5e Otherworldly Patron: The Bagman
No adventurer of any status or merit tends to adventure without at least one Bag of Holding on their belt, the extradimensional storage spaces allowing for greater and greater hauls of loot... But the Bags often end up going from a useful tool for gathering valuables to the collections of a hoarder unwilling to part with anything, lest it become “useful” at some point “down the road.” It is from these hoards that a wretched, spindly hand can sometimes reach, plucking some unassuming item or treasure from the pile before withdrawing into a space beyond spaces, into an In-Between lingering in the Astral Plane which all such bags, packs, cupboards, and chests connect to.
Sometimes it reaches much further, pale skin feeling the warmth of a world it can never again belong to as its fingers cross the lip of the bag, bathing in the light of a moon it sometimes forgets exists. Sometimes it’s drawn to another source of warmth, a nearby figure slumbering in what it believes to be safety. Sometimes it longs to feel that warmth again, to hear a voice, to see glimpses of what it used to be in the face of the sleeping figure. So its wretched fingers grab and drag, silent as a whisper, and the victim is never seen again.
Usually. Sometimes, rarely, someone manages to escape. Someone like you. You’ve crawled through the kingdom of tributes taken by a king without a name, clawing your way past mountains and towers of junk. You’ve fled the In-Between, frantically grasping the empty air until you felt the fabric of a Bag of Holding beneath your fingers, hauling yourself back out into the world familiar. But finding your way out wasn’t all luck, you did something for the king of the In-Between, the nameless mad thing that the world outside simply calls the Bagman, to allow your escape. What you said, what you did, what you promised, what you will do, or what you will make others do will always vary, but the power the Bagman gifts you will not. All who’ve escaped its grasp gain something for their troubles; trinkets and baubles, scraps of power, bits of magic lore trickling into the mind, all of which are eternal reminders that the Bagman is always lurking nearby, ready to take you back if you disappoint it. And next time, it will never let you leave.
(less depressing alternatives: you lost something valuable to a collapsing Bag and are bargaining for it back, you were studying extradimensional spaces and got Got, you were inside or near a Bag of Holding that got torn and were sucked into the Astral Plane, you leapt in yourself in the hopes of meeting the Bagman and struck the warlock bargain, or more! The above paragraphs just to fit the Mood of Ravenloft as a setting)
EXPANDED SPELL LIST
The following spells are added to the Warlock spell list for you.
1st: Snare, Grease
2nd: Rope Trick, Create Pit (see the very bottom of this post!)
3rd: Tiny Servant, Leomund’s Tiny Hut
4th: Leomund’s Secret Chest, Fabricate
5th: Animate Objects, Passwall
--Bound Bag
At 1st level, the Bagman gifts you with what could be construed as either a token of its appreciation or a reminder that it is always here: a small Bag of Holding. Undecorated and made of crudely stitched leather, weighing 10 pounds and having an opening only 1 ft across and a body about 2ft deep. This Bag can hold only 200lbs of material at a time, up to a volume of 30 cubic feet. If the bag would become overloaded, items and/or creatures inside are suddenly and swiftly forced out into random adjacent spaces until it is no longer overloaded. This Bag cannot be turned inside-out, nor can it be used to create a destructive portal; it refuses to cross the threshold into other extradimensional spaces and allows no such spaces within itself, invisible forces preventing the two from intersecting.
You may use your Bag as if it were a spell components pouch, costless material components appearing within as needed. If your Bag is ever lost to you, you can recall it (and its contents) by undertaking a 4 hour ritual which requires unbroken concentration. If it is ever destroyed, a new (empty) one forms near you when you next complete a long rest.
--Strange Energies
Your body has been changed in small ways from your brief time in the timeless realm, though thankfully in ways you have some control over. By expending a Warlock spell slot as a swift action, you may become inhumanely flexible for a time: for a number of minutes equal to the expended slot’s level, you may move through and occupy spaces as narrow as 6 inches wide without squeezing.
--Gifts from the In-Between
At 6th level, the Bagman begins leaving you small gifts to show its appreciation. Once every seven days, a random Trinket appears either in or near the Bound Bag. Sometimes it may even appear in your hand when you wake up. In addition, you may beseech your patron for aid, asking that it parts with something useful from its kingdom of junk. As an action, you may reach into your Bound Bag and withdraw any nonmagical item of your choice that weighs less than 50 pounds and which costs 50gp or less. Items drawn out in this way are worn, tarnished, and beaten (to the point most merchants would not buy them) but fully effective. Once you use this ability, you must complete a short or long rest before using it again.
