Here is a possibly dumb question. How does humuculus or Steel defender use Help for you? It goes after you right.. Meaning you use your bonus action, then after your turn it gets its turn-to move and use help or the other choices. Even when you use the bonus action, it still moves after you right? It just gains more options.
So does that mean the humuc or defender can never Help the Artificer? (well without the artificer holding action, or I gues next round--assuming whatever you were fighting hadn't moved by then)
or am I missing a b it of system knowledge somewhere? (since i'm new and I never really looked up pets/familiars since I don't like managing them. Though Humuc is fairly remakable easily daily I think? as long as you don't lose the gem)
That is correct. The Homunculus Servant and the Steel Defender cannot Help the artificer in the same round they're commanded to do so, unless the artificer holds their action. This is almost certainly intentional - "The Help Action" is one of the biggest bugbears in 5e on top of being a personal pet peeve of mine.
When a creature "takes the Help Action", that is supposed to indicate them DOING SOMETHING TO HELP. It is not a video game buff icon, where you click 'Help' and get a free advantage roll while the critter sits there and looks dumb. As a DM, I refuse to allow any creature to capital-HA Help Action another creature unless the player controlling the helper describes how they are assisting the attempt. As a player who frequently runs a Pact of the Chain warlock with a highly intelligent sprite familiar, I refuse to use the Help action unless I can reasonably inform my DM as to how Winterbreeze is assisting me.
The Help Action is poorly understood and deeply misused by a huge percentage of the playerbase. People abusing The Help Action with their companion creatures to gain advantage on things the critter companion could not possibly help with is one of the reason critter companions are difficult to balance. The artificer companion rules, which fixes the companion's turn order and amplifies its abilities in exchange for your bonus action, is a much better, cleaner system than crap like the familiar or Beastmaster companion rules. I've honestly adopted those rules for all companion creatures in my own games - everything runs by artificer rules, including familiars and companions-of-happenstance/NPCs the players decide to invite along for whatever reason.
since theh elp lasts til next round. If you didn't hold action, to help. if the creature you're being helped to hit-didn't move, the help would work on the next artificier round yes? and if it did move, you would lose (because its not in a position to be helpful). Or is that latter an inference rule since the Help action does read as an appliccation not a status
Assuming you mean helping on an attack, since that's the most common help in combat. The only requirements are that the enemy be within 5ft of the helping creature at the time the action is taken, the next attack made by the selected ally against the selected enemy (or the next ally to attack the enemy, depending on how you read it) is made with advantage.
It is possible to move up to the enemy, use the help action, and move away, (likely provoking AoO) the target will still be distracted by you until your next turn or the attack is made. In fact, this is how owl familiars (since they are fast and don't provoke AoO) are typically used in combat.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Here is a possibly dumb question. How does humuculus or Steel defender use Help for you? It goes after you right.. Meaning you use your bonus action, then after your turn it gets its turn-to move and use help or the other choices. Even when you use the bonus action, it still moves after you right? It just gains more options.
So does that mean the humuc or defender can never Help the Artificer?
(well without the artificer holding action, or I gues next round--assuming whatever you were fighting hadn't moved by then)
or am I missing a b it of system knowledge somewhere? (since i'm new and I never really looked up pets/familiars since I don't like managing them. Though Humuc is fairly remakable easily daily I think? as long as you don't lose the gem)
That is correct. The Homunculus Servant and the Steel Defender cannot Help the artificer in the same round they're commanded to do so, unless the artificer holds their action. This is almost certainly intentional - "The Help Action" is one of the biggest bugbears in 5e on top of being a personal pet peeve of mine.
When a creature "takes the Help Action", that is supposed to indicate them DOING SOMETHING TO HELP. It is not a video game buff icon, where you click 'Help' and get a free advantage roll while the critter sits there and looks dumb. As a DM, I refuse to allow any creature to capital-HA Help Action another creature unless the player controlling the helper describes how they are assisting the attempt. As a player who frequently runs a Pact of the Chain warlock with a highly intelligent sprite familiar, I refuse to use the Help action unless I can reasonably inform my DM as to how Winterbreeze is assisting me.
The Help Action is poorly understood and deeply misused by a huge percentage of the playerbase. People abusing The Help Action with their companion creatures to gain advantage on things the critter companion could not possibly help with is one of the reason critter companions are difficult to balance. The artificer companion rules, which fixes the companion's turn order and amplifies its abilities in exchange for your bonus action, is a much better, cleaner system than crap like the familiar or Beastmaster companion rules. I've honestly adopted those rules for all companion creatures in my own games - everything runs by artificer rules, including familiars and companions-of-happenstance/NPCs the players decide to invite along for whatever reason.
Please do not contact or message me.
as an additional note.
since theh elp lasts til next round. If you didn't hold action, to help.
if the creature you're being helped to hit-didn't move, the help would work on the next artificier round yes?
and if it did move, you would lose (because its not in a position to be helpful). Or is that latter an inference rule since the Help action does read as an appliccation not a status
Assuming you mean helping on an attack, since that's the most common help in combat. The only requirements are that the enemy be within 5ft of the helping creature at the time the action is taken, the next attack made by the selected ally against the selected enemy (or the next ally to attack the enemy, depending on how you read it) is made with advantage.
It is possible to move up to the enemy, use the help action, and move away, (likely provoking AoO) the target will still be distracted by you until your next turn or the attack is made. In fact, this is how owl familiars (since they are fast and don't provoke AoO) are typically used in combat.