Bags for carrying loot

[nickl_2000]

I was informed by a DM that apparently a backpack can only carry 30 pounds of stuff. So, if I'm the only PC with some strength and I need to carry heavy loot, what kind of gear should I have sitting around to carry heavy stuff (like silver bars for example).


I'm pretty sure we will end up hand waving this in the end, since our table has never been excessively worried about how things are carried or encumbrance (outside of the occisional asking of how an 8 strength PC is carrying that many coins). However, I want to be prepared.


NOTE: Pack Mules aren't really an great option when trying to nonchalantly walk away from a building in Waterdeep that you weren't supposed to loot.

[darknite]

Get a pack board, ie a back-mounted, solid frame with a shelf you can strap stuff on. You can carry a lot of weight with one of those but they're bulkier and ungainly. Shuck it when you expect danger and bring lots of rope and sacks you can bind to it. Or, you know, Bag of Holding...

One more thing. Porters are pretty cheap to hire.

[nickl_2000]

Get a pack board, ie a back-mounted, solid frame with a shelf you can strap stuff on. You can carry a lot of weight with one of those but they're bulkier and ungainly. Shuck it when you expect danger and bring lots of rope and sacks you can bind to it. Or, you know, Bag of Holding...

One more thing. Porters are pretty cheap to hire.

Cool, my PC is a blacksmith I bet I can make one of those easily in downtime.

Porters are cheap to hire, but sometimes can be a little to talkative. Given an extra coin or two it can probably gain silence though.

[darknite]

Cool, my PC is a blacksmith I bet I can make one of those easily in downtime.

Porters are cheap to hire, but sometimes can be a little to talkative. Given an extra coin or two it can probably gain silence though.

Got anyone with Animate Dead? Instant porters who can't blab!

[KorvinStarmast]

1. Tenser's Floating Disc
2. a travois (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travois#targetText=A%20travois%20(Canadian%20Frenc h%2C%20from,to%20drag%20loads%20over%20land.).

[stoutstien]

Sacks are cheap and can hold a lot each

[nickl_2000]

Got anyone with Animate Dead? Instant porters who can't blab!

Not at level 1 :smile:

[Vogie]

If you have access to any sort of Magic means, that can make things incredibly easy.

If you don't, you have to get creative, and that'll be largely based on the type of location, and type of party, that you're in.

For example, if you're a party of ne'er-do-wells:

slinking through the woods, you're going to need more people, and a place to hide the loot. Recruit some bandits into your Merry Men, so the loot can be spread among a bunch of your people, with an idea of what to do if they decide to abscond with some of it. Your hiding place could be as simple as a designated hole, a cave, or something as constructed as treehouses or towers.
on the coast or the high seas, you'll need a crewed boat and a way to signal them to come pick up said loot in the dead of night, and keep it safe and mobile. Think very pirate-y, blockade runner style of boat(s)
in the city, you'll want ways to move loot without drawing attention. This could be by having a network of hire-coach carriages that you transport things around in, taking over a subway or sewer system as a transportation system, or reliable ways to move things across rooftops.

Alternatively, if you're a party that is lawful, good, or both, that is:

slinking through the woods, you're going to want to have an entire caravan of people. Mules, porters, craftsman, cooks, tailors... enough people to defend themselves and support your party as they're travelling.
on the coast or high seas, you'll need a crewed boat, and connections in various ports and cities. Unlike the above option, this party can easily just park their ship at port and just load the loot onto the ship that is known as theirs.
In the city, you may not need anything. If you're looting things you're allowed to loot, the Guards/Watch won't care, and you just need carts. If you're not allowed to loot it, you don't. If there's a grey area, perhaps the party is just clearing the area, letting the Guards/Watch to go in, and pick up your commission/reward after everything is processed.

[Sigreid]

Look for a nearby space that you can stash the loot and get back to later when the heat is off.

[RickAllison]

Look for a nearby space that you can stash the loot and get back to later when the heat is off.

Mending is great for this. Break a box lid or something, stash it, then mend it so it looks like it was never broken.

[nickl_2000]

Mending is great for this. Break a box lid or something, stash it, then mend it so it looks like it was never broken.

This is one of many reasons why I hate that mending has a 1 minute casting time. I don't see a legitimate reason for it and there is so many cool things you could do as a PC with a 1 round casting time instead.

[NNescio]

This is one of many reasons why I hate that mending has a 1 minute casting time. I don't see a legitimate reason for it and there is so many cool things you could do as a PC with a 1 round casting time instead.

It... might get a bit OP when creative players start using it in-combat for make-shift restraints.

[Ninja_Prawn]

Sacks are cheap and can hold a lot each

Sacks are definitely underrated as adventuring tools. They're officially the most efficient container (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=24034904&postcount=6) in terms of capacity:container weight ratio. Also, you can dye them black and paint the word 'SWAG' on the side for extra style points. :smallcool:

[dragoeniex]

There's also the option to buy another backpack and dual wield, ala that athletic friends that sees you winded on a mountain hike and grabs your pack as he jogs by. And optionally throwing you face-first into the path with a friendly clap on the back.

