Dungeons & Dragons: What Happens When You Put A Bag Of Holding In Another Bag Of Holding? (2024)

Bags of Holding are one of the best items in allowing you to carry a plethora of things without worrying about how much weight you are carrying, meaning your puny Wizard doesn't need to worry about encumbrance. Having multiple Bags of Holding, or similar items such as a Handy Haversack can make your party not worry about weight at all. And it can make a fancy 'bomb.'

Due to the nature of the item, there are interesting effects caused when you place a Bag of Holding inside another Bag of Holding. This effect can either save you from a dire situation or make the whole campaign far more complicated than it was, so be careful.

How A Bag Of Holding Works

The Bag And The Astral Plane

See Also

The Bag of Holding is a bad magic item for D&D - Paths PeculiarBag of holdingRoll20 - Compendium and Rule Set DirectoryBag of Holding – d20PFSRD

The Bag can store so many things inside it because it's technically a pocket dimension. It has a limitation to how much it can carry (500lbs, 250kgs according to translations that use the metric system), as well as other limitations such as the object's dimensions to enter the Bag. Breaking those limitations will scatter its content throughout the Astral Plane.

The Astral Plane is a dimension that connects other dimensions, and it functions somewhat similar to space in D&D. It's the place you go when casting Astral Projection. It's a vast, mostly harmless plane, as it is difficult to find others in it due to its size, despite there being civilizations over there, like the Githyanki.

Because of all that limitless space, having your Bag of Holding burst essentially means you lost everything inside of it. The content is not destroyed per se, but finding these items would be like finding a random object floating in space. It's easier and faster to just buy new stuff.

Putting A Bag Of Holding Inside Another

The Astral Bomb

The item also has specific rules as to what happens when one Bag is placed inside another, and the same applies to other pocket-dimension storage items, such as a Portable Hole or a Handy Haversack. When that happens, both items explode, creating a portal into the Astral Plane.

This portal doesn't last long; you can't choose where exactly in the Astral Plane it'll lead you, and it's a one-way ticket, meaning you can go to the Astral Plane like that, but you can't leave the Astral Plane by repeating this technique there.

What makes this trick complicated is that it'll suck anything ten feet (3m) away from the portal without any Saving Throws or size restrictions. That means you could send a Tarrasque to the Astral Plane, avoiding a fight entirely - you just need to find a way to do this without being close to the Bags, like having a familiar put the Bag inside another.

Alternatively, if you and your party don't fear getting lost in the Astral Plane, this could be an exciting way to ditch a dangerous situation. Getting out of the Astral Plane isn't a simple thing, however, especially depending on your party's current level, so that may not be the best strategy.

Should You Make An Astral Bomb?

The Pros And Cons

This strategy is effective against weaker enemies, but in most scenarios, it's more trouble than it's worth, both in and out of the game.

For starters, taking the party to the Astral Plane out of nowhere can put your DM in a bind, as they'll have to halt the campaign for a sudden "We must leave the Astral Plane" adventure.

However, a prepared, high-level party can leave the Astral Plane easily, and you can use these items as a free one-way trip that won't cost spells slots or anything - though, on the other hand, you are wasting two valuable items to do something a spell slot can handle. It's up to you to decide whether that's a good deal or not.

As to in-game consequences, trapping an extremely high-level enemy in the Astral Plane will likely not give you the best result. Just as you can find a way out once you're high-leveled, powerful creatures won't have much trouble leaving the area, meaning that the best you can do is inconvenience the BBEG and pause your fight against them momentarily.

And since the Astral Plane connects most other planes together, the worst you can do is accidentally give the BBEG access to other planes of existence.

Lastly, you have to consider where you currently are. If you are in Avernus or the Abyss, you have bigger chances of survival by sending yourself to the Astral Plane. You can also technically use this trick while already in the Astral Plane, but it won't take you out of it; instead, it'll take you to another random place in the Astral Plane, which is probably not a helpful thing to do.

However, some places can ultimately trap everyone from leaving, whether it's an official location or a homebrew concept from your Dungeon Master. For example, Curse of Strahd specifically mentions that leaving Barovia through things such as Plane Shift or even the Wish spell doesn't work as it is its own pocket dimension and is not connected to any other plane.

Though it doesn't mention the Bag of Holding trick by name, it's hard to assume it would work in a situation where Wish would fail. The DM can use this concept or others to justify this trick not working wherever you are in your homebrew campaign, so be careful not to waste an item.