flayers back to the beginning of time, and (with any luck) destroying the mind flayers in the process once and for all.

Siosilvar
2009-10-04, 12:59 PM
Turning a bag of holding inside out ejects all its contents unharmed. Fill one with water, connect the bag opening to a pipe and do something with the resulting pressure.

Or make a small box out of walls of force (I think there's a spell that does this, intended for phylacteries). Fill the bag of holding with soot, somehow seal it to the force box, invert it, and make a giant diamond.

Speaking of phylacteries, become a lich. Find a spell/effect that works like Word of Recall, but across planes. Set the recall destination to be the inside of Bag of Holding #1. Place Bag of Holding #1 inside Bag of Holding #2. There's nothing saying you can't nest bags of holding, only bags and portable holes. With #2 and your phylactery on your person, use the recall spell. Whammo, pretty good hiding spot for your phylactery. Drop the items and plane shift out.

The tradeoff is that by becoming a lich, you can no longer be Soundwave.

I don't think that works. You're putting Bag #2 in Bag #1, which is already in Bag #2. Either you form a Klein bottle, everything is shifted to the Astral, everything is destroyed, or the universe is destroyed.

Or Bag #2 is now inside out, and everything is dumped out, unharmed.

Ravens_cry
2009-10-04, 01:24 PM
Some mosses and fungi do not require light, but a decanter of Endless water was of course part of the theory. Even going so far as to make a sort of hanging garden on shelves and such within... portable food, water, and air.

Maybe someday...
Fungi may not require sunlight, but they also don't produce oxygen. I am pretty sure any mosses that don't require sunlight are the same way. A nice handy permanent item of daylight would help here. Your also going to need some form of cooling as the heat will otherwise just build up in the demi plane as there nowhere for the heat to go, except through the (not always) open mouth of the bag. I recommend a wide low stream flowing through the bag from a decanter of endless water with everyone's favourite cursed item, the bag of devouring at the other end to swallow and remove the water. Not the most efficient method of heat transfer, but hopefully it should be sufficient.
This page (http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/rocket3g.html#cess)should give some idea of how much plants we will need.
And yes, we are enacting genocide against felis puella. May the gods have mercy on our souls.

Tarvus
2009-10-06, 01:49 AM
shrink the party, carry them in the bag.
Shrink some undead, carry them in the bag.

Similar to this: we used a ferret familiar and a bottle of air to bypass a bunch of doors (going through locks, under the door etc.) and traps (as the ferret wasn't heavy enough to set em off). BBEG was freaked when with no warning a party of armed warriors appeared from an innocuous ferret :P

Rasilak
2009-10-06, 07:59 AM
Trojan Ferret?
(SCNR)

Tyndmyr
2009-10-06, 08:06 AM
Turn the Bag of Holding inside-out, wrap it around yourself, and walk through the dungeon walls.

This reminds me of something I heard once.

If pulling the blanket over your head makes the monsters go away, what happens if you put the blanket over the monster's head?

tyckspoon
2009-10-06, 08:44 AM
This reminds me of something I heard once.

If pulling the blanket over your head makes the monsters go away, what happens if you put the blanket over the monster's head?

It experiences a profound existential crisis and goes catatonic until somebody pulls off the blanket. That's if it knows the rules too. If it doesn't, it eats you.

Willis888
2009-10-06, 12:20 PM
Turning a bag of holding inside out ejects all its contents unharmed. Fill one with water, connect the bag opening to a pipe and do something with the resulting pressure.

I wonder if there would be any back-pressure against the bag? If not, it should be possible to use some pressure to refill the bag, and a bit more to turn it inside-out again, thus creating a perpetual motion machine that provides free energy. I'm thinking of Gatling-ballistae to guard the fully automated toy factory in your secret polar stronghold - monopolize the poorly-built-trinket industry by force :smallamused:




* Crafting a Klein bottle out of bag of holding material would be confusing...what would it do?


Its inside is its outside, so Everything could be considered "inside" it. Whoever possesses the Klein Bottle of Holding can retrieve any object on the current plane of existence as a full round action.

You might need to research a variant of Plane Shift with a permanent AoE to craft the bottle without puncturing it . . . and you might want to take precautions against the possibility of a Portable Hole ever existing on your plane (unless your goal is to move that entire plane into the Astral).

