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The Genie warlock (TCoE, p. 73) has the Genie's Vessel feature, one of the benefits of which is Bottled Respite. The description of Bottled Respite states, in part:

As an action, you can magically vanish and enter your vessel, which remains in the space you left. [...] You can remain inside the vessel up to a number of hours equal to twice your proficiency bonus. [...] Once you enter the vessel, you can’t enter again until you finish a long rest.

If a portable hole is brought into a Genie's Vessel in order to function as an extra room, does entering the portable hole stop the countdown for the number of hours possible to spend in the Genie's Vessel?

Also, given that you can only enter your vessel once per long rest, can you leave the portable hole to reenter the Genie's Vessel?

(Assume for the purposes of this question that the Genie's Vessel is not a "similar item" for the purposes of the portable hole's destruction clause.)

V2Blast
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Cellheim
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1 Answers1

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You left the realm of rules and entered the realm of rulings when you allowed the portable hole to enter the vessel.

In the Q&A Is it safe to bring an item like a Bag of Holding into a Genie Warlock's Bottle?, I make the case that rules-as-written, it is not safe to do this.

The description of the portable hole says:

Placing a portable hole inside an extradimensional space created by a bag of holding, handy haversack, or similar item instantly destroys both items and opens a gate to the Astral Plane.

It seems to me to be a rather straightforward reading of the rules that the Genie's Vessel is definitely a "similar item" - both items create extradimensional spaces inside of small containers. Ergo, bringing your vessel inside the portable hole or vice-versa creates a gate to the Astral Plane.

However, you have stated in the question:

Assume for the purposes of this question that the Genie's Vessel is not a "similar item" for the purposes of the portable hole's destruction clause

My answer to that related question accounts for this:

That said, it wouldn’t be a terrible thing to permit this interaction without the usual consequences, as long as you are prepared as a DM to deal with the shenanigans that might follow.

You have found one such shenanigan. Since your DM has made the ruling that allows for this question to exist at all, it is entirely up to them to manage the shenanigans that result. The trouble here is that it seems you have found a loophole that diminishes one of the limitations on the Bottled Respite feature.

When we find things like this, it should cause us to question the path that got us here. In this case, we know how we got here – we allowed items to interact in a manner contrary to their rules, which is okay. Discuss this with the DM so you can come to an agreeable ruling together.

Keep in mind, the portable hole can only be inhabited for up to 10 minutes at a time, and it is likely that the DM will not allow you to just leave and reenter to reset that timer – another thing to talk to them about.

V2Blast
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Thomas Markov
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  • I have edited the question to make clear that I'm interested in scenarios where they are not considered similar items. – Cellheim Feb 16 '22 at 19:48
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    @Cellheim My answer is still the same, but I think I can reframe it to match the question frame better. – Thomas Markov Feb 16 '22 at 19:49
  • It is not RAW that the Genie's Vessel counts as a similar item, so no we haven't left the "Realm of Rules". – Cellheim Feb 16 '22 at 20:27
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    It's not RAW that it isn't a similar item either, so whichever way you rule, you're in the world of rulings. – Darth Pseudonym Feb 16 '22 at 21:42
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    @Cellheim the bag of holding's description says "an extradimensional space created by [...] a similar item", which, absent any further stipulations or specific game keywords, means that a "similar item" is any item that creates an extradimensional space. Your Genie's Vessel is an item, and it creates an extradimensional space. By that metric, it is a similar item to the bag of holding, and should cause the destruction-and-hole-to-the-Astral-Plane effect. – anaximander Feb 17 '22 at 14:56
  • @anaximander It isn't a similar item, as it's designed to be inhabited and not simply to store possessions, and therefore it won't suffocate air breathing creatures after 10 minutes – Cellheim Feb 24 '22 at 00:56
  • @Cellheim It’s quite obvious that the characteristic the word “similar” concerns here is the creation of extra dimensional space, not inhabitability. – Thomas Markov Feb 24 '22 at 01:45
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    Or to put it another way, “what ever could similar item mean here if it isn’t ‘container that opens up to an extra dimensional space’”? – Thomas Markov Feb 24 '22 at 01:54