Arcane tricksters have a feature at 13th level that lets them use their mage hand to get advantage. But shouldn't they have been able to do that all along? Mage hands can drop a sheet over someones head, or unbuckle their belt, or tie their shoelaces together. All of these things are possible at 3rd level, so what extra ability are you gaining at 13th?
Just from reading the feature, my initial impression is that prior to 13th level, Mage Hand doesn't reliably grant advantage to attacks. You might attempt to untie laces or unbuckle a belt but the impact of your action on the world isn't guaranteed. I would expect most DMs to guarantee advantage once you reach 13th level.
I imagine that I might, situationally and occasionally grant advantage if someone was very clever with their mage hand usage, but if they expected regular advantage they'd quickly find their opponents don't care too much about buckles and sheets and that it couldn't reliably impact the outcome of combat.
Arcane tricksters have a feature at 13th level that lets them use their mage hand to get advantage. But shouldn't they have been able to do that all along? Mage hands can drop a sheet over someones head, or unbuckle their belt, or tie their shoelaces together. All of these things are possible at 3rd level, so what extra ability are you gaining at 13th?
From the Spellbook:
You can use your action to control the hand.
At level 3, you are unlikely to have Mage Hand and be taking 2 actions in a turn that often - which would be needed to give yourself advantage. The rebuttal might be 'but i could use my action to have the hand do something that would not come into effect until my second turn' - your DM would have to rule on whether he is happy for that to happen, given that whilst you know that you will do something else in exactly 6 seconds, your character does not have that information with which to make a calculated time-based move like that in the middle of combat. With Arcane Tricksters L13 ability, you can reliably give advantage to yourself without costing an additional action to do so, requiring only that you have the spell active prior to doing so.
At level 3, you are unlikely to have Mage Hand and be taking 2 actions in a turn that often - which would be needed to give yourself advantage. The rebuttal might be 'but i could use my action to have the hand do something that would not come into effect until my second turn' - your DM would have to rule on whether he is happy for that to happen, given that whilst you know that you will do something else in exactly 6 seconds, your character does not have that information with which to make a calculated time-based move like that in the middle of combat. With Arcane Tricksters L13 ability, you can reliably give advantage to yourself without costing an additional action to do so, requiring only that you have the spell active prior to doing so.
At level 3, Arcane Tricksters get Mage Hand Legerdemain which says "In addition, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to control the hand."
Mage Hand in and of its own doesn't provide advantage, however when using it in the right way (as you state by dropping a sheet on the foe's head). That requires the actual presence of a sheet or other way to distract your foes. With the lvl 13 feature, you don't even need that. You can direct the hand to say, tap their shoulder or tug on their hair or something. That's the big difference.
Mage hands can drop a sheet over someones head, or unbuckle their belt, or tie their shoelaces together. All of these things are possible at 3rd level, so what extra ability are you gaining at 13th?
An enemy in combat won't have their shoes anywhere close to each other and isn't going to just watch while you slowly move a sheet over their head. If they can dodge your knife when you swing it with force, they can certainly avoid a sheet.
You might be able to get away with those things on an enemy that's not aware of you yet.
At level 3, you are unlikely to have Mage Hand and be taking 2 actions in a turn that often - which would be needed to give yourself advantage. The rebuttal might be 'but i could use my action to have the hand do something that would not come into effect until my second turn' - your DM would have to rule on whether he is happy for that to happen, given that whilst you know that you will do something else in exactly 6 seconds, your character does not have that information with which to make a calculated time-based move like that in the middle of combat. With Arcane Tricksters L13 ability, you can reliably give advantage to yourself without costing an additional action to do so, requiring only that you have the spell active prior to doing so.
At level 3, Arcane Tricksters get Mage Hand Legerdemain which says "In addition, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to control the hand."
Ah overlooked, was approaching Mage Hand from a wizard POV. Remainder of the point stands - DM would have to rule that the mage hand could perform the action in the brief window of 'real time' that is your turn. Remembering that an entire round of combat is ~6 seconds, you're unlikely to have something conveniently close by that the hand can go out, grab, return, and use in that time frame - perhaps a turn to setup and a turn to execute, and at the discretion of your DM.
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Arcane tricksters have a feature at 13th level that lets them use their mage hand to get advantage. But shouldn't they have been able to do that all along? Mage hands can drop a sheet over someones head, or unbuckle their belt, or tie their shoelaces together. All of these things are possible at 3rd level, so what extra ability are you gaining at 13th?
Just from reading the feature, my initial impression is that prior to 13th level, Mage Hand doesn't reliably grant advantage to attacks. You might attempt to untie laces or unbuckle a belt but the impact of your action on the world isn't guaranteed. I would expect most DMs to guarantee advantage once you reach 13th level.
I imagine that I might, situationally and occasionally grant advantage if someone was very clever with their mage hand usage, but if they expected regular advantage they'd quickly find their opponents don't care too much about buckles and sheets and that it couldn't reliably impact the outcome of combat.
From the Spellbook:
At level 3, you are unlikely to have Mage Hand and be taking 2 actions in a turn that often - which would be needed to give yourself advantage. The rebuttal might be 'but i could use my action to have the hand do something that would not come into effect until my second turn' - your DM would have to rule on whether he is happy for that to happen, given that whilst you know that you will do something else in exactly 6 seconds, your character does not have that information with which to make a calculated time-based move like that in the middle of combat. With Arcane Tricksters L13 ability, you can reliably give advantage to yourself without costing an additional action to do so, requiring only that you have the spell active prior to doing so.
At level 3, Arcane Tricksters get Mage Hand Legerdemain which says "In addition, you can use the bonus action granted by your Cunning Action to control the hand."
Mage Hand in and of its own doesn't provide advantage, however when using it in the right way (as you state by dropping a sheet on the foe's head). That requires the actual presence of a sheet or other way to distract your foes. With the lvl 13 feature, you don't even need that. You can direct the hand to say, tap their shoulder or tug on their hair or something. That's the big difference.
Hope that helps :)
Subclass: Dwarven Defender - Dragonborn Paragon
Feats: Artificer Apprentice
Monsters: Sheep - Spellbreaker Warforged Titan
Magic Items: Whipier - Ring of Secret Storage - Collar of the Guardian
Monster template: Skeletal Creature
An enemy in combat won't have their shoes anywhere close to each other and isn't going to just watch while you slowly move a sheet over their head. If they can dodge your knife when you swing it with force, they can certainly avoid a sheet.
You might be able to get away with those things on an enemy that's not aware of you yet.
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Ah overlooked, was approaching Mage Hand from a wizard POV. Remainder of the point stands - DM would have to rule that the mage hand could perform the action in the brief window of 'real time' that is your turn. Remembering that an entire round of combat is ~6 seconds, you're unlikely to have something conveniently close by that the hand can go out, grab, return, and use in that time frame - perhaps a turn to setup and a turn to execute, and at the discretion of your DM.