So I've been thinking about using an Unseen Servant during a battle, where the boss uses the servant to pull levers, triggering traps to hurt the players. The thing I'm getting caught up on is how to handle the players trying to attack the servant. Is it as simple as trying to attack an invisible foe, so the attacker gets disadvantage?
My thinking is that since the servant is not a creature or object, but rather a blob of force ("Use the force, Luke. Use the force"), it doesn't walk or leave an odor. Hence, it can't be heard or smelt. Hence, it can't be tracked as the servant moves (in my case, none of my players have any spell that will allow them to see something invisible). So my thinking is that it's not as simple as "you can't see it, but you know it's there, so you target it with disadvantage". My proposal would be:
As the servant moves, it doesn't have to take the Hide action, it simply can't be tracked (again, no sound, no sight, no smell).
A player who wants to attack it, will have to tell me what spot (5' square) they think the servant is at.
The player basically makes an attack on the spot they choose with disadvantage.
I only tell them if they hit the servant, no details on if they simply missed or if the servant was someplace else.
So does this sound fair and within the spirit of the RAW?
Well, it can't hide, it can only interact with objects, so there is that.
The servant isn't described as hovering, so it probably leaves tracks of some kind, though may be mostly silent as it does so. I imagine it has a gentle wind like effect as it moves.
Other than that, I agree with everything you laid out. If your players are really struggling with it, remind them of the ready action and don't try to be sneaky with the space it is in. As far as I can tell, this is a combat puzzle and ready is the correct answer.
You just have to be careful with the ready action, it requires a perceivable trigger, which would be hard to have if the unseen servant is as invisible as the way you make it...
The servant is invisible. The objects it interacts with are not. If every turn or 2 a lever is flipped, that is something that can be reacted to, attacking in the general direction of the lever.
Like I said, i would set this up like a puzzle. Tell the players there are levers around the room as part of the description. Narrate the sound of the levers being thrown when trapped activate. If they take the search action, I would include the dust swirl from the servant moving here (if they roll decently depending on difficulty I want). I'd also arrange switch locations so there are only 1-3 spots the servant could stand to interact with it.
I did not say that it would be impossible, just that if you make the servant completely invisible and untrackable, your occasions to use a perceivable trigger on it are going to be fairly limited. And it requires you to ready about the right trigger, not just any disturbance in a room.
I don't know what you mean by "right trigger". "Any disturbance in the room" is a perceivable occurrence that the ready action could use as a trigger. Not a great one though, I was thinking "if I hear a lever being thrown I'm going to shoot at the space next to that lever."
Some great points here, and I think your idea of setting a DC to detect depending on the environment is spot on. The battle map will be a mix of clean dungeon floor and natural surface. So if the servant is moving over floor, a DC 18 should be fair, and if it's going over the natural surface, maybe a DC 14. So if a player wants to take a Search action to find the servant and call it out to the other party members, I'll let them do a Perception check. Otherwise, they'll have to rely on their Passive Perception to see it. In my case, one of my players has a Passive Perception of 16 (you guessed it, he's a Ranger), so I can always move the servant over the natural ground to give the players a chance if the battle becomes too lopsided against them.
Thanks!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello Community!
So I've been thinking about using an Unseen Servant during a battle, where the boss uses the servant to pull levers, triggering traps to hurt the players. The thing I'm getting caught up on is how to handle the players trying to attack the servant. Is it as simple as trying to attack an invisible foe, so the attacker gets disadvantage?
My thinking is that since the servant is not a creature or object, but rather a blob of force ("Use the force, Luke. Use the force"), it doesn't walk or leave an odor. Hence, it can't be heard or smelt. Hence, it can't be tracked as the servant moves (in my case, none of my players have any spell that will allow them to see something invisible). So my thinking is that it's not as simple as "you can't see it, but you know it's there, so you target it with disadvantage". My proposal would be:
So does this sound fair and within the spirit of the RAW?
Thanks for your input!
Well, it can't hide, it can only interact with objects, so there is that.
The servant isn't described as hovering, so it probably leaves tracks of some kind, though may be mostly silent as it does so. I imagine it has a gentle wind like effect as it moves.
Other than that, I agree with everything you laid out. If your players are really struggling with it, remind them of the ready action and don't try to be sneaky with the space it is in. As far as I can tell, this is a combat puzzle and ready is the correct answer.
The servant is invisible. The objects it interacts with are not. If every turn or 2 a lever is flipped, that is something that can be reacted to, attacking in the general direction of the lever.
Like I said, i would set this up like a puzzle. Tell the players there are levers around the room as part of the description. Narrate the sound of the levers being thrown when trapped activate. If they take the search action, I would include the dust swirl from the servant moving here (if they roll decently depending on difficulty I want). I'd also arrange switch locations so there are only 1-3 spots the servant could stand to interact with it.
That kind of thing.
I don't know what you mean by "right trigger". "Any disturbance in the room" is a perceivable occurrence that the ready action could use as a trigger. Not a great one though, I was thinking "if I hear a lever being thrown I'm going to shoot at the space next to that lever."
Hi Lyxen -
Some great points here, and I think your idea of setting a DC to detect depending on the environment is spot on. The battle map will be a mix of clean dungeon floor and natural surface. So if the servant is moving over floor, a DC 18 should be fair, and if it's going over the natural surface, maybe a DC 14. So if a player wants to take a Search action to find the servant and call it out to the other party members, I'll let them do a Perception check. Otherwise, they'll have to rely on their Passive Perception to see it. In my case, one of my players has a Passive Perception of 16 (you guessed it, he's a Ranger), so I can always move the servant over the natural ground to give the players a chance if the battle becomes too lopsided against them.
Thanks!