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Can an unseen servant do the following?
1) Tie together someone's shoelaces so they trip?
1a) During combat?
2) Unbuckle somebody's belt so their pants fall down?
2a) During combat?
3) Open an opponent's healing potions so the contents spill out?
3a) During combat?
4) Start a fire (assuming it has requisite items for doing so)?
4a) Set someone on fire (assuming it has the requisite items for doing so)?
5) Throw a custard pie at somebody?
5a) If so what would its attack bonus be?
6) Place a bucket on an opponent's head?
6b) If so how would you resolve this?
Essentially I'm thinking of playing a telekinetic sorcerer, and having an Unseen Servant perform these hilariously useful tasks would be super. I'm just wondering about the legality and ruling of such things.
Can an unseen servant do the following?
1) Tie together someone's shoelaces so they trip?
1a) During combat?2) Unbuckle somebody's belt so their pants fall down?
2a) During combat?3) Open an opponent's healing potions so the contents spill out?
3a) During combat?4) Start a fire (assuming it has requisite items for doing so)?
4a) Set someone on fire (assuming it has the requisite items for doing so)?5) Throw a custard pie at somebody?
5a) If so what would its attack bonus be?6) Place a bucket on an opponent's head?
6b) If so how would you resolve this?Essentially I'm thinking of playing a telekinetic sorcerer, and having an Unseen Servant perform these hilariously useful tasks would be super. I'm just wondering about the legality and ruling of such things.
I'd say that most of those actions could be done outside of combat with little problem against mostly stationary targets.
During combat is going to be a problem because a unseen servant was not designed to be used in combat. It has no "to hit" modifiers at all as far as I know.
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My take: An unseen servant can do anything a feeble (e.g. 90-year-old) butler can do. So for the "in combat" stuff, no. And for the "not in combat" stuff, maybe, but very poorly.
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I agree, anything that requires a roll is something the unseen servant cannot do. That being said, there are still some useful things that a servant CAN do in combat.
1) open/close doors. This can be quite useful, since normally this takes a move action, while telling your servant what to do is not defined and therefore is just a free action
2) picking up dropped/unattended items, weapons, etc. This is very useful when combined with effects such as disarm, stunned (since stunned creatures drop what they were holding), unconscious, etc. It's much better to not let your foes even get their stuff back, instead of just provoking an attack of opportunity.
3) Various bluff related activities, if you have your servant hold a weapon pointed at someone, and then bluff them into thinking your magically animated weapon will attack if they do something you don't want them to.
4) pick up your dropped items so you don't provoke when picking them up
5) trigger traps - if you know how a trap works, you can have your servant pull a lever, drag a weight onto a pressure plate, etc, to trigger it (this can be useful out of combat as well.)
I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I commonly use.
Hrmm, there seem to be some misconceptions here. Unseen Servant never actually says that it "never gets rolls," only that it never gets attack rolls. From the PRD:
"It can't perform any task that requires a skill check with a DC higher than 10 or that requires a check using a skill that can't be used untrained."
That implies that the Servant can make skill checks, provided the skill is usable untrained and that the particular check is DC 10 or lower. Sure wish they'd made it more explicit though. :'P
If I were GMing I'd treat the Servant as having a +0 in Dex and Con, so it'd be rolling d20+0 most of the time (d20-4 on Strength checks), and just automatically fails if the DC is 11 or higher.
Also from the PRD: "The servant cannot attack in any way; it is never allowed an attack roll."
So in Dudemeister's first post there was implied a difference between something happening "in combat" or "out of combat". There's really no difference in terms of rules mechanics; there may be a surprise round or somebody caught flat-footed, but an attack is an attack regardless of whether or not the GM has called for initiative yet.
Also, the two rules snippets I posted means Unseen Servant can't do most of the things mentioned in Dudemeister's first post. This is because most of them are either some kind of attack (a hostile act is still hostile even if it's hilarious, so targets are going to try to dodge the bucket or grab at their potions and so on), or some (laudably creative!) use of Sleight of Hand, which can't be used untrained. One thing I would allow is starting a mundane fire, which I'd call an easy Survival check; the Servant can succeed automatically by Taking 10.
I personally think 3.5/Pathfinder's spell list doesn't have enough telekinetic spells, so I'd suggest that you want to make a new spell for doing these neat tricks. There are (or were in 3.0/3.5) rules for letting casters craft their own spells. Make it like Unseen Servant, but pumped up, call it So-n-so's Greater Unseen Servant or something. :']
Hrmm, there seem to be some misconceptions here. Unseen Servant never actually says that it "never gets rolls," only that it never gets attack rolls. From the PRD:
"It can't perform any task that requires a skill check with a DC higher than 10 or that requires a check using a skill that can't be used untrained."
That implies that the Servant can make skill checks, provided the skill is usable untrained and that the particular check is DC 10 or lower. Sure wish they'd made it more explicit though. :'P
If I were GMing I'd treat the Servant as having a +0 in Dex and Con, so it'd be rolling d20+0 most of the time (d20-4 on Strength checks), and just automatically fails if the DC is 11 or higher.
