A bag of holding for multiple users: Magic Item Advice

[Dr. Murgunstrum]

I have a player playing an artificer. They want to make a bag of holding where stuff goes in a Master Bag and then multiple characters can access the Master Bag with smaller Bags.

I immediately imagined how broken this could be, acting as an instant teleportation device with no real limits to distance or meaningful limits on what goes in (a person can fit in a bag, so any gear a person can use or carry also can fit in a bag)

Now, I don’t want to just shut this player down. I think it’s a creative idea, but I’m not sure how to scale this so it’s not an artifact level item.

The magic items I’ve found aren’t particularly helpful as a guide (the haversack is worse than the bag of holding, yet it’s rare and the bag is uncommon) and the best spell I could find is Drawmij’s instant summons, which is 6th level and prohibitively expensive.

Any thoughts on how one can give a player a cookie without it breaking the game?

Thanks!

[Psyren]

So the player wants to make some sort of "communal stash" item?

This is functionally identical to each player having their own bag of holding, except even stronger since they don't have to keep track of who is storing what items. You'd also want to figure out if the players can access the communal stash from any container or whether they need the "satellite bags" to access the "master bag."

[OldTrees1]

Simple: Increase the minimum artificer level to reflect the increased utility.
2nd level Infusion: Bag of Holding
6th level Infusion: Master Bag of Holding and (Prof bonus?) Satellite Bags (This assumes the satellite is not wide enough for teleporting people)
10th level Infusion: If they insist on wanting Ring Gates, allow it at 10th?

If you go this route I would allow the satellite bags to do both import and export from the master.

[Pildion]

I have a player playing an artificer. They want to make a bag of holding where stuff goes in a Master Bag and then multiple characters can access the Master Bag with smaller Bags.

I immediately imagined how broken this could be, acting as an instant teleportation device with no real limits to distance or meaningful limits on what goes in (a person can fit in a bag, so any gear a person can use or carry also can fit in a bag)

Now, I don’t want to just shut this player down. I think it’s a creative idea, but I’m not sure how to scale this so it’s not an artifact level item.

The magic items I’ve found aren’t particularly helpful as a guide (the haversack is worse than the bag of holding, yet it’s rare and the bag is uncommon) and the best spell I could find is Drawmij’s instant summons, which is 6th level and prohibitively expensive.

Any thoughts on how one can give a player a cookie without it breaking the game?

Thanks!

Sounds like he wants to make a Many-Handed Pouch. I'd just go with that, also if your worried about them using the bags for teleportation tell them up front that's not allowed. Just let them use it as a way to kinda "share inventory". They would be able to use it for communication and touch spells as well though, not just teleports, if you let them.

[Unoriginal]

I have a player playing an artificer. They want to make a bag of holding where stuff goes in a Master Bag and then multiple characters can access the Master Bag with smaller Bags.

I immediately imagined how broken this could be, acting as an instant teleportation device with no real limits to distance or meaningful limits on what goes in (a person can fit in a bag, so any gear a person can use or carry also can fit in a bag)

Now, I don’t want to just shut this player down. I think it’s a creative idea, but I’m not sure how to scale this so it’s not an artifact level item.

The magic items I’ve found aren’t particularly helpful as a guide (the haversack is worse than the bag of holding, yet it’s rare and the bag is uncommon) and the best spell I could find is Drawmij’s instant summons, which is 6th level and prohibitively expensive.

Any thoughts on how one can give a player a cookie without it breaking the game?

Thanks!

This is inventing a brand new magic item formula.

It certainly fits the concept of the artificier, but it's definitively something that requires work, research and a quest.

And if/when the PC succeeds at crafting this brand new item, people in-setting will definitively calls it [PC name]'s [Synonyme for bag or similar] (add adjectives or "of X" descriptor as needed), as this PC is leaving their mark on the world.

Make that clear to the player, and see if they're still interested. I would put a magic item like that as Very Rare, which makes its formula either Very Rare too or Legendary, then use the Xanathar's guideline for magic item creation to see how crafting the formula goes.

[Willowhelm]

Sounds like he wants to make a Many-Handed Pouch. I'd just go with that, also if your worried about them using the bags for teleportation tell them up front that's not allowed. Just let them use it as a way to kinda "share inventory". They would be able to use it for communication and touch spells as well though, not just teleports, if you let them.

