How to survive in a Bag of Holding 101

[D&D_Fan]

Bags of Holding are iconic magic items, allowing people to store much more that they appear to hold. They can hold a person easily, or could except for one catch. They don't typically store breathable air. This post will be about ways to survive inside of a bag of holding for an extended period of time.

Method 1: Aquatic Method
The bag itself cannot hold air, but it CAN hold water. If you are a water breathing or amphibious race, you can fill the bag with water, and go inside. You can breathe in the water. You can stay in the bag for much longer with this method. If you don't breath water, cast water breathing, or polymorph/wild shape yourself into an aquatic or amphibious creature.

Method 2: Not breathing at all
Be a creature that doesn't have to breath at all. Warforged fall into this category. If you can transform into a robot, or extraordinary creature that doesn't require air, you can stay in the bag indefinitely.

Ok tbh, I can't think of any other ways to achieve this, but If you can, post it below!

[Khedrac]

Bags of Holding are iconic magic items, allowing people to store much more that they appear to hold. They can hold a person easily, or could except for one catch. They don't typically store breathable air. This post will be about ways to survive inside of a bag of holding for an extended period of time.
Actually they normally do hold breathable air, however it doesn't stay breathable which is why you need non-breathers.


Method 1: Aquatic Method
The bag itself cannot hold air, but it CAN hold water. If you are a water breathing or amphibious race, you can fill the bag with water, and go inside. You can breathe in the water. You can stay in the bag for much longer with this method. If you don't breath water, cast water breathing, or polymorph/wild shape yourself into an aquatic or amphibious creature.
There's a lot less oxygen dissolved in a given volume of water than there would be in the same volume of air. Expect to run out of oxygen much, much faster with this method.


Method 2: Not breathing at all
Be a creature that doesn't have to breath at all. Warforged fall into this category. If you can transform into a robot, or extraordinary creature that doesn't require air, you can stay in the bag indefinitely.

Ok tbh, I can't think of any other ways to achieve this, but If you can, post it below!
I don't think elementals require air, and they can be easier to turn into.

Method 2b: - polymorph into an object - the problem here is that it usually isn't up to you then to cease being an object.

[D&D_Fan]

Actually they normally do hold breathable air, however it doesn't stay breathable which is why you need non-breathers.


There's a lot less oxygen dissolved in a given volume of water than there would be in the same volume of air. Expect to run out of oxygen much, much faster with this method.[/QUOTE]
Huh. Ok, scrap method 1 then.


Method 2b: - polymorph into an object - the problem here is that it usually isn't up to you then to cease being an object.
I suppose this works for transport and hiding, but you could also turn someone into a cap and wear it, or anything else that isn't suspicious like a ring or hat. That said the object could take up less space and weight.

[Kaptin Keen]

Method 3: Be undead.
Method 4: Be in stasis.
Method 5: Bring an air elemental. I guess it's debatable whether an elemental can refresh the oxygen, but I'd allow it.
Method 6: Polymorph was already mentioned, but various other options work too - anything that means you have no lungs, like Gaseous Form, frees you from breathing (temporarily).

[farothel]

The more evil method:
1) kill the person(s) you want to transport
2) transport corpses in bag of holding
3) resurrect at the other end.

[Elbeyon]

Use a straw

[Dimers]

What's wrong with a necklace of adaptation (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/wondrousItems.htm#necklaceofAdaptation)? Seems like the most straightforward solution.

EDIT: or if you're playing 5e, necklace of adaptation (https://5e.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemsAToZ.htm#necklaceOfAdaptation).

[InvisibleBison]

I'm not sure if it's actually possible to survive in a bag of holding, at least in 3.5. The item description explicitly says that you suffocate after 10 minutes, without exception. I'm pretty sure that, RAW, you'd suffocate even if you have some way of regenerating the air or not needing to breathe.

[Tvtyrant]

I'm not sure if it's actually possible to survive in a bag of holding, at least in 3.5. The item description explicitly says that you suffocate after 10 minutes, without exception. I'm pretty sure that, RAW, you'd suffocate even if you have some way of regenerating the air or not needing to breathe.

That's pretty funny. To kill an immortal, stuff them in your bag of holding!

[Rater202]

There's a lot less oxygen dissolved in a given volume of water than there would be in the same volume of air. Expect to run out of oxygen much, much faster with this method.Soomekind of deep-sea aquatic plant life to refresh the oxygen supply, though research would have to be done to find the right plant for maximum efficiency, you'd need a suitable layer of soil that would periodically need to be fertilized, and you might need a particularly large bag to have enough room for enough plants to sustain you.


I'm not sure if it's actually possible to survive in a bag of holding, at least in 3.5. The item description explicitly says that you suffocate after 10 minutes, without exception. I'm pretty sure that, RAW, you'd suffocate even if you have some way of regenerating the air or not needing to breathe.

That's clearly a case of poor wording. It's like down healing or the commoner railgun: in any game that favors realism over strict adherence to the rules, it'd be ignored. especially if it's a GM who encouraged creative solutions.

