I absolutely love the http://www.tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=4065 and have now made extensive use of it with a couple characters. [no spoilers about the bags whereabouts for those who have not found it yet please]

The "Bag of Holding" is of course, a completely legitimate and honored part of fantasy roleplaying lore, so intrinsically I can see no reason why it should not be available in a game such as Oblviion.

Because I like to play Dungeon Crawl characters who scour everywhere they go for all items of any value and then sell them, playing without the Bag becomes rather tedious to me, so now that I've found it fair-n-square with my one character, I find it hard to NOT just charge right to where it lives whenever I start a new one.

But on the other hand, I find that I seem to get rather powerful rather quickly with the bag. I'm not sure if this is really the effect of being able to cart around EVERYTHING, or if it is just intrinsic to the game and my play style.

So what do you guys think? Does the Bag of Holding seem like a cheat or is it a reasonable addition to the game?

With my latest character (number 5 or 6, which I hope will be the last new one for a while) I've sort of decided not to go get it until I get to some milestone in the game, maybe Level 10 or getting into Arcane Uni, whichever comes first, something like that . . . I'm also playing this character dead is dead, so trying to restore some sense of immersion I guess overall.

Any ideas for other ways to enjoy the bag but not spoil the fun with it?

I use the BOH, but in an odd way. Part of the deal with Buffy is her low strength. Such a character can't carry much loot and gets rich very slowly, and I like that. The BOH of course can nullufy this for loot, so she doesn't use it that way. In fact, she picks up very little loot to sell, in keeping with her low strength. Rather, she uses the BOH to help organize her pack and hold less used items. Importantly, she carries grand/black soul gems there so they don't get accidentally wasted by svcking up the soul of a rat/mudcrab. She carries a couple other bags as well (that do not reduce the weight of items) and uses them the same way. Now that she is at a higher level and has adequate gold, she doesn't care about loot anyway. She does enjoy her bags and her mare's saddlebags for organizing her inventory though. It really helps because she carries so many clothes - all lightweight, but it just clutters her inventory without the bags to orgainize it.

I would imagine that someone who used the BOH to carry loot would simply get rich faster. No diff at higher levels.

Hey Acadian, would you consider posting your mod load order? I find that I very much agree with your play style and philosophy and would love to see what mods you use that I haven't heard of.

Sure, but the list I have for cut/paste is not in load order; rather it is listed in groups as: utility, cosmetic, horse, misc:

OBMM
UOPs
OBSE v 18
Pluggy

Cosmetic compilation revised EE
Complete BAB body nvde omod
BABarized Brash Leather Armors
BAB fancy shirt
Luchaires Neck Seam Concealer

Dude Where's My Horse
Lady Deadlocks Love Your Horse
Slofs Summonable Epona

Dark Uid DarN
Unlimited Rings
Voice Sets (Innocent)
Spells be effective
Chase cameral mod
Short grass
Disenchant spell
Actors in Charge
OSR poses, 1,2,3
Bag of Holding
Portable Campsite

Note that the list is not very long. I consider myself quite the novice with mods, and prefer the command console for things that it can do as well as a mod (eg: reducing Buffy's height slightly or changing the speed of her horse).

I didn't even like it in D&D and wouldn't allow it in games I was DM'ing. It definitely seems like cheating to me. (Heck-- if I stop to consider it, even normal encumbrance seems like cheating. With all the stuff my characters tote home even with normal encumbrance and a bit of feather, they should end up looking like nothing more than an enormous pile of armor and weapons, clattering down the road.)

To me, if I'm going to go into somewhere like Rockmilk just to make some money, I'd better be ready to make seven or eight trips to Tun-Zeeus. If I'm not willing to make that many trips, I don't need the money that much.

It is admittedly sort of a hassle though. It makes traveling difficult (at least until the character's got enough money that he can let things go). It seems every time I leave Skingrad heading west, if I haven't gone through there lately, I make it to the second or third bandit camp, then I have to turn around and go back to Skingrad to sell loot, because I know I'm going to run into at least a few more bandits before I get to Anvil and I just don't have any more room. With my most recent character, it just took me three tries to make it to Cheydinhal. He left the IC and went north on the Ring Road and made it just past the Roxey Inn when he had to swim back across to the IC to sell off his accumulated loot. The second time, he swam back across to the same point just past the Roxey Inn, and that time made it to the turn off to Cheydinhal before he again had to go unload loot. On the third try, he swam straight across to the road to Cheydinhal, and still, after the bandits on the way to Cheydinhal, he struggled into town with almost no encumbrance left.

