Yeah hard agree. If you use an ability to increase the range of mage hand to 60ft, and someone tells you the hand still disappears at 30ft instead of 60ft... then in effect you haven't increased the range to 60. And that is precisely what you were supposed to do.
So an ability that says it increases the range does increase the range, even if it needs to also boost things like max distance the spell effect can go. That's just part of the range.
Once a spell is cast, its effects aren’t limited by its range, unless the spell’s description says otherwise.
This is from the Range rules in the PHB, and talks about spells not being limited by their range after they are cast, except if their description says otherwise. I maintain that the figure listed in mage hand is just such one "otherwise". And as such, is a property of the range.
1) Just for reference I agree with you. Distant meta magic applied to mage hand should allow it to work within 60'. That is how I would rule it in a game I was running.
2) The problem with RAW and Mage Hand in this case is that it isn't written that way.
You quoted the range rule from the PHB: "Once a spell is cast, its effects aren’t limited by its range, unless the spell’s description says otherwise."
This indicates that Range is not relevant AFTER the spell is cast - so changes to the range are not relevant. It defines that the "range" has to do with the casting of the spell and not the operation unless the spell description refers to the "range" in the spell text.
Distant spell metamagic says:
"Distant Spell: When you cast a spell that has a range of 5 feet or greater, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double the range of the spell. When you cast a spell that has a range of touch, you can spend 1 sorcery point to make the range of the spell 30 feet."
The wording of mage hand is:
"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."
The range is only used for initial casting and the text of Mage Hand requires it to remain within 30' - this value does NOT reference the range of the spell. It doesn't say the hand must remain within "range" - it specifies 30'. Yes ... the designers may have intended that this be the same value as the "range" of the spell but they didn't state that in the description and there is no clarification in the SAC or elsewhere. All we know as readers of the rules is that the spell says 30' which is coincidentally the same distance as the unmodified range of the spell. Distant metamagic existed when the spell was written (they are in the same book) so presumably this could have been considered when the spell text was written but they decided to limit the distance to 30' anyway. There is no way we can tell whether that was an oversight or intentional decision since someone decided they didn't want a Mage Hand working from 60' away.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the Rules As Written say that Mage Hand disappears if it is every more than 30' from the caster which makes Distant Metamagic useless for applying to Mage Hand. Personally, I think a 60' mage hand would be fun and something the player would likely enjoy so I would rule that it works but it isn't RAW unfortunately.
P.S. Consider the spell Call Lightning cast with a Distant spell metamagic. Call Lighting has a 120' range summoning a cloud with a 60' radius. The rule specifically states 60' instead of 1/2 the range - very similar to Mage Hand. If Distant was applied to Call Lightning, does it have any effect on the extent of the cloud created? Does it increase the "range" over which the lightning can be called or only the initial placement of the cloud? RAW, Distant would increase the range to 240' but would not change the 60' size of the cloud since it doesn't refer to the range (exactly the same as Mage Hand).
I think few DMs would increase both the distance and area for a Call Lightning spell affected by Distant metamagic - but logically, if it works that way for Mage Hand, then it should work that way for other spells that don't explicitly reference the range in the spell text.
P.P.S. On the other hand, the damage type of a spell is NOT as explicitly defined in the rules as its range. The damage is typically described in the spell text and Transmute allows the caster to change all of one type of damage done by the spell to another type.
"Transmuted Spell When you cast a spell that deals a type of damage from the following list, you can spend 1 sorcery point to change that damage type to one of the other listed types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder."
As an example, Ice Storm does 2d8 bludgeoning and 4d6 cold, a sorcerer with transmute could spend a sorcery point to change the cold damage to a different damage type.
Basically, Transmute doesn't have the same RAW "issue" as Distant just due to how "range" is defined and used in the rules. Distant could have been written to extend spell effects like the ongoing distance limit to mage hand or probably better, mage hand could have been written to take the possibility of Distant being applied to it into account.
Just to point out that this reading of RAW also makes the extra 30' of range that one gets from the Telekinetic feat useless as well. I am pretty sure that the developers would not include a feature in a feat that cannot possibly be used, so I am left to believe that the 30' specified in the spell description is indeed meant to be the range of the spell and not a fixed value. The wording is poor; perhaps it will be updated in the next edition.
Just to point out that this reading of RAW also makes the extra 30' of range that one gets from the Telekinetic feat useless as well. I am pretty sure that the developers would not include a feature in a feat that cannot possibly be used, so I am left to believe that the 30' specified in the spell description is indeed meant to be the range of the spell and not a fixed value. The wording is poor; perhaps it will be updated in the next edition.
