ANOTHER 4e question

[Loxagn]

A friend has a habit of carrying around lots of bags of holding, handy haversacks, et cetera. He started trying to turn them inside out to attack people and the DM wouldn't let him because nobody knows what it's supposed to do.

Help?

What exactly happens when you turn a bag of holding or equivalent inside out?

[oxybe]

the insides are now outside?

if you're asking whether the contents 'splode outwards or just drop at the feet, that's at DM discretion, IMO.

[Kurald Galain]

A friend has a habit of carrying around lots of bags of holding, handy haversacks, et cetera. He started trying to turn them inside out to attack people

You can't do that; a bag of holding has no attack powers.

What exactly happens when you turn a bag of holding or equivalent inside out?

Either (1) you can't, or (2) its contents spill on the ground, just like what happens if you turn a regular bag inside out.

[Gralamin]

Or the DM goes to page 42 of the DMG, and uses the rules there to come up with a fair way of handling it.

[AgentPaper]

It's not like they'd come rocketing out at 100 mph or anything, at most they'd just fly a couple feet in the direction you're pointing it, or get pushed a few more feet by other stuff if you really filled the bag. I mean, unless you literally had enough junk in one of those bags to drown someone to death with it all, it wouldn't really do anything. At best you'll make it so some sharp weapons fall on them and cut them, if they promise to stand still and not try to move out of the way one bit.

[Yakk]

They resist being turned inside out while non-empty. Each minor action you spend on turning them inside out drops one reasonable sized item from within the bag on the ground at your feet. When they are empty, they turn inside out, and don't work while inside out.

[FoE]

BAGS OF HOLDING DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!

Points, however, for asking a questiont that I've never seen before.

Myself, I would rule that the magic only works one way. Until the bag was turned right side-out, it would just be a regular bag, with all the items carried within now inaccessible.

[Oracle_Hunter]

A friend has a habit of carrying around lots of bags of holding, handy haversacks, et cetera. He started trying to turn them inside out to attack people and the DM wouldn't let him because nobody knows what it's supposed to do.

I'm curious - what does he think should be happening?

Because even back in 2E, turning a bag of holding inside out wasn't an attack. IIRC, the most lethal interpretation caused the PC to get sucked through a rift to a random dimension and take massive damage. As far as suicide attacks go, I'd prefer the Retributive Strike on a Staff of Power

[kjones]

I'm a little confused by your post - do you mean that he's trying to attack with the contents of the bag somehow, or that he's trying to envelop the target within the bag?

If it's the former, I'd say that the most reasonable interpretation of what happens when you turn a Bag of Holding inside-out is that the contents spill out onto the ground. (This can become problematic if you have a lot of stuff in the bag, of course, but I suppose that's kind of the point.) I'm not sure how you would use this to attack someone, unless you were trying to drop stuff on them from a great height (hard to do in 4e) and even then, you could just, you know, drop stuff.

If it's the latter, it's a little trickier. It seems pretty clear to me that you can't put anything into a Bag of Holding while it's inside out, so he must want to run at them with the bag and then turn it right-side in to envelop them. I think the most reasonable way to handle this is to say that you can't put anything into the bag unless it's right-side in, and in that case, good luck fitting anyone through the neck of the bag.

Now, I once knew someone who got revenge on an enemy by putting a Bag of Holding over their head while they were sleeping, then puncturing the bag from the outside, thus causing the contents (the head) to be lost in extradimensional space... that was pretty sweet, even if it doesn't work that way.

[Anonomuss]

I believe in one of the Wizard of the Coast podcasts, they said that when a bag of holding is turned inside out you get....

Spoiler

Show

Another bag of holding.

And I believe that a little goblin pops out and says "Hey, I'm the librarian of the bag, why the hell am I out of my bag?"
Although, this was in jest I believe.

That being said, it's all up to the DM.