I've been fascinated with the 3rd level spell Tiny Servant. It has a crazy amount of creative potential, and I think that, combined with fabricate, opens doors to creating entire armies of automated equipment.
First of all, the spell lasts for 8 hours. 8 HOURS. 1/3rd of your day can be occupied with just this one spell. And upcasting it by even one level TRIPLES the amount of tiny servants (+2 tiny servants per spell slot upcasted). This makes downtime between combat so much more important to you as a player, as you can weave together a few servants to provide not just combat utility, but resource management, information gathering, mass production etc.
I'd like to create a thread of some of the ideas I've encountered/created during my experience. Hopefully you find it useful and it helps you come up with some ideas of your own, (I'd love to hear them in comments).
Some of the ideas I've had/seen during my research into this spell:
- Tiny Servant a few bells to have them walk through an area, providing distracting noise or blowing the enemies cover.
- Tiny Servant some stone beetle figurines and "bug" an area that you want to actively spy on.
(This is where fabricate comes in very handy during downtime, as you'll have time to create whatever mundane objects or items you might want to animate later)
- Tiny Servant on a toolbelt so that it will always give you the requested item immediately (Similar to a Hewards Handy Haversack).
- Tiny Servant a wire reel with an object attached to it. Super simple retrievable item on a string. (could go fishing with it, among many other things)
- Tiny Servant a Bullseye Lantern and mount it on your character somehow using a harness. Congratulations, you now have an object that will detect anything invisible within 30ft. of you.
This next one is still in design, but I'd love to hear others input on it:
Using a combination of Fabricate, Tiny Servant, and other raw material (Clay, Metal, a Forge, Wood, lots of paper, leather, glue, needle and thread) I think there's a way to create an automated printing press. Basically it would work like this:
Use Tracing paper to trace out spells from your spellbook
Use the Traces to emboss the same text and images into a clay tablet, which you then heat. Congratulations, you now have a hard copy of your spellbook.
You could alternatively use metal forging or wood carving to achieve this, they're all equally valid.
The real payoff is then using all of the hardcopies you have, inking them with the proper inks, and then using them as stamps for a blank spellbook. Voila, you now have mass production of spellbooks. Use Tiny Servants as necessary to speed up the process. (You can also copy other things besides spellbooks but I know those are very valuable and mass production would be a fairly lucrative business)
Let me know what you think of this! And if there's anything that I'm reading incorrectly or fudging the rules on. And if you have more ideas for this "printing press" I'm eager to hear them.
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I am a 22 Year old Human Male / Theatre Kid. My hobbies include DND, MTG, and most things that involve Role Playing / Gaming.
Don't mind the PFP, Kaworu is best boi, that's all there is to it.
It's worth bearing in mind the very limited ability Tiny Servants have when it comes to communication, they have Intelligence 2 which means no reading or writitng and they have no languages so a DM might well say they can understand you/the caster of the spell but they cannot evesdrop on others and rely what they have seen/heard and you cannot share its senses like you can with a familiar.
That said as a clandestine/situational tool of assassination or general mischieve I can see some uses such as light a candle then animate it and tell it to match around the house so it sets fire to the curtains/bedlinens/drapes etc or animate a pair of scissors and have it climb up and cut a rope so a chandelier or catwalk falls on someone or animate a vial of acid and get it to pour itself into a cup.
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* Need a character idea? Search for "Rob76's Unused" in the Story and Lore section.
First time posting, but here goes.
I've been fascinated with the 3rd level spell Tiny Servant. It has a crazy amount of creative potential, and I think that, combined with fabricate, opens doors to creating entire armies of automated equipment.
First of all, the spell lasts for 8 hours. 8 HOURS. 1/3rd of your day can be occupied with just this one spell. And upcasting it by even one level TRIPLES the amount of tiny servants (+2 tiny servants per spell slot upcasted). This makes downtime between combat so much more important to you as a player, as you can weave together a few servants to provide not just combat utility, but resource management, information gathering, mass production etc.
I'd like to create a thread of some of the ideas I've encountered/created during my experience. Hopefully you find it useful and it helps you come up with some ideas of your own, (I'd love to hear them in comments).
Some of the ideas I've had/seen during my research into this spell:
- Tiny Servant a few bells to have them walk through an area, providing distracting noise or blowing the enemies cover.
- Tiny Servant some stone beetle figurines and "bug" an area that you want to actively spy on.
(This is where fabricate comes in very handy during downtime, as you'll have time to create whatever mundane objects or items you might want to animate later)
- Tiny Servant on a toolbelt so that it will always give you the requested item immediately (Similar to a Hewards Handy Haversack).
- Tiny Servant a wire reel with an object attached to it. Super simple retrievable item on a string. (could go fishing with it, among many other things)
- Tiny Servant a Bullseye Lantern and mount it on your character somehow using a harness. Congratulations, you now have an object that will detect anything invisible within 30ft. of you.
This next one is still in design, but I'd love to hear others input on it:
Using a combination of Fabricate, Tiny Servant, and other raw material (Clay, Metal, a Forge, Wood, lots of paper, leather, glue, needle and thread) I think there's a way to create an automated printing press. Basically it would work like this:
Use Tracing paper to trace out spells from your spellbook
Use the Traces to emboss the same text and images into a clay tablet, which you then heat. Congratulations, you now have a hard copy of your spellbook.
You could alternatively use metal forging or wood carving to achieve this, they're all equally valid.
The real payoff is then using all of the hardcopies you have, inking them with the proper inks, and then using them as stamps for a blank spellbook. Voila, you now have mass production of spellbooks. Use Tiny Servants as necessary to speed up the process. (You can also copy other things besides spellbooks but I know those are very valuable and mass production would be a fairly lucrative business)
Let me know what you think of this! And if there's anything that I'm reading incorrectly or fudging the rules on. And if you have more ideas for this "printing press" I'm eager to hear them.
I am a 22 Year old Human Male / Theatre Kid. My hobbies include DND, MTG, and most things that involve Role Playing / Gaming.
Don't mind the PFP, Kaworu is best boi, that's all there is to it.
This is super helpful! Thank you.
It's worth bearing in mind the very limited ability Tiny Servants have when it comes to communication, they have Intelligence 2 which means no reading or writitng and they have no languages so a DM might well say they can understand you/the caster of the spell but they cannot evesdrop on others and rely what they have seen/heard and you cannot share its senses like you can with a familiar.
That said as a clandestine/situational tool of assassination or general mischieve I can see some uses such as light a candle then animate it and tell it to match around the house so it sets fire to the curtains/bedlinens/drapes etc or animate a pair of scissors and have it climb up and cut a rope so a chandelier or catwalk falls on someone or animate a vial of acid and get it to pour itself into a cup.