D&D 5E Would placing a weapon in a bag of holding break/block Eldritch Knights bond?

[LordStradhsBatman]

14-10-22 : update post at the end of thread. All sorted, thanks for everyone’s feedback.

I’m running Curse Of Stradh and the player holding the sun sword is an Eldritch Knight, who’s bonded to it.

I’ve made no secret Stradh now knows he has it will try to get it back because I like messing with their heads and it creates paranoia which is a good thing for the campaign imo. The next session he’s going to offer him some nice alternatives (read cursed) to hand it over.

The player is a massive rules buff and has admitted if it gets taken in anyway or gives it up, he can just summon it back with the bond. Reading the fluff it seems he’s right and there’s very little I can do, except it says the weapon needs to be on the same plane if existence.

As a bag of holding seems to create extra dimensional space, would placing the sword inside one technically cancel that ability out as it’s not within the same plane of existence?

I know as DM I could fudge it but the player is my brother in law and challenged me to try and figure out a way to legit get round it if I can.

 

[Stormonu]

Yeah, sounds like a bag of holding or portable hole would do the trick, though a bag of devouring would do it even better.

Strahd is a genius though, and may very well understand that there is bond between the Knight and the weapon, and as part of the trade may require a ceremony of the Knight that ensures that bond is broken before agreeing.

 

[Umbran]

Why, exactly, would the character agree to this?
What, exactly, is the player going to think if you pressure him to give up his cool stuff, and you replace it with cursed crap?
Actively working to screw over the player may not be a good move here.

 

[Fanaelialae]

Yeah, sounds like a bag of holding or portable hole would do the trick, though a bag of devouring would do it even better.

Strahd is a genius though, and may very well understand that there is bond between the Knight and the weapon, and as part of the trade may require a ceremony of the Knight that ensures that bond is broken before agreeing.

I disagree.

I don't think that an extra dimensional space counts as a different plane of existence. It's extra dimensional, which to me means that it's a fold in space (like a tesseract). If you rule otherwise, beware. There are abilities (such as divination spells) that only function on the same plane. If the players can become immune to them by climbing into a portable hole (because you rule that it counts as its own plane), then that becomes an easy way to become immune to those abilities (for example, everyone hops into the Portable Hole before discussing secret information).

With regard to the Bag of Devouring, that might work, but given that this is Ravenloft it will only work if the Dark Powers allow it.

IMO, the most straightforward way to deal with the sword would be to deal with the fighter. Dominate him, imprison him, or whatever. If he can't summon the sword then it's no threat to Strahd.

That said though, is this actually going to be fun for the players? I don't know the players, so I don't know the answer. However, I have seen DM shenanigans of this sort cause (sometimes campaign ending) problems at the table. Before you figure out how you can, be certain to consider whether you should.

 

[Baron Opal II]

I don't think that an extra dimensional space counts as a different plane of existence. It's extra dimensional, which to me means that it's a fold in space (like a tesseract). If you rule otherwise, beware. There are abilities (such as divination spells) that only function on the same plane. If the players can become immune to them by climbing into a portable hole (because you rule that it counts as its own plane), then that becomes an easy way to become immune to those abilities (for example, everyone hops into the Portable Hole before discussing secret information).

As far as this detail, I've ruled that the contents are indeed on a different plane when closed. When open there is an obvious "conduit" to the material plane the item is on. When closed, only the outside of the item counts as being on the plane. So, you would need an ally to open the portable hole when you're done, as well as keeping an eye on your air.

 

[Fanaelialae]

As far as this detail, I've ruled that the contents are indeed on a different plane when closed. When open there is an obvious "conduit" to the material plane the item is on. When closed, only the outside of the item counts as being on the plane. So, you would need an ally to open the portable hole when you're done, as well as keeping an eye on your air.

The way I rule it is that if you're on another plane, you're on another plane, even if you're right next to an open portal to "this" plane. Meaning that if a wizard opens a gate to Celestia and my character steps through, that character is on another plane, even while the gate is open.

If the bag counts as on this plane only when open, then the solution seems quite simple. The fighter takes a day (or a week) where they continuously try to summon the sword. Unless Strahd has an extra dimensional space that they dedicate exclusively to the sword and nothing else, eventually he's probably going to have to open the bag to retrieve something. And as soon as that happens the fighter summons the sword back.

 

[J.Quondam]

After re-reading how extradimensional space items work, as well as how magic works in Barovia (per CoS), I can see lots of room for rules lawyers to argue either way.

I can only think of one way to definitely get the sword onto another plane free of RAW questions: Strahd could give the sword to a Vistani ally of his and send them through the Mists to somewhere else. But how to accomplish that before the EK can re-summon the sword? No idea... maybe dominate the EK for the time it takes to somehow teleport the Vistana to the edge of the Mists where they can step through. Or something?

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Leomund's Secret Chest seems more like Strahd's style, and explicitly goes to the ethereal plane, which is less problematic in terms of Ravenloft rules about planar travel, rather than some sort of pocket dimension. This would mean that the EK could eventually get it back by themself getting onto the ethereal plane, which probably makes for a more interesting adventure than just loosing the sword.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I can only think of one way to definitely get the sword onto another plane free of RAW questions: Strahd could give the sword to a Vistani ally of his and send them through the Mists to somewhere else. But how to accomplish that before the EK can re-summon the sword? No idea... maybe dominate the EK for the time it takes to somehow teleport the Vistana to the edge of the Mists where they can step through. Or something?

I can not stress this is 1/4 the campaign/adventure finding and keeping this thing, yeah strahd CAN do that but it is pretty BS.

 

[LordStradhsBatman]

Yeah, sounds like a bag of holding or portable hole would do the trick, though a bag of devouring would do it even better.

Strahd is a genius though, and may very well understand that there is bond between the Knight and the weapon, and as part of the trade may require a ceremony of the Knight that ensures that bond is broken before agreeing.

Ideal thank you. I’ll probably go with bag of holding if it works, as I want them to be able to get it back at some point and I guess with a portal hole it’s much harder to do!

Good point on the genius part. Would make for an interesting bit of roleplay to see if he’s willing too, I think he’s very distrustful