Loxagn
2009-10-06, 01:09 PM
Our party rogue beheaded a sleeping person with his bag of holding. It was pretty damn hilarious.

Danin
2009-10-06, 09:13 PM
My artificer used one of his bags of holding to store a Ballista, some explosive bolts and a construct with a readied action to fire. We were ambushed by some bandits who demanded our loot. I begged him to leave my blue bag with me, claiming he really didn't want to see what was in it. He was briefly quite convinced he did want whatever was inside it. Then his head exploded.

Beorn080
2009-10-06, 09:41 PM
One large bag of holding + 700 decanters of endless water + string tied/glued to lid of all the decanters = Portable water cannon/dungeon flooder.

After the first below ground dungeon was flooded via a very minor version of this with just a few decanters, my DM stopped doing underground dungeons. He also refused to let me make an Iron Man esque suit out of full plate and said decanters.

Masaioh
2009-10-06, 10:25 PM
1) Place Sorcerer in bag
2) Place bag in other character's pants/Tarrasque's mouth
3) Cast Time Stop
4) ???
5) Profit!

Willis888
2009-10-07, 10:27 AM
Make a Bag of Holding large enough to fill the cradle of a catapult,

-fill it with oil of impact,

-cast a Contingency on a glass sphere so when ever it gets ejected from a Bag of Holding it will cast a custom Colossal AoE Airy Water spell, and drop the sphere in the Bag,

-cast a Contingency on a glass sphere so when it is within the radius of an Airy Water spell it casts Chain Lightning, and drop that sphere in the Bag,

-cast Delayed Blast Fireball on a glass sphere glued to the outside of the Bag,

-launch the catapult,

-laugh as a cloud of Oil of Impact forms over the city that has scorned you and then detonates

Da Pwnzlord
2009-10-07, 10:44 AM
Don't forget making perpetual motion machines!


Attach Portable Holes to one side of several paddlewheels. Fill Portable Holes with rocks. Rocks fall out of inverted Portable Hole, pushing down paddlewheel. As wheel continues to spin, the rocks are scooped up by the moving paddle and become weightless. Wheel spins around and rocks are dumped out again. Etc, etc.


It costs a pretty penny, but supplies virtually infinate amounts of energy if you attach it to a dynamo or something like that.



You can also fill Bags of Holding with hundreds of one pound rocks. Use a magic carpet to fly to 20,000 ft up, turn the bag inside out and let the rules for falling objects do the rest. :smallamused:

Ravens_cry
2009-10-07, 11:03 AM
Dude, a perpetual motion machine just costs one measly decanter of endless water set on gyser, and a paddle wheel.

Da Pwnzlord
2009-10-07, 11:12 AM
Dude, a perpetual motion machine just costs one measly decanter of endless water set on gyser, and a paddle wheel.

What book is that decanter in?

Violet Octopus
2009-10-07, 11:17 AM
Its inside is its outside, so Everything could be considered "inside" it. Whoever possesses the Klein Bottle of Holding can retrieve any object on the current plane of existence as a full round action.

You might need to research a variant of Plane Shift with a permanent AoE to craft the bottle without puncturing it . . . and you might want to take precautions against the possibility of a Portable Hole ever existing on your plane (unless your goal is to move that entire plane into the Astral).
:smalleek:
option 1 is awesome if hideously broken, option 2 sounds like a great plot for an antagonist. Although the campaign then becomes rather interesting if they should succeed...

Ravens_cry
2009-10-07, 11:36 AM
What book is that decanter in?
The Dungeon Masters Guide (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#decanterofEndlessWater).

Da Pwnzlord
2009-10-07, 11:48 AM
The Dungeon Masters Guide (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#decanterofEndlessWater).

Awesome. Why bother looking it up yourself when you know that someone else will answer your entirely stupid question for your and facilitate your laziness? :smalltongue:

I love the internet. :smallcool:


Edit: Isn't there some thread devoted to figuring out how fast these things would make something spin?

Sipex
2009-10-07, 11:54 AM
A couple of my players fell down a crevase and needed to get out but had really bad athletics (4e) skill. So the party that didn't fall tied their bags of holding to ropes, lowered them down, had the fallen members climb in and quickly pulled them up (with the members rolling endurance checks to hold their breath).