Bags of Holding, Liquids, and Retrieving the Contents


Rules Questions


I have a player who wants to fill a Bag of Holding with ale, essentially using it as a giant waterskin (well, aleskin). But I'm starting to wonder less and less if this works, or would be desirable for what he wants.

First, can you put liquid sans container into a bag of holding? It's an extradimensional space, so I would suppose so.

Second, ordinarily a BoH requires a move action to get something specific from it, or a full round if it contains more than a normal backpack. But if you are drinking straight from the bag, is this still the case? That is, is the move/full-round action a function of the magic of the bag and reaching across dimensional barriers, or is it just a matter of finding the item you want? If my player has to take a full round to get the liquid and then a move action to drink, it's definitely not what he wants, but if it is just going to be a move action to drink, he's fine with it.

Dark Archive

Derek Vande Brake wrote:
First, can you put liquid sans container into a bag of holding? It's an extradimensional space, so I would suppose so.

Firstly, possibly. The Bag of Holding is described as appearing "to be a common cloth sack about 2 feet by 4 feet in size." You certainly couldn't fill a common cloth sack with ale and not have it soak through. However, it does just say "appears to be", so it could easily be argued otherwise. The BoH can be destroyed "if sharp objects pierce it (from inside or outside)", so its contents can have an affect on it, but, really, it's not clear. I'd say this is GM's discretion, as I can't see any clarifying rules.

Derek Vande Brake wrote:
Second, ordinarily a BoH requires a move action to get something specific from it, or a full round if it contains more than a normal backpack. But if you are drinking straight from the bag, is this still the case? That is, is the move/full-round action a function of the magic of the bag and reaching across dimensional barriers, or is it just a matter of finding the item you want? If my player has to take a full round to get the liquid and then a move action to drink, it's definitely not what he wants, but if it is just going to be a move action to drink, he's fine with it.

Secondly, according to Potions in the Magic Item section of the Core Rulebook ;

Pathfinder PRD wrote:

Activation: Drinking a potion or applying an oil requires no special skill. The user merely removes the stopper and swallows the potion or smears on the oil. The following rules govern potion and oil use.

Drinking a potion or using an oil is a standard action. The potion or oil takes effect immediately. Using a potion or oil provokes attacks of opportunity. An enemy may direct an attack of opportunity against the potion or oil container rather than against the character. A successful attack of this sort can destroy the container, preventing the character from drinking the potion or applying the oil.

The emphasis above is mine. So, drinking a potion from a glass vial is a standard action. I can't find any specific rules for drinking from a BoH, or any bag for that matter, but this gives us a base. So, would drinking ale out of a cloth sack be more, less, or equally complicated/time consuming to drinking a potion from a glass vial? Personally, I'd say it's more so, but short of a specific ruling, it's up for interpretation.

Let's say they're equal, for simplicities sake. Then the action of drinking from the BoH is a standard action, one that provokes attacks of opportunity. These attacks of opportunity can be directed at the BoH as opposed to the character, possibly destroying it and all of its contents.


Ah, forgot about the drinking being a standard action. So I guess I should clarify that the character in question is a Drunken Brute barbarian.

"While raging, the drunken brute can drink a potion, or a tankard of ale or similar quantity of alcohol, as a move action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity." So in this particular case, drinking is a move action, so long as he's raging.

Dark Archive

Derek Vande Brake wrote:

So I guess I should clarify that the character in question is a Drunken Brute barbarian.

"While raging, the drunken brute can drink a potion, or a tankard of ale or similar quantity of alcohol, as a move action that does not provoke attacks of opportunity."

I just happened upon the Drunken Brute Barbarian while looking to verify my response. Yes, one of few ways I can find to drink quickly. The only other being a Drunken Master Monk with the Fast Drinker feat.

Anywho, the end question appears to be, can a BoH be treated like a potion vial/tankard/mug/wineskin for the purposes of drinking out of? I can see no rule that it can or cannot, so I think this one is up to the GM (you in this instance, if I'm reading things right). If yes, then drinking out of it is the same as drinking from them, i.e. a move action that does not provoke attacks of opportunities while he is raging. Otherwise a standard action that does, as normal. If you feel that drinking from the BoH is more complicated than from those other items, then what kind of action it takes is up to you.

I would ask though, could someone drink from a "common cloth sack" as they could from a waterskin? The BoH can hold a lot, but it's still a cloth sack, it's not hard, treated leather. I imagine it being quite unwieldy.

Edit : According to this post, it would seem that the ale in the BoH would not fall out just because the Barbarian wants it to, he may have to retrieve it manually somehow. In which case, it would take one move action to retrieve some ale, and then another move action (which could be a converted standard action) to then drink it. However, there are no references to the rules, so I do not know if it is supported by RAW or merely conjecture, in which case my above advice is as valid as what it suggests.

Grand Lodge

I'd go with LordSynos:
it can hold the beer, but you need a mug to take it out.

you cannot pour it / drink it out of the bag directly.

A move action to retreive it and another move action to drink it.


My thinking would be pretty much the same as Lord Synos. He might be better served by a variant magic item along the lines of a small (relative to what a raging Drunken Brute Barbarian might consider small *wink*) ale keg upon which a permanent Shrink Item spell has been used or something similar to a Glove of Storing.

Dark Archive

I read this and just couldn't help but imagine a raging barbarian with a straw from his mouth into his BoH :)


I would allow it because its a fun idea and hurts absoloutley nothing to give the guy something fun....

That being said its a little sketchy by raw...If that bothers you, sell the guy a decanter of endless water variant that has beer in it.


