There's a Hole in my Haversack!
 

The handy haversack is one of the most useful items in the Pathfinder rules (as well as every edition of D&D). It's one of those things that I might as well write down in pen when I get a character who can afford it. Sure, 2,000 gold is a lot of coin to drop on a backpack, but it's far more useful to an adventurer than a bag of holding.

The problem is, it doesn't work properly in Hero Lab. Sure, it works as a container (though for a while it didn't), but it's a bit more than that.

It's divided into three sections, each with its own weight limits: a central bag that carries up to 80 pounds, and two smaller pouches, each of which can hold 20 pounds. Nothing carried within these affect the item's actual weight (5 pounds).

When you pick up a handy haversack in Hero Lab, you get a container that ignores the weight of anything in it (which is correct), but it doesn't have the side-pouches and doesn't seem to check to make sure you're not going over the limit.

Is it possible to re-code this item so that it automagically includes the two smaller containers, and make sure it's not being over-filled?

They've never really put much work into encumbrance rules when it comes to Hero Lab, other than how it affects speed. That being said, I've always thought this would be an awesome addition, just as I love the community download for the spellbook tracking addition. The more math Hero Lab does for me, the more I can concentrate on playing characters.

Couldn't you add 2 pouches and then add those pouches to the backpack? At least for a partial fix...

We track encumberance quite well, in my opinion. Not just speed reduction, but Max Dex and ACP are applied, which is a frequent source of questions, by the way.

It's true that we don't enforce any weight limits for containers though, and I can't think of anything other than this item which requires specific compartmentalization. It's an interesting feature request, certainly.

In the meantime, I think Jamz's suggestion is a good workaround. The mouseinfo for holders displays how much weight they currently contain, so it should be relatively easy to police yourself.

I'd be interested in using the editor to see if an overall weight limit of 120 can be set for the haversack. Aaron makes an interesting comment on weight, which doesn't explain why a coffin or ornate coffin can't be placed within a bag of holding of sufficient size. I don't recall the setting, but it was easy to edit and save as "coffin, revised". I think I'll tinker with the haversack tonight.

Anything ever happen with this?

No idea why things like Bags of Holding don't enforce a limit on how much can be placed in them. Such a simple thing and not having that feature makes using Herolab for encumbrance virtually useless

"virtually useless" seems hyperbolic to me. This is still on the drawing board.

Still on the drawing board is good to know...

Not sure why you would think my statement hyperbolic...it is literal. What party in Pathfinder doesn't have some kind of Bag of Holding? Its a must...and if that encumbrance has to be tracked seperately, then tracking everything else in Herolab is literally more difficult than just doing it all in one place on paper.

Love the program and (assuming I can figure out the editor) this is so far my only complaint. I'm not a programmer but my assumption is that it would be an easy fix...and as such one that would have been done already if it were intended.

Glad to know I was worng.

I'd say that because the weight held is displayed in the name, it's not that hard to self police, and thus calling encumberance tracking through the program virtually useless seems too harsh to me.

Regardless, I looked into the issue, and most of the infrastructure was already existing so I went ahead and built a little bit more. This feature should be in the next release for items which specify a limit to the weight they can hold (where there is no weight limit specified, like with backpacks, we do not enforce a limit and leave it up to DM adjucation). Keep in mind, we only have information on the weight of gear so that's all we're able to enforce (you'll still have to self police on the volume limits).

Thanks Aaron for adding this.