Also from the PRD: "The servant cannot attack in any way; it is never allowed an attack roll."
So in Dudemeister's first post there was implied a difference between something happening "in combat" or "out of combat". There's really no difference in terms of rules mechanics; there may be a surprise round or somebody caught flat-footed, but an attack is an attack regardless of whether or not the GM has called for initiative yet.
Also, the two rules snippets I posted means Unseen Servant can't do most of the things mentioned in Dudemeister's first post. This is because most of them are either some kind of attack (a hostile act is still hostile even if it's hilarious, so targets are going to try to dodge the bucket or grab at their potions and so on), or some (laudably creative!) use of Sleight of Hand, which can't be used untrained. One thing I would allow is starting a mundane fire, which I'd call an easy Survival check; the Servant can succeed automatically by Taking 10.
I personally think 3.5/Pathfinder's spell list doesn't have enough telekinetic spells, so I'd suggest that you want to make a new spell for doing these neat tricks. There are (or were in 3.0/3.5) rules for letting casters craft their own spells. Make it like Unseen Servant, but pumped up, call it So-n-so's...
Thats kinda why I said against a mostly stationary target. (Not accounting for say... a rolling ship or jostling cart.)
I should have been clearer. Against a completely helpless target. A paralyzed or sleeping target is not going to be able to prevent any of the implied actions.
Not too hard to carry a pie over someone and drop it on them. Or... open a "undefended" pouch and pull out objects and manipulate them under orders.
Combat-wise though yeah... no go.
7)Perform services of a private nature?
Of course, them being unseen, you cannot help but wonder whether they're pretty or hideous. Fear the unknown.
I should have been clearer. Against a completely helpless target. A paralyzed or sleeping target is not going to be able to prevent any of the implied actions.
This is a slightly different issue, but I'm afraid that even against helpless targets, most of those actions originally mentioned by Dudemeister still aren't allowed. Use uncapping a potion a person is wearing on a belt as an example. The rules say that's a disarm (removing an object that a person is wearing). Disarms need attack rolls, even if they're against helpless targets, so Unseen Servants aren't even allowed to try, at least according to the rules.
You're right that this harms verisimilitude, at least on the face of it. That's what The Most Important Rule is for. :']
If I were the GM, I'd allow Unseen Servants to perform such actions against helpless targets sometimes, sure. I could also see a GM ruling that the spell has to be used as-written with that crazy exception built in, because it's magic, and magic is a system of laws even if those laws are sometimes absurd. Or that the spell is sometimes unreliable when trying to perform certain things, and it just so happens that those things usually revolve around causing trouble. There are lots of ways to write the flavor text to fit the rules if you like.
I think the "whatever a frail ninety-year-old butler can do is about right."
As I rule it, an unseen servant can do the following:
"Jeeves, fetch me my slippers."
(Retrieve an unattended item under 25 lbs.)
"Carry my valise."
(Carry an item under 25 lbs.)
"Uncork this vintage."
(Open a potion flask or any other sort of bottle.)
"Let my friend sample this vintage."
(Bring an ally or anyone not objecting and hold it to their lips while they drink.)
"Scatter rosepetals for the delight of our guests."
(Strew caltrops across the floor.)
"Shave my guest with this razor then anoint him with this rosewater."
(Shave a willing or restrained subject with a rusty dagger then pour acid on him.)
"Help my friend disrobe for bed."
(Remove all clothing and armor from a willing or unconscious individual.)
"Butcher this hog."
(Slit the throat of a held or unconscious creature via coup de grace rules, and once it's bled to death, disembowel it, skin it, and begin parting out the meat for cooking.)
Basically, if you can phrase it as a butler-like task, you can have Unseen Servant do anything that a frail old servant could do with enough time, cooperation, or at least lack of resistance.
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1) Tie together someone's shoelaces so they trip?
1a) During combat?2) Unbuckle somebody's belt so their pants fall down?
2a) During combat?3) Open an opponent's healing potions so the contents spill out?
3a) During combat?4) Start a fire (assuming it has requisite items for doing so)?
4a) Set someone on fire (assuming it has the requisite items for doing so)?5) Throw a custard pie at somebody?
5a) If so what would its attack bonus be?6) Place a bucket on an opponent's head?
6b) If so how would you resolve this?
1) Ask your DM, but can it make CMB check?
1a) Can the U.S. make a CMB Grapple check? (Which is how I'd make the ruling in a game)2) Ask your DM, see #1
2a) See 1a or maybe Disarm?
3) Ask your DM, see #1
3a) See 2a
4) Yes
4a) I'd give them a Reflex to avoid it probably DC of the U.S. spell based on level
5) Yes
5a) No attack as it deals no damage, so do like 4a.
6) Ask your DM, see 1.
6a) See 1a
Most of the answers are, "no it can't make a CMB check"