Can a target escape a Wild Shaped Portable Hole/Bag of Holding

Question

Inspired by this question here: Can you use Wild Shape to meld a Bag of Holding into your Wild Shape form while creatures are inside the Bag of Holding?

Portable holes state that you can use a strength check to escape it and appear within 5 feet of the holder, so if you have a creature in a portable hole, and then wild shape into some form, does that creature still have the ability to escape the hole using a strength check?

Does a Bag of holding follow the same, either trapping a target or allowing escape?

Does that mean a party could trick a big bad into the hole via a looney-toons style pitfall trap, pick it up, Wild shape, and then just wait for them to suffocate? That sounds ridiculous, and hilarious.

Thomas Markov · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-03T20:19:45.770

1

They probably don't suffocate, but it is unclear if they can escape.

It is up to the DM to determine if and how a creature inside could escape. But they probably don't suffocate...

Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.

This is the last sentence of the Wild Shape description:

Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.

So the suffocation effect would pause while the bag or hole are merged with the druid. Alternatively, a DM might rule that this suffocation isn't actually an effect of the bag, rather a consequence of the environment.

edited Feb 03 '21 at 20:19

answered Feb 03 '21 at 20:02

Thomas Markov

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So that would mean it could be used as the ultimate infiltration tool? You could store a small troop of soldiers in a portable hole, Wild Shape into a bird or rat or something, and deliver them into any fortress you want? Still broken, but differently. – Scott Maher Feb 03 '21 at 20:07
@ScottMaher Yes, see: Can you use Wild Shape to meld a Bag of Holding into your Wild Shape form while creatures are inside the Bag of Holding? – Thomas Markov Feb 03 '21 at 20:08
Yes, but in that question they specifically need to use Necklace of Adaptation to avoid suffocation. Not requiring a multitude of Necklaces makes this much more viable. – Scott Maher Feb 03 '21 at 20:09
This seems to suggest that the suffocation is a magical effect of the bag, and not just the bag running out of air? Or is the idea that the entire bag goes into complete stasis while wildshaped away? – Erik Feb 03 '21 at 20:10
@ScottMaher As explained in my answer here, they don't actually need the necklaces at all. – Thomas Markov Feb 03 '21 at 20:10
@Erik Maybe...I'll change my definitely to a probably. – Thomas Markov Feb 03 '21 at 20:10
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The answer to this question can be had by spending some time alone in your lab with a few lab mice to which you're not particularly attached. This is why wizards have to spend so much time on magical research. – candied_orange Feb 03 '21 at 20:19
One could make the argument that the BoH or PH is only a portal to an extradimensional space and thus Plane Shift would allow escape, much like it would allow escape from Demiplanes. They did have ties to Astral in previous versions and although not specifically called out the tie is still there by mention of the interactions with other dimensional spaces. – Slagmoth Feb 03 '21 at 20:33

Can a target escape a Wild Shaped Portable Hole/Bag of Holding

1 Answers1

They probably don't suffocate, but it is unclear if they can escape.

Equipment that merges with the form has no effect until you leave the form.

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