Hobbit in a bag: The trouble with extradimensional spaces

[pallandrome]

You tackle a halfling and shove him in your bag of holding. Then you use your dagger to pop said bag. What happens to the halfling? Alive? Dead? Lost in another dimension? If so, which? How hard, precisely, would it be to reverse the condition?

 

[cwhs01]

Schrödingers halfling.

 

[Nail]

Easy-peasy:

If the bag is overloaded, or if sharp objects pierce it (from inside or outside), the bag ruptures and is ruined. All contents are lost forever.

The halfling is gone forever.

 

[donremus]

I was Mr Popular when I once entered a Rope Trick space with a bag of holding lol

 

[mvincent]

I was Mr Popular when I once entered a Rope Trick space with a bag of holding lol

From the 3.0 FAQ:
"Note you can freely go plane hopping with portable holes,
bags of holding, and the like. Spells that produce their own
extradimensional spaces, such as rope trick, pose no danger to
occupants who may be using portable holes, bags of holding,
and the like."

From the Rules of the Game:
"the rope trick and Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion both create extradimensional spaces. The rope trick spell description makes a passing mention of "hazards" associated with placing one extradimensional space inside another, but gives no details. (See the rope trick excerpt.)

I recommend that you ignore this reference. Your campaign won't be improved if rope trick effects implode when someone carries a bag of holding or portable hole inside. A Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion should likewise prove benign if someone carries a bag of holding or portable hole inside."

 

[werk]

You tackle a halfling and shove him in your bag of holding.

This is the part that gets me. How do you forcibly shove a halfling into a bag of holding (or any container for that matter)?

If you're able to wing that, then you should be fine on your own anyway.

As for willingly entering a BoH and trying to use it for transport...see Nail's response above.

 

[mvincent]

Schrödingers halfling.

This WotC podcast might address that very subject. Anybody care to listen to it and relate the answer?

 

[lukelightning]

The whole "bag of holding dimensional explosion thing" always sounded suspiciously like ad hoc DM meddling to me. Why stop with bags of holding?

"You're holding TWO magic swords? Don't you know that causes a reverse energy flow and rips your arms of? LOLOLOL!!!!!!1111"

I imagine there are still a few DMs who still believe that if you drink two potions you might explode.

 

[Ambrus]

It depends on whether you want to give the halfling some chance of survival or not.

The way I see it though is that the halfling has to end up somewhere since the bag doesn't say that he's dead or destroyed, simply "lost forever". As I understand extra-dimensional spaces, the bag contains it's its own little pocket dimension with a portal (the bag's opening) linking it to the prime material plane. If that bag is pierced and thus ruined I'd guess one of two things would likely happen; either the extra-dimensional space continues to exist, albeit without any exit points (since the bag is ruined and doesn't function as a link to the prime material plane any longer) with the halfling trapped inside or the extra-dimensional space collapses and flings the halfling and all other contents into the deep ethereal plane (since, IIRC, all extra-dimensional spaces are contained somewhere within the infinite reaches of the ethereal plane). Either way, it could be assumed that the halfling is lost and unable to return to the prime material plane; that is unless he's somehow able to plane-shift himself back.

 

[Crothian]

I imagine there are still a few DMs who still believe that if you drink two potions you might explode.

Depends what is rolled on the mixing two potions chart. You also might discover one of them is now always in effect on you.