Mordenkainen's Mag. Mansion & Bags of Holding

[Eraslin]

Hello all,
I was just looking at the spell "Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion" and noticed that it "conjures up an extradimensional dwelling". So.... one can't bring a bag of holding into the mansion, can we? A rather huge pain in the butt considering that most every 13th level character has at least one bag of holding/Hewards handy haversack/etc.

What does everyone else think?

-Eraslin

 

[Hypersmurf]

It's a weird one. The Rope Trick spell in 3E included a special reminder note that mixing ED and ND spaces can have disastrous effects. And then the 3E FAQ came out and said that bags of holding can go into a Rope Trick just fine.

It's as though the person writing the FAQ disagreed with the person writing the PHB, and took the opportunity to get their own opinion into print...

-Hyp.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

True. In fact, I side with the 3E FAQ just because I was never a huge fan of complications like that.

I eventually decided that it was strictly a problem between portable holes and bags of holding (or objects which act like bags of holding, like Heward's Handy Haversack). Taking either a portable hole or a bag of holding into any other kind of extradimensional space, like a rope trick or a Magnificent Mansion, that was no big deal, because it's not putting a portable hole into a bag of holding or vice versa.

If I absolutely had to shut a player up with an explanation for why this was so and they weren't going to accept "because" as an answer, I'd probably go with saying that in my game, bags of holding and the like are extradimensional spaces, portable holes are nondimensional spaces, and rope tricks and Mansions are paradimensional spaces. Either extra-d or non-d spaces can go into a para-d space, but extra-d spaces can't go into non-d spaces and non-d spaces can't go into extra-d spaces without a plane-shattering kaboom. And for obvious reasons, extradimensional items can't go into other extradimensional items (nor can nondimensional items fit into other nondimensional items).

...The obvious reason being "because I don't want to deal with people putting bags of holding into their handy haversacks or opening a portable hole inside another portable hole," of course. You can try doing it, it just won't work.

--
and then i'd throw something at them if they kept asking about it
ryan

 

[Hypersmurf]

I eventually decided that it was strictly a problem between portable holes and bags of holding (or objects which act like bags of holding, like Heward's Handy Haversack). Taking either a portable hole or a bag of holding into any other kind of extradimensional space, like a rope trick or a Magnificent Mansion, that was no big deal, because it's not putting a portable hole into a bag of holding or vice versa.

But then why the special warning in the Rope Trick text?

The other solutions I've seen are that people can take their Haversack into the Rope Trick, but either a/ they can't open it while inside, or b/ they can open it, but there's no connection to the NDS made, and so they just have an empty bag until they get back to a real dimension.

-Hyp.

 

[the Jester]

The whole question begs for some total gamer geek to research any other reported interactions between extra- and non-dimensional spaces, then create a logical in-game rationale for them, perhaps integrating established dnd laws of magical "physics."

Hmmmmmm.......

 

[Hypersmurf]

The whole question begs for some total gamer geek to research any other reported interactions between extra- and non-dimensional spaces, then create a logical in-game rationale for them, perhaps integrating established dnd laws of magical "physics."

But how would you convince people it was "official"?

-Hyp.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

But then why the special warning in the Rope Trick text?

Well, you see, the answer to that is really simpl....***THROWS DICE AT HYPERSMURF'S HEAD***

--
hey pal, you were warned

 

[Darklone]

Huhmhuhm. You challenge Hypersmurf to a dice duel? Choose the dice, gentlemen!

 

[The Souljourner]

The whole thing is an artifact (no, not that kind of artifact) of older editions and should be thrown out entirely. It's needlessly complicated.... like the stupid rule that you can't put sharp things in a bag of holding or it might rip..... what defines sharp? Is a dull axe sharp? How about the corner of a wooden box? I say, dump them and forget about them.

-The Souljourner

 

[blargney the second]

This reminds me of a short story I read where scientists managed to create a hole into another dimension. Eventually somebody on the other side started pulling the machine that created the hole through the hole. The story ends there with the horrific notion that the entire universe will cease to exist once the hole-generator passes through.

There was some mubledy-peg about being able to pull a sphere inside-out via a hole, but you can't do the same thing to a toroid (donut), as a hole cannot pass through another hole.

-blarg