At the DMs discretion, the Bagman may reclaim items gained from this ability if they’re stored within or near any extradimensional space, but it never does so before 24 hours have passed since the item was drawn out.
--Kingdom of Junk
At level 10, your Bound Bag grows larger and more spacious. Its mouth can be stretched up to three feet wide, it physically appears to be three feet deep, and it becomes decorated with crude pictograms of yourself and your adventures, painted by your patron. It can hold up to 500lbs of material, up to a volume of 64 cubic feet, like a proper Bag of Holding. It still retains all other properties of your Bound Bag.
When you use your Gifts from the In-Between ability, the object you draw out can weigh up to 100lbs and cost up to 100gp. It still cannot be magical, and may still be reclaimed by the Bagman later.
--Skip-Between
By level 14, exposure to the minute energies of the In-Between have changed you further, bringing you closer to becoming what the Bagman is... though thankfully not as dramatically. You no longer need to eat, drink, or breathe. You gain six charges of power that let you bend space in minor ways. As an action, you may expend a number of charges in order to cast the following spells without using a Warlock spell slot or requiring any components:
1 charge: Misty Step
3 charges: Dimension Door
6 charges: Teleport
You regain all expended charges after a long rest.
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INVOCATIONS
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Eye for Value
Prereq: Bagman patron
Hopelessly sifting among the mountains of stolen garbage has given you an uncanny knack for finding things that are actually useful. You gain proficiency in Perception and Investigation.
Swift Appraisal
Prereq: Bagman patron
You can cast Identify once using a Warlock spell slot but without requiring components. You cannot do so again until you complete a long rest.
Silent Steps
Prereq: Bagman patron
When every footfall can elicit the sounds of breaking glass or snapping wood, you quickly learn to exist beneath notice. You gain proficiency in Stealth. You have advantage on Stealth rolls on any turn you have not moved more than 10ft.
Distorted Lives
Prereq: Bagman patron, Pact of the Chain
Not everyone drawn into the Bagman’s realm is as lucky as you are. When you summon your familiar, you can instead draw one of the Bagman’s prisoners from the In-Between, letting it taste freedom for a time; this creature takes the form of a Choker whose alignment matches yours, though their appearance may be closer to that of a human or elf. As a bonus action, you can command your familiar to take the attack or multiattack action.
Send Between
Prereq: Bagman patron, Pact of the Blade, level 5
As a bonus action after successfully striking an enemy with your pact weapon, you may use your bonus action to force the enemy to make an Intelligence saving throw versus your Warlock spell DC. If they fail, they are briefly shunted through space and reappear in a space you designate within 30ft of you that you can see. This spot may be in the air. You must finish a long rest before using this ability again.
Junk Cannon
Prereq: Bagman patron, level 5
You can cast the Catapult spell at 1st level without expending a spell slot or material components. You may target items within your Bound Bag with the spell (provided it weighs between 1 and 5 pounds), even if the Bag is not on your person (you must still be able to see both it and the target), causing them to rocket out of the Bag. Once you’ve cast Catapult in this way a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, you must complete a long rest to do so again.
Comfort in the Cloth
Prereq: Bagman patron, level 5
You can bonelessly slip into your own Bound Bag as an action without counting towards its total storage limits (you may enter even if it is at maximum capacity). You are in no danger of suffocation within your own Bound Bag (though others are not protected, and other extradimensional spaces may still suffocate you), and may take short or long rests within it no matter what it is filled with. If the bag is pierced or torn while you’re inside it, you’re violently ejected along with all the contents and land prone in an adjacent space. Exiting the Bound Bag is an affair that takes one full round.
A Little Bit of Everywhere
Prereq: Bagman patron, level 7
The trinkets and souvenirs left by your patron can come from anywhere, holding scraps of power from all across the Great Wheel that you can draw out at their expense. Each time you complete a long rest, select one level 1 spell from any class list. From your Bound Bag you may draw a single, seemingly worthless and often disquieting object (such as a ring studded with teeth, a doll woven of dozens of different dresses, a necklace of rusted chain lengths, etc) with that spell’s energy within it. As an action, you may draw power from this object to cast the selected spell using a Warlock spell slot, casting the spell at the expended slot’s level. Doing so destroys the item. Any item gained with this ability loses its magical spark when you next complete a long rest.