But, to me, that's the price you have to pay to be a scavenger. If carrying it's too much hassle, then don't pick it up.

Just my $.02



"Well, we're not out of the woods ye..... oh wait! We are!" :twirl:

Claudia uses the Innocent voice. Love that one.....

I remember in Pen in paper dungeons and dragons we were assaulting a castle and chased by tons of soldiers we retreated in a tower and slammed the door. The soldiers were in the stairwell hacking down the door.

We unloaded 3 or 4 suits of plate armor on top as a weight. Then when it became apparent they were going to burst through, the druid cast heat metal spell and the door broke and red hot armor fell down on top of whoever was opening the door....

On topic = whatever floats your boat. I find encumbrance one of the dimensions to the game. heavy vs. light. Lots of weapons versus 1. feather spells. I think a bag of holding takes away from that.

No. No. & Yes to the poll. I find the default feather spells you can buy in game are fairly adequate, if your alteration skill is good enough. Particularly Pack Mule and Beast of Burden.

I haven't actually used it, only heard about the mod. I'm not sure if there is a limited encumbrance to it, but if not, then I consider it cheating. Now if you could get saddle bags where your horse has a limited encumbrance, like the PC, then it might be more "immersive." Of course a horse could carry way more (that obviously be the point for the saddle bags).


I imagine that's where Bethesda came up with the, "You move like a pregnant cow" taunt comes from. Or more like a pregnant guar, IMO. Look like a VW Beetle driving down the road with all your furniture piled one on top of the other to the roof, on moving day. :laugh: No wonder the city gate are so tall.

I do use it, but like Acadian I use it more to tidy up my inventory - keep my change of town clothing in there so I don't accidentally sell it, and my svcky old Mage's Staff & Robe which I never use but always have on me when I go tot the Arcane University & the like.
Seeing as I have the Luggage (from COBL) which turns up wherever you sleep I don't really need it. The Luggage is a bit more balanced in my opinion as it isn't summonable (except using rare and costly scrolls) so it prevents you from exploiting it too much.

Might have to check out that Cobl luggage.

In answer to your question Schmoe: the BOH does indeed allow _INFINITE_ encumbrance, and it weighs "5."

Now that I've 'tasted it,' it is hard to imagine going back. But on the other hand, I tend to agree with you guys about it being unbalancing.

I suppose if I knew enough about modding I could go into some code and change it from infinite to 500 or something.

ADDIT: and thanks for posting that mod list Acadian! Very interesting

I haven't used the Bag of Holding in Oblivion yet (can't decide between it, Automagic Bags or Purse of Wonders) but I have used it extensively in Fallout 3. I am a terrible game hoarder and have to loot everything, whether it is worth anything or not. I will gather up all of the loot and pile it at the door and make five fast-travel trips to get everything anyway so I might as well use the Bag and take it all in one trip. Where I differ from many players is that I rarely sell anything. I stash my loot in a container at home and never touch it again. Nearly all of the money I make in game comes from looted bodies and containers. The Bag is very handy for carrying around extra outfits for screenshooting purposes. I keep all of my nice clothes in there for just such an occasion.

I still play vanilla Oblivion. For me, it just never gets old. I have been looking at the portable campsite for my new 'glass cannon' ; an Altmer mage.

While I agree with the BoH in principle, I don't like the infinite items/encumbrance reduction part of it. I would rather it worked liked the Magic Bags in NWN2, with each one only giving a percentage reduction of weight, and there's a limited amount of stuff you can put into them. I use Tekuromoto's Storage Sacks with a weight reduction of only 10%, which to me is a good compromise. Being able to carry stuff really isn't a problem if you get into enchanting your own items. Save up all the 0 weight clothing you come across then add a Feather enchantment to one of each type, i.e a Mage's hood along with a Dark Shirt as well as some pants. You can also add the enchantment to light jewelery like rings and an amulet. Then when you're ready to head back to town to sell everything, just equip all that stuff. The spell does stack so you can carry quite a bit that way. Along with the spell itself and a potion, there's no reason why you couldn't loot an entire dungeon in one trip. I find using a god item like the BoH takes away from your options while playing a game, and prevents you from approaching a particular problem creatively. The game just ends up becoming nothing more than a hack and slash, and gets rather boring by doing so.

