D&D 5E Can an unseen servant fly?

[BookTenTiger]

But only in performing light duties on one thing at a time.
" It has ... a Strength of 2, and" can "interact with an object".

That's why you need to summon a lot of them!

 

[Vaalingrade]

Unseen servant

Why do you suppose that the directions can be complex? It says, "Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object."
I wouldn't allow directions beyond:
"fetch x", "clean X", "mend X", "fold X", "ignite X", "serve X (specific food)", and "pour X (drink)". I'd imagine that only simple tasks could be attempted with any success. The unseen servant is limited but "performs the task to the best of its ability".
I think there are parallels to animate dead where " you can issue a general command, [such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor]" only the unseen servant has a lot less strength.

I know the running theme has been hounding me, but the quoted post is literally a proposed rewrite.

 

[Vaalingrade]

I think 60 feet is plenty of range for my magic servant to bring me a cold beer from my magical cold storage device, fan me with cool air, answer the front door so I don't have to get up, and then fetch my guest and I dinner.

I need to send Lurch down to the market to pick out the ripest cantaloupes, return the soup turine to Mrs Blickerson, and check the post, tossing out all the correspondence from the Perfesser until he apologizes; he knows what he did.

 

[greg kaye]

I know the running theme has been hounding me, but the quoted post is literally a proposed rewrite.

That's more of an extreme buff than a rewrite. You might as well expect the servant to fly.

 

[greg kaye]

"Unseen Servant ... creates an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that ... has AC 10 [and] 1 hit point". Is there any way to give it temp hp?

 

[Lanefan]

Unseen servant

Why do you suppose that the directions can be complex? It says, "Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object."
I wouldn't allow directions beyond:
"fetch x", "clean X", "mend X", "fold X", "ignite X", "serve X (specific food)", and "pour X (drink)".

Now that would annoy me as a player, as one of the fun aspects of these things is finding creative ways to make use of them.

I'd imagine that only simple tasks could be attempted with any success. The unseen servant is limited but "performs the task to the best of its ability".

Yes, it might be able to fetch your wand out of the drawer but if the drawer is locked you're SOL.

I think there are parallels to animate dead where " you can issue a general command, [such as to guard a particular chamber or corridor]" only the unseen servant has a lot less strength.

I see unseen servants as being far more versatile than animated undead in terms both of what they can do and what they can be told to do.

 

[Lanefan]

"Unseen Servant ... creates an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that ... has AC 10 [and] 1 hit point". Is there any way to give it temp hp?

I very much doubt it, as it's not a creature; unless there's any temp-h.p.-bestowing spells or abilities that don't require a creature as a target.

However, I can think of one maybe-possibility: if there's a small device that automatically bestows temp h.p on whatever carries it and the US picks that device up.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

ChatGPT is... not a good example of something that 'can carry out tasks'.

A factory robot then. It is completely mindless but perfectly capable of carrying out the complex task of assembling a car.

The unseen servant is a robot, not a puppet.

Which was Mickey's problem, in Fantasia. (He used animate object, but animated objects and unseen servants have similar mental capabilities)

 

[Paul Farquhar]

There's also nothing said about what can damage it, so we're left to assume it's able to be affected by anything that causes damage...which makes saving throws redundant as it only has one h.p. anyway and the minimum damage something can do is 1.

As you point out, it's not a creature, which means it's an object, and objects default to being immune to poison and psychic damage.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I very much doubt it, as it's not a creature; unless there's any temp-h.p.-bestowing spells or abilities that don't require a creature as a target.

However, I can think of one maybe-possibility: if there's a small device that automatically bestows temp h.p on whatever carries it and the US picks that device up.

If you are thinking of the artillerist's eldritch cannon, that does specify "itself and each creature", so whilst it is itself an object that gives itself temporary hp, it can't give temp hp to other objects.

The eldritch cannon is another example of a mindless object that can be "directed" to do things as a bonus action.