Unseen servant

[liao1994]

I'm a wizard with invisibility holding a wand. Given I have a unseen servant can I have it hold an item for me and hold it so it's attached on my forearm (like an invisible rubber band with a wand in-between) and have it swap what I'm holding in my hand with what it is holding? And how would it work out action economy wise if it is allowed?

[Diego Rossi]

You will meet table variations, as it is a GM call, but, if I was the GM, this use will only generate hindrances and give no benefits.

Let's breakdown what it will be doing step by step:

1) The unseen servant is a separate entity.
It can obey your commands, but it doesn't know what you are doing and what you intend to do. So if it is pressing something against your forearm it means that it is constantly pushing the object against the forearm, adjusting its position every time you move your arm and hand and every time you change your position.
For me, that means that every time you try to cast a spell with somatic components you will be hindered by a level 1 non-damaging spell. And that requires a concentration check.

2) The wand will be in the possession of the unseen servant, not yours. So it will not be invisible. A wand floating around by itself will surely attract some attention, at least against intelligent opponents.

3) To have the unseen servant swap wands you have to command it when you want the swap to happen. It doesn't know what you want.
Releasing the wand and accepting the new wand would require at least a move action on your part, and two move actions on the unseen servant part.
The benefit is that you will not provoke an attack of opportunity while storing the wand will.
Note that both wands will be visible after the swap.

4) The unseen servant has a speed of 15'. Staying near it will limit your movement.

- * - * -

What you could do:

1) Have the unseen servant follow you and spend a move action to retrieve the wands you drop. Dropping an item is a free action.

2) Get easily distinguishable wands, maybe painting them. Order the unseen servant to give you the correspondent wand when you call for it if your left hand is empty.
"Blue wand" and it places the blue wand in your left hand.
You still spend a move action to accept it.

Or better, seeing how you can afford multiple wands, consider making or buying a Glove of storing.

[Firebug]

The "It can't perform any task that requires a skill check with a DC higher than 10" means it probably has zero chance of seeing you if it needed a perception check to do so.

Its unclear whether Unseen Servant can even see at all, since its not exactly a creature. But we can at least assume it has regular vision. If it has see invisibility it should call that out, as 'hold this sheet in front of the square with the invisible enemy in it' would be an easy way to get around some parts of invisible enemies.

If you are just looking for quicker action economy on the cheap, try the Spring-Loaded Wrist Sheaths. Granted you may end up having to drop some items, but they can hold wands.

[Theaitetos]

Diego Rossi wrote:

What you could do:

1) Have the unseen servant follow you and spend a move action to retrieve the wands you drop. Dropping an item is a free action.

2) Get easily distinguishable wands, maybe painting them. Order the unseen servant to give you the correspondent wand when you call for it if your left hand is empty.
"Blue wand" and it places the blue wand in your left hand.
You still spend a move action to accept it.

And if you were to spend a feat for Magic Trick on Unseen Servant & skill points on Profession (Porter), you could reduce it to a swift/free action once per turn imo, depending on the amount of skill points.

[Tggdan]

The unseen servant is mindless. It can perform one task at a time, but can repeat the same activity over and over.

Typically, issuing commands is a move action, though it seems like you intend this to be a repeating command.

"Give me back the wands that I drop" is probably fair. It would use the move action to retrieve the wand, and a standard action to hand it to you. You would need a free hand to accept the wand.

Seeing you would be difficult (DC 20 at least, and it can't perform tasks above DC 10) and a mean DM might say that it goes on it's own iniative.

If you're using multiple wands, you'd need to command it to "give me the fireball wand" vs "give me the magic missile wand" which are move actions, so you might as well pick them up off the ground yourself.

If you claim that its job is to pick up wands off the ground and hold them out for you to grab (thus removing the need for a move action to "put them away" I might argue that anyone else can grab a wand from your servant also. (It's either holding them out to be taken, or everyone, including you, would need to disarm it to get the wand from it- upgrading it to a standard action).

You're better off using a familiar to do this (like a rat). Familiars have intelligence and can follow more complex commands.