I'll admit, when I first saw this thread I thought it was gonna be a way to live in a Bag of holding: What kind of things you'd need in it to live in one indefinitely and how to stop people from carrying it off...

Of course, I'm also the guy that fantasized about a base-class thats gimmick is that you're basically a normal guy trapped in an indestructible floating treasure chest that was bigger on the inside and sustained you/met your needs at the cost of you being physically unable to have more than half of your body out of the chest at any one point in time.

[D&D_Fan]

Soomekind of deep-sea aquatic plant life to refresh the oxygen supply, though research would have to be done to find the right plant for maximum efficiency, you'd need a suitable layer of soil that would periodically need to be fertilized, and you might need a particularly large bag to have enough room for enough plants to sustain you.
well, When it comes to air and water, Your DM must decide if everything put in the bag is separated, or combined together.
The typical Bag of Holding holds 300 lbs. or about 136 kg.

I'll admit, when I first saw this thread I thought it was gonna be a way to live in a Bag of holding: What kind of things you'd need in it to live in one indefinitely and how to stop people from carrying it off...
You can. In and out of D&D Canon, some bags can hold miniature worlds!

[Khedrac]

I'm not sure if it's actually possible to survive in a bag of holding, at least in 3.5. The item description explicitly says that you suffocate after 10 minutes, without exception. I'm pretty sure that, RAW, you'd suffocate even if you have some way of regenerating the air or not needing to breathe.
I think this would count as specific versus general, and I would be happy to rule that the "suffocate in 10 minutes" is the general, and methods of not suffocating would be the specific.

Soomekind of deep-sea aquatic plant life to refresh the oxygen supply, though research would have to be done to find the right plant for maximum efficiency, you'd need a suitable layer of soil that would periodically need to be fertilized, and you might need a particularly large bag to have enough room for enough plants to sustain you.
For plant-life to release oxygen you need a source of sunlight. Green plants consume oxygen to live, it's just that in sunlight they produce a lot more as part of photosynthesis (assuming a source of CO2).
What they don't need is soil, algae (plankton) can do a very good job of photosynthesis just floating in water.

[InvisibleBison]

I think this would count as specific versus general, and I would be happy to rule that the "suffocate in 10 minutes" is the general, and methods of not suffocating would be the specific.

I don't think that's correct. The general rule for being sealed in an airtight space is the slow suffocation (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/environment.htm#suffocation) rule, with both the necklace of adaptation and bag of holding being specific cases that override the general rule. I agree it makes sense that a necklace of adaptation should let you survive in a bag of holding, and I'd rule that way myself, but I'm not sure what the RAW would be.

[Batcathat]

Method 5: Bring an air elemental. I guess it's debatable whether an elemental can refresh the oxygen, but I'd allow it.

I prefer the idea that the elemental isn't refreshing anything and you're just breathing the elemental to stay alive. Which I imagine would be an odd feeling for the poor thing.

[Kareeah_Indaga]

I've been wanting to use Sepia Snake for something like this for ages. :smallfrown:

Cast Sepia Snake Sigil -> have the person to be transported in the bag deliberately trigger it and fail their save -> they are now in stasis, stuff them in the Bag of Holding. With the added bonus they don't have to be fed until the spell wears off either, which may be helpful if you're in the middle of the desert and have to conserve rations.

[Quertus]

I'm not sure if it's actually possible to survive in a bag of holding, at least in 3.5. The item description explicitly says that you suffocate after 10 minutes, without exception. I'm pretty sure that, RAW, you'd suffocate even if you have some way of regenerating the air or not needing to breathe.

Sounds like something that should be added to the rules dysfunctions thread.


well, When it comes to air and water, Your DM must decide if everything put in the bag is separated, or combined together.
The typical Bag of Holding holds 300 lbs. or about 136 kg.

You can. In and out of D&D Canon, some bags can hold miniature worlds!

Citation? That sounds awesome!

[Kaptin Keen]

I prefer the idea that the elemental isn't refreshing anything and you're just breathing the elemental to stay alive. Which I imagine would be an odd feeling for the poor thing.

Heh - yes, being sucked repeatedly into a weird bag of self-replicating organic matter does sound ... odd. Eww, these creatures are even more disgusting from the inside!

[Lord Torath]

Bring a Crown of the Void with you. It's a 2E magic item that continuously produces breathable air in a 90' radius. Don't even need to wear it. Just keep it within 90' of you, and you can breathe (assuming you're not underwater, unless you're normally a water-breather. It re-oxygenizes the water within 90', too).

[PrismCat21]

Bottle of Air?

[Angrith]

Bottle of air is probably the simplest, but quintessence gives you style points. Just fill the bag and hop in. You'll be in stasis until someone takes you back out, so the trip even feels instantaneous.

[Pelle]

You can run whole adventures inside bags of holding:
Brutal Imperilment in the Bag of Infinite Holding (https://mottokrosh.com/machinations/brutal-imperilment/)