But hey, it's the thought that counts, and at least it's easier to stand back up now.



Your character's a smith? If you're handy with tools and absolutely need something bigger/additional, maybe have someone carry a pack with parts for a lightweight, assembly wagon that can be snapped/hammered together whenever the team has time. Then the less burly teammates can help you pull loot back to town.

[GlenSmash!]

Sacks are definitely underrated as adventuring tools. They're officially the most efficient container (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=24034904&postcount=6) in terms of capacity:container weight ratio. Also, you can dye them black and paint the word 'SWAG' on the side for extra style points. :smallcool:

Or just put large green $$$$ on each bag to let people know there is nothing interesting in there.

[Waterdeep Merch]

Is it out of the question to request custom storage containers for sale? I'm assuming that the common PHB bags are leather or cloth. Barring something cool and fantastical like dragon hide or the like, a wood-reinforced frame around a backpack with steel fasteners should let you carry much heavier loot. With the right tool proficiencies, maybe you can even do it yourself.

This doesn't solve spatial constraints, of course. Your only options there are more bags or magic.

[Tetrasodium]

This might be an unpopular answer.... buuuuut...could it be that your gm is imposing container size rules because he wants to stop the party from carrying everything they own along with everything not nailed down & he's completely justified in shooting down or making attempts to creatively subvert the container sizes difficult?... that pacjboard might come with -3 AC & disadvantage on dex saves for example

[nickl_2000]

This might be an unpopular answer.... buuuuut...could it be that your gm is imposing container size rules because he wants to stop the party from carrying everything they own along with everything not nailed down & he's completely justified in shooting down or making attempts to creatively subvert the container sizes difficult?... that pacjboard might come with -3 AC & disadvantage on dex saves for example

I would doubt it since we didn't loot everything that wasn't tied down. Plus it was more of an off hand comment after the fact than a "careful with this in the future "

Besides, how am I supposed to murder hobo correctly if I can't loot everything that isn't tired down (and some things that are).

[Waterdeep Merch]

Oh, and if you have any artificers around- the Many-Handed Pouch and an accomplice in a safe location can let you get away with absolute murder, loot-wise.

Also murder-murder if you're okay performing some amateur butchery.

[Laserlight]

I remember our party running into a locked door, with a lock we could neither pick nor break. So we cut the door apart and stole the lock.

I approve of your efforts to take everything not tied down.

[NNescio]

I remember our party running into a locked door, with a lock we could neither pick nor break. So we cut the door apart and stole the lock.

I approve of your efforts to take everything not tied down.

Some gems from the (3.5e version of) Tomb of Horrors:


At the end of the corridor, characters see the following:

A door forged of gleaming metallic alloy with massive reinforced hinges bars passage beyond this point. Three vertical slots mar the door’s surface at waist height. Each slot is about 1 inch wide and 3 inches long.

The 1-foot-thick steel door (it’s too expensive for the demons to keep replacing adamantine doors) is suffused with a globe of invulnerability effect. (However, only the door, its hinges, and the stone around the hinges are so affected, allowing it to shed any spell of 4th or lesser level.) The effect cannot be brought down by a targeted dispel magic, but it can be suppressed for 1d4 rounds if the dispel check beats a DC of 22. If the door is removed from the stone that moors it through some determined engineering, it loses all magical abilities.

(...)

Note: Once open, the door automatically swings closed 5 rounds later. In addition to the invulnerability effect, the door enjoys a magical hardness (which can be suppressed for 1d4 rounds as the invulnerability effect) that allows it to mash any metal less deformable than adamantine that someone may put in place to hold it open. A character trying to hold it open needs to make a DC 30 Strength check each round to hold it open. From inside (room 25), no slots or other obvious methods can get the door open again.

Translation: The door used to be adamantine, but Acererak got pissed off at adventurers stealing it so he replaced it with magically-reinforced steel that is functionally even better than adamantine but far less valuable.

Later...


The doors on the south wall are apparently made of mithral (see entry 29).

(...)

The doors set on the southern end of room 28 are 14-feet wide and 28-feet tall (and 3-feet thick). They are not forged of mithral; they just appear as if they are. (As in other places, it was too expensive for the demons to keep replacing mithral doors stolen by ambitious tomb looters.) However, in addition to a glamer to give the valves an illusion of mithral, they are suffused with a globe of invulnerability effect that affects only the doors, their hinges, and the stone and metal around the hinges, allowing the valves to shed any spell of 4th or lesser level). The effect cannot be brought down by a targeted dispel magic but it can be suppressed for 1d4 rounds if the dispel check beats a DC of 22. If one or both valves are removed from the stone that moors it through some determined engineering, the valve (or valves) loses all magical abilities. (...)

Translation: Acererak is sick of your s***. (It's a running gag.)