The Bag of Holding is an iconic magic item in D&D.
This appears to be a common cloth sack about 2 feet by 4 feet in size. The bag of holding opens into a nondimensional space: Its inside is larger than its outside dimensions. Regardless of what is put into the bag, it weighs a fixed amount.
It makes sense that the bag weighs the same empty as full, but what it doesn’t explain is why they weigh so much in the first place.
Keep reading to see what I mean.
First, let’s take a look at the Bag of Holding chart for the various sizes in case you don’t have your PHB nearby.
| Bag | Bag Weight | Contents Weight Limit |
Contents Volume Limit |
Market Price |
| Type I | 15 lb. | 250 lb. | 30 cu. ft. | 2,500 gp |
| Type II | 25 lb. | 500 lb. | 70 cu. ft. | 5,500 gp |
| Type III | 35 lb. | 1,000 lb. | 150 cu. ft. | 7,400 gp |
| Type IV | 60 lb. | 1,000 lb. | 250 cu. ft. | 10,000 gp |
That’s all straight-forward enough, isn’t it?
The Odd Bit
So we know that a bag of holding will weigh between 15 to 60 lbs pending the type. This weight doesn’t change whether it’s empty or full.
We know through the description that the contents do not exist in our dimension - or at least in a dimension that’s immediately observable - otherwise the weight would change as we added more stuff.
From the bag’s description, along with historical references from 2nd edition, we can assume that the bag’s opening opens into a pocket in the Astral Plane.
If a bag of holding is placed within a portable hole a rift to the Astral Plane is torn in the space: Bag and hole alike are sucked into the void and forever lost. If a portable hole is placed within a bag of holding, it opens a gate to the Astral Plane: The hole, the bag, and any creatures within a 10-foot radius are drawn there, destroying the portable hole and bag of holding in the process.
Through this, we have to assume that the mechanics of the bag is that the stuff we put in it doesn’t exist on our plane (and by extension, in our dimension). Even if we use the nondimensional descriptor, we’re putting the stuff into a space that is “not in a dimension”.
The Big Question
Faced with this, the question I have is this - why do bags weigh so much as they do? If the stuff isn’t held “in the bag” but in an other dimension that’s accessed through the mouth of the bag, there’s no real reason for the thing to weigh 15 to 60 pounds.
The obvious answer is “for balance purposes”.
I’m Not Buying It
In most instances, I’m happy to accept “game balance” as an appropriate answer for most odd issues. This one, however, bugs me a bit.
First off, we’re talking about magic. By it’s very nature it allows us to change the world around us. One would think that since, as far as magic items go, a bag of holding is so common that a mage would have been able to make it weigh the same as a normal mundane bag. Even if the first few experiments with them yielded unfavorable results, someone would have figured it out.
Remember when the item creation process starts, you’re holding a masterwork bag in your hand and this likely weighs less than a pound. But somehow, through whatever process is involved in making it a bag of holding, you’ve added an unprecedented 15 to 60 times to the weight of the bag.
Oddly enough, the portable hole has no listed weight. If this “items opening into nondimensional spaces weighed more than their mundane counterparts” side-effect were a trend common to all such items, then the portable hole should be fairly heavy at all. Its lack of mention seems to imply that it’s not.
Another Problem
The obvious benefit of a bag of holding is it’s convenience. The other very real benefit is that it allows you to have an item that looks perfectly mundane while doing so. People walking around with ioun stones, circlets and other odd equipment should draw attention.
If someone is now walking about with a bag that’s dragging their belt down horribly on one side, it should give someone an opportunity to notice it (especiall if you have a good Spot check). In addition to that, you can simply pick up bags (without ever looking into them) and determine that a bag is a bag of holding because it weighs so much more than a normal bag - even if that normal bag were full.
Enough Is Enough
I’d like to see the weights of the bags “fixed” and brought more in line with what any intelligent examination of the situation dictates. Other than that detail, I have no problem with them.
And in reality, I know that the majority of people never concern themselves with encumbrance and medium and heavy loads. It just seems that for those that do, the bag of holding is a strangely heavy object - even for the function it provides.