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Looking to spitball various interpretations of the often widely interpreted rules of an unseen servant...
Could an unseen servant be used to deliver a fatal necklace of fireballs? And if so, what mechanics would be needed?
If the necklace is being worn or carried by a character who fails her saving throw against a magical fire attack, the item must make a saving throw as well (with a save bonus of +7). If the necklace fails to save, all its remaining spheres detonate simultaneously, often with regrettable consequences for the wearer.
I suppose the first question would be - is an unseen servant a character? And one that can fail his/her/its saving throw?
An unseen servant is an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that performs simple tasks at your command (...) The servant cannot attack in any way; it is never allowed an attack roll. It cannot be killed, but it dissipates if it takes 6 points of damage from area attacks. (It gets no saves against attacks.)
If it's even possible (i.e. you can get past the shapeless force counting as a character, and the "cannot attack in any way" clause) - in which ways could this be triggered?
Would you need to use a ranged magical fire attack on the servant's area? Would he dissipate (but not make a saving throw or be killed) and thus leave the item untended? Could the unseen servant carry an alchemist's fire with the necklace tied to it and simply drop that onto the ground? If we've gotten this far, would there be rules on the alchemist fire not triggering by simply being dropped 10 feet by the unseen servant? (This feels vaguely like it just attacked a square)
For what it's worth, I'm asking the question from a GM's perspective on how you would handle all the various ways this situation could come up.
Would I be a bastard by just stating simply that this looks like a form of attack - even though it's well disguised as simply carrying a bottle and dropping it? - and thus, no - don't even think about this?
What if the servant just carried the necklace into the middle of a room, and his commander hit the area with one of the beads that he plucked off or his own fire spell? Indirectly, it was used as an attack, but is the necklace untended by an actual character with saving throws?
I think the players will stop doing this the first time the enemy reacts by turning the tables on this technique. But defining this as an attack and banning it from unseen servants isn't going to solve things. All it does is making the players use weak summoned monsters for delivery.
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Absolutely agreed on a home game... I'd weigh the pros/cons, and if it's in the best interest of the group, plot progression, and leads to an amazing "memory while reminiscing over beers 10 years later", then I'm all for loose rules interpretation.
The question is - for organized play, how's it handled when you're trying to run as RAW as possible? I'm trying not to discuss any more details here to avoid spoilers and forum searches that could lead folks here that shouldn't be led here. :)
A loose interpretation could lead to a TPK below level 10, without the need for anyone to make saving throws, say if the unseen servant is carrying the necklace and a magical fire-based trap is sprung. I've completely invented this particular scenario (the trap one at least), for what it's worth.
I do rule for my home game that anything with an unseen servant is basically untended - that it's the same as an item sitting on a table, and there just happens to be a shapeless force pushing against whatever is being manipulated. I've used the term "shapeless mass of force kind of like an oven-mitt". Since this shapeless force has no stats, no saves, no skills - anyone can walk up and pick up the item with a move action (so you or enemies don't need to roll to disarm it, grapple it, etc). I believe this is effectively running it by the book...
no, no, not possible, even if dropped with alchemist's fire or targetted by actual MAGICAL fire attacks: per RAW the necklace is not triggered unless worn by a character who rolls nat 1 vs MAGICAL fire attack (likewise each bead is normally triggered only when thrown by a character). so it doesn't work, no worry about TPK as long as you follow the rules.
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The description on the item (which wakedown quotes above) overrides the usual nat 1 reflex save rule. The necklace can be set off if the wearer simply fails the reflex save.
Also, note that an alchemist fire is not magical fire, as it's an alchemical item not a magical one. So it wouldn't actually set off the necklace.
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It's interesting, since the written text says the necklace only goes nova if something wearing or carrying it fails a saving throw. It has no text saying that it would be set off if the item took damage causing it to gain the broken condition, or to be destroyed.
So, it seems it would appear, by RAW at least, if the necklace were sitting on a table, and someone hit it with 100 damage of fire, it simply melts away versus going nova.
Now, I wouldn't begrudge a player or GM for wanting it to go off in that case - since it seems plausible, it's just not written anywhere that it would actually do that.
I suppose this brings up a whole bunch of other questions too - can an unseen servant be commanded to carry an alchemist's fire (it's just a bottle right) up above an enemy and "let it go?"
That feels like an attack, even if an indirect one. I suppose the easiest thing is for the GM to just have the unseen servant play dumb since while this would be the "cannot attack" text.