TheSword
Legend
My concern isn’t that the hand can be re-cast. Though that’s an argument against it if anything. It’s the fact that it’s reasonable for a person or creature that just gets punched by a tangible conjugation in front of them to try and attack it. AC 20 makes it extremely hard to destroy. The power of the cantrip then becomes its ability to distract you, not it’s actual effect. A mountain lion doesn’t know the caster can throw another one next round and attacking the hand is pointless.Honestly it is almost flavor text. It could have an AC of 1 and attacking it would still be a complete waste of time. It is the same action to cast a new one as to have it move and attack. The caster could just cast it every round and it would have the same effect. I only included it to have it act similar to the more powerful Bigby's Hand spell, which also has an AC of 20 but has hit points equal to the caster's.
Cases where the duration and the fact that you can attack the hand would actually matter. If the caster was silenced he could still attack until the hand was destroyed. Or if you ready an action to attack the hand when the caster had it attack you. The first one would be pretty uncommon, but a benefit if it actually came up. The second one would force the opponent to waste their action attacking a cantrip creation that can be recreated the very next round. Maybe if you had a minion attacking the hand to protect the big bad? But it still seems like a lot of effort to stop a spell that might do a few d4 damage and give advantage on one attack.
If the hand isn’t there to be attacked, why does it have an AC. If it is, then the AC needs to come down a lot and so does the effect.