Level Up (A5E) What is living on the food and "souls" put in extradimensional spaces?

A5E removed some of the easy (low level) ways to "cheat" with exploration. You can't stockpile food and drink in bags of holding and similar places (as they lose all their nourishing value the moment they are in the bags) and even harder... if you put a dead body inside of these it can't be restored back to life.

While I am not sure why the second part is in the restrictions it gets my mind working to some "in game" reason as to why that might happen.

Thought? Ideas?

Or is anything already mentioned in any ENPublishing product I haven't read?

PS: There is some "Bag Man" in a Ravenloft supplement that one could hold responsible but surely we don't have to rely on WotC stuff

Bags of Cheese have received an explanation (although it just makes things cheesy so ).

@Savannah Broadway might know of something.

Selganor said:

A5E removed some of the easy (low level) ways to "cheat" with exploration. You can't stockpile food and drink in bags of holding and similar places (as they lose all their nourishing value the moment they are in the bags) and even harder... if you put a dead body inside of these it can't be restored back to life.

While I am not sure why the second part is in the restrictions it gets my mind working to some "in game" reason as to why that might happen.

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Food and drink lose nutritional value in a bag of holding because of the radiation inside. It's like Hawking radiation meets microwave ovens.

The dead body problem is because the radiation also breaks the astral tether that the soul has to the body.

GMMichael said:

Food and drink lose nutritional value in a bag of holding because of the radiation inside. It's like Hawking radiation meets microwave ovens.

The dead body problem is because the radiation also breaks the astral tether that the soul has to the body.

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....soo...microwave dimension?

Nothing I can think of from the GPG presents a "canon" explanation, but I'm digging the magical radiation explanation!

Mike Myler said:

Bags of Cheese have received an explanation (although it just makes things cheesy so ).

@Savannah Broadway might know of something.

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Mike Myler said:

Bags of Cheese have received an explanation (although it just makes things cheesy so ).

Click to expand...

Where is this explanation?
Isn't the Bag of Cheese just something that makes things taste like cheese? I never thought those were "bag space" items (then 5 gp would be super cheap)

Radiation might be a nice explanation but if food immediately loses nourishment when it is in there (and the "tether to the soul" is damaged, too) how can someone live long enough inside a bag so that suffocation (within 2d4 minutes) is a factor?

I'm not sure I'd use the "can't bring someone back from the dead if they were in a bag of holding" rule anyway because otherwise every professional killer would always have a bag of holding ready to make their targets really "dead dead".
And if they got a "Q department artificer" that supplies them with an infused bag of holding they can also just leave the victim in the bag and in less than 24 hours the body (and everything in it) might just vanish completely.

Aye the bag of cheese just makes things cheesy, but it is a magic bag and does have an explanation. 2 out of 3!

Selganor said:

And if they got a "Q department artificer"

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My answer:

Passing between the planar barrier into these incredibly simplistic pocket dimensions causes "Essential Loss". While a stick is still a stick when pulled out of a bag of holding, or a sword is still a sword, an ineffable essence of the item is gone. Perhaps it's the familial connection to a weapon passed down by generations severed by casting it into a bag of holding in favor of a new magic sword. Certainly, the family would still recognize that blade, but the feeling of connection, of legacy, is diminished.

For bodies its their connection to the soul. For food it's the ability to nourish.

Magic items, such as weapons or armor, and living creatures small enough to fit? They're protected from this essential loss by the energy that is imbued into or moving through them. If you put the family dog into a bag of holding and pulled him back out (before suffocation) the dog will be unchanged. Well. He might have developed a fear of silent, confined, dark spaces... But the essence of what makes him that family's dog? Unchanged.

Is it possible, once you understand the essential loss, to create a bag of holding that -doesn't- employ that specific simplistic pocket dimension and thus the essential loss? Possibly! But all the ones that exist were created before you spent 4 levels making your extra special improved bag of holding, so they still suck.

I wrote the explanation, which is in the Planes section of Trials and Treasures: Planes | Level Up

Pocket Dimensions​

Mortal magic can attempt to emulate the divine power necessary to create planes, but few can create more than mere pocket dimensions a few score feet across. Without a true divine spark, most of these artificial planes cannot support life. Inanimate objects made of wood or fabric can endure for weeks or years, but still degrade rapidly. Food is sapped of its nourishing essence and becomes tasteless within hours if not faster. Creatures placed within might die within minutes. Water, even in sealed vessels, becomes infused with energies that makes it undrinkable.

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Doesn't this also make spells like Magnificent Mansion useless and turn Demiplane into a death sentence?
Or are those (7th level+ spells) the exception to the "most of these artificial planes"?