[3.5] Feat: Elite Grenadier

[Veyr]

It wasn't every attack, only sneaks (precise strike, etc), criticals and area effect damage would have a chance to set it off, his pack was reinforced from the start to avoid the worst of it. He even exploded once, only took a reasonably small(ish!) chunk of damage but lost most of his kit when it happened. The funnier bit was the 20 or so goblins which disintegrated and the shallow, smoking crater he was left standing in.

Ah, yeah, that seems fair. That's actually an awesome story.

I've done much the same thing in a couple of my settings, seen one too many exploits using BoH to be entirely comfortable with them. Trouble is, they're nigh essential for a high level group unless you have a packhorse/tank type character to lug about the heavier stuff....or leadership for an entourage of course.

Abuse? I'm not aware of any...

In my eyes, Handy Haversacks exist purely to eliminate unnecessary bookkeeping. As such, they're a really important part of the game. Bags of Holding, too, though Handy Haversacks are usually better. In this particular game I'm in, it's necessary in order to reconcile how the planes and cosmology work (or something or some such; I'm not really clear on the how's and why's), but I generally consider the loss of such items to be to the detriment of the game, as you mention.

Though, I would point out that you don't need Leadership to have people carrying your stuff; you can just have hirelings for that.