Hello magic practitioners of all shapes and sizes! Welcome to my spellbook and thank you so much for checking out the 20th episode of our cantrip series. May i introduce to you mage hand 5e spell usable by the bard, sorcerer, warlock, wizard and naturally through extension anyone else with access to their spell lists and it is found in the classic the one, the only, the original players handbook let’s take a quick look at some of the mechanics here.
Table of Contents
Mechanics
- Level: Cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 Action
- Range/Area: 30 ft
- Components: V, S
- Duration: 1 Minute
- School: Conjuration
- Attack/Save: None
- Damage/Effect: Utility
The cast time is one action, the range is 30 feet, the duration is a whole minute. The effect at a glance create a floating hand that can function within a 30 foot radius. They can perform the simple tasks and follow simple directions. It can not attack activate magical items or carry over 10 pounds. The components are somatic and verbal meaning you have to gesture as well as speaking incantation. The school is a conjuration. Now let’s take a look at the full spell description here so that you can learn what can you do with mage hand. You can read this article on dnd 5e damage list.
Description
A spectral, floating hand appears at a point you choose within range. The hand lasts for the duration or until you dismiss it as an action. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 30 feet away from you or if you cast this spell again. You can use your action to control the hand. You can use the hand to manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial. You can move the hand up to 30 feet each time you use it. The hand can’t attack, activate magic items, or carry more than 10 pounds.
Very interesting stuff there! Very very interesting. One kind of game breaking ish thing i was pointed out and i personally wouldn’t allow this in my game but it is kind of a gray area. It can’t carry more than ten pounds but it doesn’t specify the weight that it can drag behind it. So you hadn’t roughly ten pounds worth of rope and get it to pull that. Do you want to know about how good is arcane trickster 5e?
It could be attached to several hundred pounds hypothetically. That’s kind of the only exploit that is really out there as far as i’m concerned. There’s a lot of people who want to throw things but the head can’t attack so i wouldn’t allow that anything that would require an attack roll the hand can’t do. As kind of a rule of thumb. Check out this how does concentration work in d&d 5e?
The magical items thing is also a little bit misleading. It can’t activate magical items but it can touch and use magical items and i’ll get into that in a little bit here. That being said, let’s take a look at some of the alternative uses here. Do not miss out our blog post on how do you determine strength in 5e?
Mage Hand 5E Uses
I would allow the hand in one of my games to be able to set traps or various traps such as digging holes, i think that’d be more than allowed it would take quite a decent amount of time but i would allow it. I would also allow the hand to be able to use healing supplies whether or not it’s a healing kit or health potion those are both be perfectly viable in my opinion. Check out this what spell is bigby’s hand? article.
I might give a disadvantage on that magical check just because it’s not a full person but i didn’t play that by here and it can also be used to retrieve things like keys. You don’t necessarily have to be able to see the hand all the time, so long as it’s within that 30 foot radius i would allow you to communicate to it like to grab the guards keys for example and have it do that on its own and come back. I think that would be okay. Also read about mage hand legerdemain.
Conclusion
That being said, if you have any alternative uses you’d like to see this spell. I would for you to comment goes down beneath there’s also if you have any cool stories involving and i would really appreciate that as well. That being said, i hope you all have a great day and as always happy casting everyone. Also read these articles like prestidigitation 5e | minor illusion 5e.