A Generous King
Prereq: Bagman patron, level 10
The Bagman graciously shares a small amount of its stolen wealth with you when it leaves you its tokens of favor. Each time you’re gifted a Trinket via Gifts from the In-Between, 1d100+50gp in coins and gems is left alongside it as well.
Grail in the Garbage
Prereq: Bagman patron, level 14
You Bound Bag gains 3 charges, signifying the Bagman’s favor. When you use your Gifts from the In-Between ability, you may choose to expend one charge to draw out a magic item of Common rarity, or three charges to draw out a magic item of Uncommon rarity. Items with charges emerge with half as many charges as normal. You cannot draw out an item larger than 3ft on a side or weighing more than 50lbs, nor can you gain an item which requires attunement. All items gained by this ability (or what’s left of them) are reclaimed by the Bagman 24 hours after being drawn out. Your Bag regains 1 charge each time you complete a long rest.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Grail in the Garbage and Skip-Between can be swapped with each other, depending on whichever one you like as base-kit more. I opted for the weirdness of the Bagman leaking into the Warlock but if you want to keep patron and servant separate, just do the switcheroo!
Bold Bribery
Prereq: Bagman patron, level 14
Your patron has long provided you with the simple ingredients you’ve needed, but now you may ask for more, using your hoard up as tribute. Whenever you cast a spell which has material components with a listed cost, you may sacrifice items within your Bound Bag to fuel the spell instead. You must sacrifice a number of items whose total combined value equals or exceeds the material component’s cost plus an additional 100 gold. Mundane items (including coins and gems) contribute their normal purchase price. Common magic items contribute 50gp, Uncommon items 500gp, Rare items 2,500gp, and Very Rare items 10,000gp.
Even if the spell does not normally consume its components, items sacrificed in this way are drawn into the In-Between and are lost to you. The items must be present inside of your Bound Bag to be sacrificed. Legendary items, artifacts, cursed items, and sentient magic items cannot be sacrificed in this way.
Boogeyman
Prereq: Bagman patron, level 16
As an action while you’re holding your Bound Bag, you may attempt to sacrifice an adjacent Medium or smaller creature to it. That creature must make a Dexterity saving throw versus your Warlock spell DC; on a failure, they are grabbed and dragged within by a long, pale arm. The victim is subject to the Maze spell, except it reappears adjacent to you when it escapes or the spell ends, and the victim takes 2d6 psychic damage each round it remains within the Bag as it is chased through the In-Between by your patron. A creature reduced to 0 HP by this ability is stolen away, their body beyond retrieval. You may draw out its belongings one at a time from the Bag using Gifts from the In-Between, even if they surpass the normal GP limit. Once you have used this ability, you must complete a long rest before it can be used again. If a creature was reduced to 0 inside the Bag, 1d6+1 long rests must pass instead as the Bagman examines the new additions to its collection.
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NEW SPELL
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Create Pit
Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Ranger
2nd level Conjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 100ft
Components: V, S, M (a miniature shovel worth 10gp)
Duration: 1 minute
You create a 10x10ft extradimensional pit on a horizontal surface within range that you can see. The pit is 30ft deep. Since it extends into another dimension, you can create the pit in the deck of a ship as easily as in a dungeon floor or the ground of a forest. Any creature standing in the space of the pit when it is first formed must make a Dexterity saving throw, leaping into a space adjacent to the opening (or flying above it, if it possesses a flight speed) on a success and plummeting to its bottom on a failure, taking 3d6 bludgeoning damage from the fall. A creature without a natural climb speed or another method of easy egress must succeed an Athletics check versus your spell save DC to climb up the rough walls of the pit. The pit lingers in its location for the duration, allowing other creatures to be pushed into or thrown inside. When the spell ends, anything still inside is harmlessly shunted out and lands prone inside the spell’s former space.
At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell with a 3rd level or higher spell slot, its depth increases by 10ft for every slot above 2nd, the falling damage increasing by 1d6 per 10ft. If you cast this spell with a 5th level or higher slot, you may have the pit lined with spikes; this increases the falling damage by an additional 2d6, and deals 1d6 slashing damage per 10ft of distance to creatures trying to climb out.
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