Shin Bilirubin wrote:
I read this and just couldn't help but imagine a raging barbarian with a straw from his mouth into his BoH :)

This is, essentially, exactly what he's doing, lol.


Lazurin Arborlon wrote:

I would allow it because its a fun idea and hurts absoloutley nothing to give the guy something fun....

That being said its a little sketchy by raw...If that bothers you, sell the guy a decanter of endless water variant that has beer in it.

Endorsed by the church of Cayden Cailean! :D The only problem with that is that a Decanter is about 6500gp more than a Type 1 bag of holding, and the character doesn't have that much money. If he wants to save up for that later, fine by me.

Scarab Sages

Magic Camelback! :)


Step 1: Fill Bag of Holding (Type IV) with water.

Step 2: Turn Bag of Holding inside out.

Step 3: Instantly fill entire room with water.

Scarab Sages

1. Wear bag as a backpack
2. Route giant slurpee straw from bag, over shoulder
3. Have wizard occasionally hit bag with ray of frost


Slurpee straws might be problematic, as plastics aren't available in PF. Most straws are going to be made of rigid material like glass, wood, or metal.So you'd still need to hold the bag in hand to drink from.

Grand Lodge RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Get a pathfinder pouch. It's a fist-sized extradimensional storage space that holds (if memory serves) two cubic feet and only costs 1,000gp. Fight with one hand, carry the pouch in the other with a straw in it, drinking from it juice-box style.


Or buy tankards and fill them with the bag of holding


There was a thread on this type of thing a few years ago I just dug up with a Google search so your player isn't the first to try it and won't be the last.


Inadzuma wrote:
Or buy tankards and fill them with the bag of holding

This would definitely fall into the two move actions area - one to fill, one to drink.


Well, you could design a custom magic item like the following...

Tankard of Endless Ale
Aura faint conjuration; CL 5th
Slot none; Price 5400 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Description
This item appears to be a pewter or copper mug, often with a hinged lid, that can hold about a pint of liquid. While holding the tankard, the owner can command it to fill with ale as a swift action. The ale is of average quality. The tankard will only fill if it is held in an upright position.

Construction
Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, create food and water; Cost 2700 gp

(This was off-the-cuff. I didn't run this through the Magic Item Creation rules; I based the price off of that of the sustaining spoon. Your miles may vary and void where prohibited.)

Scarab Sages

Derek Vande Brake wrote:
Slurpee straws might be problematic, as plastics aren't available in PF. Most straws are going to be made of rigid material like glass, wood, or metal.So you'd still need to hold the bag in hand to drink from.

Leather can be rigid enough for armor or supple enough for condoms. I'm sure a middle ground suitable for routing cold liquids can be achieved.


Sheets of leather are stitched together, and are thus not waterproof.

The Exchange

This problem was generally overcome in the days when leather did a lot of the work that synthetic materials do now. Depending on the nature of the waterproofing desired (and local resources), shellac or wax was generally applied to seams. Of course, in Pathfinder leather could also be alchemically or magically altered to include properties regular leather can't.

The notion of a bag of holding leaking while filled with fluid does give me a fun idea for the next encounter my players have in the Astral Plane: "You encounter a small and inexplicable cloud of beer droplets."


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Your barbarian could also build one of these.


I honestly can't find any historical examples of ancient or even medieval flexible tubing. Even fighting fires used bucket brigades up until the 19th century. I certainly welcome someone to find an example, but it seems that generally, drinking straws were made of rigid materials until the invention of plastic, and that flexible, waterproof materials were not shaped into narrow tubes. Perhaps the sole exception is animal intestine, which might be sufficient for pushing fluid through, but questionable on sucking (since the suction force would also pull on the intestinal walls, forcing them shut).

Scarab Sages

Derek Vande Brake wrote:
Sheets of leather are stitched together, and are thus not waterproof.

I suppose you have an issue with leather water skins and wine skins too.

(The Greeks used goat hide and lined the seams with pitch)


Artanthos wrote:
Derek Vande Brake wrote:
Sheets of leather are stitched together, and are thus not waterproof.
I suppose you have an issue with leather water skins and wine skins too.

Actually, yes - historically, waterskins were made from animal bladders, not pieces of leather stitched together.

Scarab Sages

Derek Vande Brake wrote:
Artanthos wrote:
Derek Vande Brake wrote:
Sheets of leather are stitched together, and are thus not waterproof.
I suppose you have an issue with leather water skins and wine skins too.
Actually, yes - historically, waterskins were made from animal bladders, not pieces of leather stitched together.

See my edited response above concerning historical leather water skins.

The Exchange

Waxed canvas was used for fire-hoses in the 1860s. And as far back as the 1810s - possibly earlier, this is just the earliest I know of - underwater gunpowder charges were set off using tarred canvas hoses. (The flying fuse was more reliable, but it also amounted to a time bomb with an unreliable timer, so divers were understandably not fans of the flying fuse.)

Wait, how did we get on this? I thought the thread was about bags of holding.


Dude its ok to just admit you dont want him to do it and are then looking for us to provide reasons to help in your cause. I am sure there a few folks who would be more than happy to help...after all like most have said by RAW it is pretty tenuous to allow it.

Phrasing your OP as though you are looking for a solution and then shooting down the ones provided isnt really fun for anybody though and its pretty clear that is where your headed.


I'd go with something very simple, a reed. Reeds were used over 5,000 years ago to snorkel with. I don't see any reason someone couldn't use some as a straw to drink with.


I already told him I was allowing it, actually, in response to this thread. That issue is solved. But I further specified that he had to be holding the bag to access the straw, which is where the question of historical tubing comes from.

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