I'd prefer a wearable backpack with Feather on it.

I started using it lately and yes, it does feel like cheating. Before it, I used to to be picky about loot, comparing weight/value and using feather and strength potions. Now, if it's worth something, just take it.

I only feel that it's necessary for my Paladin to take off as much weight as possible off his shoulders so he could keep up with those mages that kite him all time

I use it, but only for things that don't affect the gameplay at all. Anything that's been in the bag will only be used for decoration from then on.

I use it - in order to hold different outfits for different locations/situations (for immersion), and because I am, like someone else said they are, a hoarder. I can't bear the thought of leaving a unique item behind in some distant ruin and never seeing it again; I must loot it. And seeing as I've put numerous hours into Oblivion, I'm a little sick of the endless trips between ruins just so I can get an item. I don't consider it cheating. It enhances my enjoyment of the game, and allows me more immersion because I can change freely between outfits at my choice. I rarely use it to sell things.

As oblivion is a single player game there is no harm in modding to make some of the in game aspects which bug you go away, For that matter even true cheating to avoid frustration.
The bag of holding is a good idea as imo oblivion in specific and most rpg's in general tend to nerf item collection for the sake of "balance", at the same time over loading both the items / weight and need to use them.
So no harm no foul, and if it stops collection annoyance, and npc's burden spells ( the one spell that really is pro npc biased ), then go ahead enjoy the game however you like.

Yes, it's cheating. The devs wouldn't have put encumbrance in if they didn't want it to be a challenge. Otoh, if this particular challenge doesn't appeal to you use whatever cheat you like. Oblvion is also meant to be modded. The devs put that in too.

Mara

I avoid mods like the Bag of Holding as I'd be tempted to carry everything, just in case!

Personally, I just pile all the loot at convnient points throught the dungeon/ruin and then fire up the console and use "tgm" AFTER clearing the place of bad guys just to get me home so I can sort out the stuff I want to keep. I'm trying for one of each type of weapon and armour, and since I'm using the Armamentarium, I don't sell too much stuff!!

I could just fast travel back and forth, but I'm not an immersionist and have better things to do with my time.

I always use the Bag of Holding, but I have my own set of rules which means it doesn't feel like cheating. For one thing, I don't sell stuff that I have in it - it goes directly to my collection. I'm an avid collector so I must have one of each armor piece/weapon I find - which means a lot when using FCOM/Armamentarium etc.

But, I don't know, I remember when I spent hours hauling stuff to the entrance of Sundercliff Watch and then fast traveled several times to and fro Frostcrag with the loot. Using the Bag of Holding would have led to exactly the same end result - but saved me several boring hours.

I use Storage Sacks by Tekuromoto, you can configure the sacks to how you want them so you can have them weightless or however you want its up to you.

Oblivion in itself is a cheating game. Difficult to give a limit between cheat and non cheat, using an overpowered weapon/spell is somewhat a cheat, getting an overload of loot in every dungeon and dead NPCs is somewhat a cheat... etc etc. I have used them all "Bag of Holding", "Purse of Wonder", "Midas Chest" ... Most of people use these mods for saving their time going and coming back to loot a item that we have left in a dungeon or a far road. It depend also of what economy mod you are using, if you use an economy mod with hard settings you are obliged to loot everything you get in your way.
Now I'm using Cobl Luggage supplied with Tekuromoto Summon Luggage. But I have a rules I roleplay my characters and currently I'm starting Oblivion at higher levels (for example in my current setup I started at level 40) so I need to loot only certain items (value >= 100 gold).

I don't use it although I did try it out once and it didn't really fit in with my style of playing. I don't even like the way encumbrance is handled without it because really what kind of person can lug around 200 pounds of equipment with no spinal injuries incurred? But that's just me I like to keep it more in line with reality and just carry one set of armor a sword/bow and a few other things like potions.

I don't feel like it's a cheat. I feel more like it's a timesaver that simplifies things, reducing the number of trips I need to make to carry all my loot. The main reason I got it initially was because of the inappropriate link between strength and carrying capacity. Yes, it's realistic, but it's one of those realistic things that detracts from gameplay rather than enhances it.

Having a cart like in Daggerfall would help with the overload problems. It was balanced with having so much it could carry and can't use in a dungeon except for the entrance.