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<blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 8374973" data-attributes="member: 97077">First, I think one has to recognize that there are a lot of traps that an unseen servant will not be able to help with, in particular complex or magical ones or anything triggered by weight or force greater than it can produce. Can you even see the parts of the trap the unseen servant needs to interact with from your position and are those things within 60 feet of you? Do you know how the trap works so you can tell it what to do? So this isn't a tool that's going to work in all or perhaps even most cases, depending on the content the DM is presenting. In the abstract, wow, unseen servant is a great trap springer! In reality, it's not the cost-free victory it's made out to be, unless the DM's exploration challenges are about an inch deep.Next, setting off the trap isn't always desirable either. It may keep the PCs safe (then again, it might not depending on the area it affects), but what else might be negatively impacted by the trap going off that is important to the PCs? What if that pressure plate causes a huge block to drop down from the ceiling, destroying the unseen servant, and blocking further passage? Oops.Finally, the position I have taken is not that spells or the like don't help with the exploration challenges in some cases, only that rarely are they &quot;free.&quot; They come with risks and trade-offs just like anything else - same as combat or social interaction options - particularly if the DM has created urgency via countdowns or random encounters based on time or noise. It's here where meaningful choices are provided to the players: Do I cast this unseen servant spell and risk a wandering monster check? Do I set off the trap with the unseen servant and create a bunch of noise? Is setting off the trap actually going to help us here? And so on.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="iserith, post: 8374973, member: 97077"] First, I think one has to recognize that there are a lot of traps that an unseen servant will not be able to help with, in particular complex or magical ones or anything triggered by weight or force greater than it can produce. Can you even see the parts of the trap the [I]unseen servant[/I] needs to interact with from your position and are those things within 60 feet of you? Do you know how the trap works so you can tell it what to do? So this isn't a tool that's going to work in all or perhaps even most cases, depending on the content the DM is presenting. In the abstract, wow, unseen servant is a great trap springer! In reality, it's not the cost-free victory it's made out to be, unless the DM's exploration challenges are about an inch deep. Next, setting off the trap isn't always desirable either. It may keep the PCs safe (then again, it might not depending on the area it affects), but what else might be negatively impacted by the trap going off that is important to the PCs? What if that pressure plate causes a huge block to drop down from the ceiling, destroying the unseen servant, and blocking further passage? [I]Oops[/I]. Finally, the position I have taken is not that spells or the like don't help with the exploration challenges in some cases, only that rarely are they "free." They come with risks and trade-offs just like anything else - same as combat or social interaction options - particularly if the DM has created urgency via countdowns or random encounters based on time or noise. It's here where meaningful choices are provided to the players: Do I cast this [I]unseen servant[/I] spell and risk a wandering monster check? Do I set off the trap with the [I]unseen servant[/I] and create a bunch of noise? Is setting off the trap actually going to help us here? And so on. [/QUOTE]

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