My players have something that I assume is like this.

By making it small (not a full bag of holding) it makes some aspects a little trickier to abuse but they’re not the kind of players who would anyway.

It’s mainly to handwave getting their money from the bank so they don’t have to carry all their funds.

I also let them buy a set but made it clear one pouch is missing and still connected. It’s made them paranoid about too much experimenting.

[Sigreid]

Keep in mind that as described they'd be able to put the bag back at base and and get all the benefit without having to carry something the size of a navy sea bag around.

If you want to allow it, I would make it a very rare difficulty to create and perhaps point them at the secret chest spell instead.

[Slipjig]

There's a couple of easy ways to nerf this down to non-game-breaking levels. Some that jump to mind are 1) limiting the size of the mouth of the bag so that objects over a certain size cannot be put into it, 2) saying that living creatures cannot be put into the sack (or if they do they are killed instantly, though that's can be abused in other ways), 3) limiting the range where they can access each other's contents (or just say that the satellite bags become inactive if they go over a certain range from the master bag), or 4) introduce a transit or cool down time from when something goes into one bag before it can be pulled out of another.

Depending on how many of those constraints you put on, it's still a great item, but I think that makes it so that "free-unlimited-teleport cheese" doesn't become the answer to 90% of the game's challenges.

[Saelethil]

I would put a couple limitations on it.
1) The bonus pouches should be small, anything larger than the hilt of a sword needs to come out of the main bag but coins, weapons, potions should be able to be passed freely.
2) limit the number of pouches, I’d say either PB or Int. mod.
3) They only function when close to the main bag, I’d say 5 feet per Artificer level. Further than that and they loose contact with the main bag and act as mundane coin pouches until they are back within range.

If you want to limit it further you could reduce the amount of stuff that can fit in the main bag. Maybe half the normal Bag of holding until level 10?

[Keltest]

The bag teleportion trick is going to be limited because they can't bring any of the other bags with them, so I wouldn't worry about it too much.

[MoiMagnus]

Any thoughts on how one can give a player a cookie without it breaking the game?

If you want this to be just a bag of holding but in more convenient, then add that small bags only work if they are within 60ft of the master bag.

I'd also add that only one of the bags can be opened at once.

[Dr. Murgunstrum]

Thanks all for the feed back.

The many handed pouch was exactly the kind of baseline I was looking for.

I think I’m going to have the satellite pouches remain pouch sized, allowing for potions or coins to be exchanged, or even minor pieces of equipment lighter than 6lbs, and small enough to contain in the pouch, but nothing big. Maybe nothing living.

The master bag will be a bag of holding, but possibly with a smaller, pouch sized mouth. Still debating that nerf or not.

I think I’m gonna limit the distance too. May be longer than 30ft (am considering 100ft). Satellite bags must be within it to access the pouch.

Still not certain on the action economy. Definitely an action to pull an item from the bag or put one back in, but may allow multiple bags to be used at once.

Thinking making it Very Rare, though I may give my player a discount by having them craft a bag of holding and a many handed pouch (also homebrewing) first, then being able to stitch the two together for a lower price, costing extra time, but less gold.

Really appreciate the feedback!

[CapnWildefyr]

The obvious thing to me is that each bag is an infusion; they are separate items, after all. That keeps the quantity down, if you feel that's warranted.

Agree with having some range and size limits, and with only one being opened at a time. If you have 4 pouches, maybe 500/4 = 125 lbs max??? EDIT: or each?

You might also add a 1d4 rounds to retrieve something, since you maybe have to search 3-4 places? Depends on if you see it as 4 doors into the same room, or 4 rooms connected together via open archways.

It could be really weird if a thief reaches into one bag on one player and reaches out of another bag to rip off anther player who's across town.

Also - make a decision up front about whether 1 bag being damaged/destroyed does anything to the others.

[Ortho]

Y'all are proposing an awful lot of nerfs for an item whose main effect is just to cut down on the party's bookkeeping. Mechanically, this is identical to passing around a Bag of Holding tied to the end of a very long stick.

Heck, one of my previous DMs gave us almost this exact item for free at the beginning of the campaign (albeit with a range of a hundred feet or so). I'm willing to bet that the player wants this item just so they can be a little looser with the bookkeeping.