Unseen Servant & Bonds

[nittanytbone]

Scenario: Caster is captured. Said caster is bound, gagged, stripped naked, and tied up (masterwork manacles for hands, ropes for feet with a DC 27 use rope check).

Party leaves caster unsupervised to deal with the real BBEG. The caster had an Unseen Servant cast earlier which went unnoticed by the party. The captive is then dropped to zero HP and then given some subdual damage to knock them out.

1) Can the caster give a complex command to the unseen servant such as, "Wait 2 minutes. If there are no creatures in the room other than me, uncork that healing potion in the corner and pour it down my throat," or is the conditional and time delay too much?

2) Can an unseen servant do anything to free the character in this situation? It is not entitled to an attack roll ever, so I suppose it cannot attempt to sunder the ropes or smash the object. It could drop a sharp object onto the rope over and over, but that could be hazardous for the caster (at zero HP even a 1 HP nick from a dagger could lead to death). Ditto for pouring acid or some other substance onto the rope -- a splash could be deadly. A vial of oil could give a +2 circumstance bonus to escape artist checks. Could the Unseen Servant give a +2 aid another bonus to the trapped caster's checks to escape artist/break bonds?

 

[Claudius Gaius]

Well, it can do things that require a skill check at a DC 10 or less, as long as the skill in question can be used untrained. Small children can, with patience, untangle ropes and a lot of knots, so it can probably help out. If it can mend things, that means it can work a needle and thread at least, so it could unravel rope if all else fails.

There is no apparent limit on the complexity of a command sequence, it must have basic senses and decision-making abilities or it couldn't tell when things were clean andmove on, and it must have enough of a "program" to understand commands (presumably comprehension-of-casters-language skill 10). It takes a LOT of programming to make a household robot capable of a tiny percentage of the things an unseen servant can do.

As for attack rolls, you don't need one to saw through a board, chop carrots, or hit a dirty patch on the floor with a splash of soapy water - all well within the abilities of an unseen servant. Why should sawing ropes be any different from sawing wood?

Unfortunately, because the caster was grabbed, knocked out, etc, before he got the chance to issue any such commands and can't issue them now, the point is presumably moot.

 

[Vegepygmy]

As for attack rolls, you don't need one to saw through a board, chop carrots, or hit a dirty patch on the floor with a splash of soapy water - all well within the abilities of an unseen servant. Why should sawing ropes be any different from sawing wood?

Agreed. If there is a cutting instrument available, the unseen servant will have its master untied in a jiffy (assuming he finds some way to command it).

 

[nittanytbone]

The PCs ran back to the KOd caster and revived her for a moment to interrogate her briefly, then they knocked her out again. I figure that the caster could have easily given a command at that time such as:

"When nobody but me is present, retrieve the vial over there marked 'faith healing' from the pantry, uncork it, and pour it down my throat."

If an unseen servant can cook then shouldn't it be capable of something like this?

Then once she's back in the positives again she can issue any needed commands.

 

[Claudius Gaius]

Well, that would depend on (1) the spellcasters level of foresight, (2) their ability to issue coherent commands while being interrogated and hit on the head, and (3) whether or not the commands need to be verbal - and while we know that an unseen servant has normal senses of some sort, there's no mention of any ability to command it mentally. It does say "if told to do so" - and "told" would seem to imply verbally. Ergo, any commands that the unseen servant could make out with a "listen" check of "10", the player characters would probably hear as well - which would probably be bad for the caster.

 

[Nail]

The PCs ran back to the KOd caster and revived her for a moment to interrogate her briefly, then they knocked her out again. I figure that the caster could have easily given a command at that time such as.....

First of all: All of the following is IMO, and not meant to be derogatory in any way toward the OP.

Second: This situation is just classic DM "it's reasonable 'cause I'm doing it" material. It seems highly improbable, and only possible with an absolutely amazing level of foresight, perserverance, toughness, luck, and cunning.

Sorry, but this seems like a completely contrived scenario, and as a player I'd be more than a bit ticked off if I ever found out how the DM's favorite bad guy got away.

As for the "rules" bit of this discussion, the US needs a command. As the spell does not say "mental command", the term "command" falls to its default value of "verbal". No wacky telepathic commands while getting beaten up by the PCs. :\

 

[Elethiomel]

Second: This situation is just classic DM "it's reasonable 'cause I'm doing it" material. It seems highly improbable, and only possible with an absolutely amazing level of foresight, perserverance, toughness, luck, and cunning.

Really? I have done similar things as a player. If your one driving goal is to get out of a situation, there's a lot of things you may be willing to endure in order to do so. And you don't need to give any mental commands while being beat up - you can do it while, for instance, taking a pause for breath while giving the PCs an explanation they're asking for, or a pause for effect after giving a piece of information, or while the PCs are asking you questions. A bluff check to seem like you're not doing anything in particular, and presto. They did go back and revive said spellcaster for interrogation, after all.

But yes, unseen servants need vocal commands. So that makes that part impossible.

 

[nittanytbone]

But yes, unseen servants need vocal commands. So that makes that part impossible.

There we go! I thought this was a bit potent for a 1st level spell.

I wanted to explore the possibility -- this is a scene & NPC from a module; the NPC in question has strong mental ability scores and is described as cunning, intelligent, perceptive, and flexible, and she has well-prepared for the encounter (pre-casting Glibness in the event of capture/negotiations, pre-casting Unseen Servant, etc). Moreover the players saw evidence of the Unseen Servant but didn't do anything to ensure it was dispelled/dismissed etc. So I wanted to fully explore the option.

Basically, the long and short of it seems to be that the NPC is out of luck unless she can regain consciousness and issue a command verbally (without being detected). Code or patois won't fly as the Unseen Servant can't make a bluff/sense motive check to detect a "coded message" via Bluff. Message (the spell) isn't running so whispering is out. So any listening PC will be clued in. If the command can be given then the servant can probably take steps to free the NPC given enough time (likely tens of minutes), but the point is moot.