Strangely, while you can use the hand to open an unlocked container or door, RAW you can’t use it to close the same container or door unless that falls under “manipulate an object,” but if that were the case then why bother calling out that it can open things? Also, a weird piece of flavor comes from this Crawford tweet where we learn that the hand the spell creates is intended to mirror the caster’s, so it can fit into places the caster’s hand could.
I’m not sure why you would, but I saw someone brag about doing so on Reddit. This means you can’t use the Twinned spell metamagic on it. One important note is that, as mentioned above, it doesn’t have a target.
Subtle spell is especially good if you aren’t yet Telekinetic but want to pretend you are for a moment, but Distant spell is good too. Because it’s a spell, you can modify it with Sorcerer metamagic. Probably have that discussion with your DM before trying this. Squeezing something’s esophagus shut with 10 pounds of pressure is probably lethal for anything that needs to breathe. This means you’re not going to be able to use it on the other side of a window, you can’t use it if you can’t see the location where you’re trying to get it to appear (for any reason including you being blind or your target location being in an area of magical darkness, etc).Īs written, though, since the spell technically doesn’t have a target and isn’t an Area of Effect, you could simply make it appear anywhere within 30 feet of you including inside objects. Prior to the existence of the Telekinetic feat, if you hadn’t read Arcane Trickster, an easy assumption to make was that “spectral” meant invisible, even though it doesn’t.Īlso, since it is a spell, by definition it requires that you have both line of sight and line of effect if you assume that your “target” is the location where the hand appears (not that 5e uses the term “line of effect” but we talked about it in the spell components episode). It’s not concentration, so you can run other things at the same time. There are some important things to think about here. The hand can’t attack, activate magic items, or carry more than 10 pounds. You can move the hand up to 30 feet each time you use it. You can use the hand to manipulate an object, open an unlocked door or container, stow or retrieve an item from an open container, or pour the contents out of a vial. You can use your action to control the hand. The hand vanishes if it is ever more than 30 feet away from you or if you cast this spell again.
The hand lasts for the duration or until you dismiss it as an action. But Random, what if my Mage Hand is invisible?īecause I can, and thanks to the magic of the SRD, I will reproduce the text of Mage Hand here.Ī spectral, floating hand appears at a point you choose within range.With that in mind, I thought it would be great to take a moment and talk about all of the great things this cantrip can do. This is due in large part to my extreme focus on optimizing bonus action economy, but, if you did actually read that armorer handbook, you know that I also think the modifications it makes to Mage Hand are super neat. If you’ve read several of my subclass handbooks or listened to the RPGBOT.oneshot where Tyler and I saved Yuletide, you know that I am an enormous fan of the Telekinetic feat.