Mage Hand

Falling Icicle

Adventurer
My friend and I were doing some sample battles, and it wasn't long before we had quite a few questions about just what is possible with the Mage Hand spell. For example, he wanted to hold action and use mage hand to grab my bow, preventing me from using it or at least applying a penalty to attack. He also had the idea of using it to trip people as they run by grabbing their leg. The spell makes no mention of being unable to manipulate objects that are held or carried by other characters. Without any addition restrictions, this spell could be powerful indeed - the ultimate pick pocketing and disarming tool.
 

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Hmm, I imagine you would need to figure out what the "strength" of mage hand is. I think for disabling/pickpocketing it would be dependent on your thievery skill to, since the hand is still guided by the wizard so it would only do things at the capabilities of the mage (probably less given there is no real touch).
 

Falling Icicle said:
My friend and I were doing some sample battles, and it wasn't long before we had quite a few questions about just what is possible with the Mage Hand spell. For example, he wanted to hold action and use mage hand to grab my bow, preventing me from using it or at least applying a penalty to attack. He also had the idea of using it to trip people as they run by grabbing their leg. The spell makes no mention of being unable to manipulate objects that are held or carried by other characters. Without any addition restrictions, this spell could be powerful indeed - the ultimate pick pocketing and disarming tool.

Good point. All it really needs is a note that says "Mage Hand cannot be used to perform Skill checks or attacks, and can only be used to manipulate unattended items."
 

My rule of thumb would be Int attack vs Reflex defense; success means you inflict -2 to their attack/AC/whatever.

Did I mention I LOVE this unified mechanic? Everything can be (X attack) vs (Y defense). No more futzing around over whether it's a touch attack, skill check, normal attack, ability check, blah blah.
 



hong said:
Come ON people, learn to say YES for a change!

I wouldn't necessarily mind if Mage Hand could do those things, I'd just like some clarification about what is possible with it and how those things should be handled.
 

hong said:
My rule of thumb would be Int attack vs Reflex defense; success means you inflict -2 to their attack/AC/whatever.

Did I mention I LOVE this unified mechanic? Everything can be (X attack) vs (Y defense). No more futzing around over whether it's a touch attack, skill check, normal attack, ability check, blah blah.

Sounds like a good fix until the rules officially come out.

And I agree about the unified mechanic. Seems like it's going to be very easy to make these sort of adjudications.
 

I'd say it should be able to do anything your character could do (within reason) perhaps with a penalty given that it is indirect communication. As such you would use all the ordinary roles with say... a -2 to your roll.
 

Initially I thought of using an Int attack to do this stuff, but you have to remember the hand is very, very weak. It can only carry 20 lbs, max. It should be pretty difficult for such a weak hand to pull someone's weapon away from them or trip them. Maybe the hand could be assumed to be Strength 2 (-4), so any "attack" it makes should use that modifier, if a tug of war is involved.
 

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