Absolutely agree with you and that is how I'd run it in a game I was DMing. Hopefully, they fix the wording in future editions (though to be honest, the writers may not even know or consider it an issue). The intent is pretty clear, especially with the Telekinetic feat since without increasing the 30' within the text of the spell - that bullet point of the feat is useless.
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1) Just for reference I agree with you. Distant meta magic applied to mage hand should allow it to work within 60'. That is how I would rule it in a game I was running.
2) The problem with RAW and Mage Hand in this case is that it isn't written that way.
You quoted the range rule from the PHB: "Once a spell is cast, its effects aren’t limited by its range, unless the spell’s description says otherwise."
This indicates that Range is not relevant AFTER the spell is cast - so changes to the range are not relevant. It defines that the "range" has to do with the casting of the spell and not the operation unless the spell description refers to the "range" in the spell text.
Distant spell metamagic says:
"Distant Spell: When you cast a spell that has a range of 5 feet or greater, you can spend 1 sorcery point to double the range of the spell. When you cast a spell that has a range of touch, you can spend 1 sorcery point to make the range of the spell 30 feet."
The wording of mage hand is:
"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."
The range is only used for initial casting and the text of Mage Hand requires it to remain within 30' - this value does NOT reference the range of the spell. It doesn't say the hand must remain within "range" - it specifies 30'. Yes ... the designers may have intended that this be the same value as the "range" of the spell but they didn't state that in the description and there is no clarification in the SAC or elsewhere. All we know as readers of the rules is that the spell says 30' which is coincidentally the same distance as the unmodified range of the spell. Distant metamagic existed when the spell was written (they are in the same book) so presumably this could have been considered when the spell text was written but they decided to limit the distance to 30' anyway. There is no way we can tell whether that was an oversight or intentional decision since someone decided they didn't want a Mage Hand working from 60' away.
Anyway, the bottom line is that the Rules As Written say that Mage Hand disappears if it is every more than 30' from the caster which makes Distant Metamagic useless for applying to Mage Hand. Personally, I think a 60' mage hand would be fun and something the player would likely enjoy so I would rule that it works but it isn't RAW unfortunately.
P.S. Consider the spell Call Lightning cast with a Distant spell metamagic. Call Lighting has a 120' range summoning a cloud with a 60' radius. The rule specifically states 60' instead of 1/2 the range - very similar to Mage Hand. If Distant was applied to Call Lightning, does it have any effect on the extent of the cloud created? Does it increase the "range" over which the lightning can be called or only the initial placement of the cloud? RAW, Distant would increase the range to 240' but would not change the 60' size of the cloud since it doesn't refer to the range (exactly the same as Mage Hand).
I think few DMs would increase both the distance and area for a Call Lightning spell affected by Distant metamagic - but logically, if it works that way for Mage Hand, then it should work that way for other spells that don't explicitly reference the range in the spell text.
P.P.S. On the other hand, the damage type of a spell is NOT as explicitly defined in the rules as its range. The damage is typically described in the spell text and Transmute allows the caster to change all of one type of damage done by the spell to another type.
"Transmuted Spell
When you cast a spell that deals a type of damage from the following list, you can spend 1 sorcery point to change that damage type to one of the other listed types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder."
As an example, Ice Storm does 2d8 bludgeoning and 4d6 cold, a sorcerer with transmute could spend a sorcery point to change the cold damage to a different damage type.
Basically, Transmute doesn't have the same RAW "issue" as Distant just due to how "range" is defined and used in the rules. Distant could have been written to extend spell effects like the ongoing distance limit to mage hand or probably better, mage hand could have been written to take the possibility of Distant being applied to it into account.
Just to point out that this reading of RAW also makes the extra 30' of range that one gets from the Telekinetic feat useless as well. I am pretty sure that the developers would not include a feature in a feat that cannot possibly be used, so I am left to believe that the 30' specified in the spell description is indeed meant to be the range of the spell and not a fixed value. The wording is poor; perhaps it will be updated in the next edition.
Absolutely agree with you and that is how I'd run it in a game I was DMing. Hopefully, they fix the wording in future editions (though to be honest, the writers may not even know or consider it an issue). The intent is pretty clear, especially with the Telekinetic feat since without increasing the 30' within the text of the spell - that bullet point of the feat is useless.