Unseen servant and goodberries

[diplomancer]

Assuming that you, as a DM, would allow someone to feed a goodberry to someone at 0 HPs, would you allow an unseen servant to do it?

If yes, would you be ok with the instruction, given as a Bonus Action at the beginning of combat "give this to any of my fallen comrades". Sounds in-line with the general "they can do what a human servant could" line of the spell, but also looks like cheese.

What do you say?

Post inspired by Treatmonk's video analysis of 1st level spells.

[Man_Over_Game]

Considering very few people would prepare both Goodberries and Unseen Servant for a major combat, and the fact that Healing Word is a Bonus Action, I don't really see many balance concerns with doing this.

I guess it could be a concern if one person had Goodberries and another was using Unseen Servant (as that would mean that the weight of doing so was divided amongst two characters and is a lot more bearable). The other concern is that you're basically making Regeneration redundant. You have to decide if it's alright if two level 1 spells should be allowed to almost duplicate the effects of a level 7 spell.

[diplomancer]

Healing word is one slot to get one person back on their feet. This exploit lets you get 10 people back on their feet, at the cost of one slot (since Unseen Servant is a ritual).

Main balancing factor is the very slow speed of an unseen servant... which makes me wonder... can you put an unseen servant on top of your steed from Find Greater steed... but now we are talking about a 10th level bard...

[Zhorn]

I've been allowing my party's druid to feed goodberries to players at 0 hp, but it is a medicine check to do so (DC 13) to not choke the unconscious player and it takes at least 1 minute to do so. Let's them have a cheap player reviver, but makes it discouraged during combat initiative.

With that in mind, yes I would allow an unseen servant to do that under the same conditions. Combat rarely goes for 10 rounds, so it's unlikely to upset anything at my table.

[Man_Over_Game]

Healing word is one slot to get one person back on their feet. This exploit lets you get 10 people back on their feet, at the cost of one slot (since Unseen Servant is a ritual).

Main balancing factor is the very slow speed of an unseen servant... which makes me wonder... can you put an unseen servant on top of your steed from Find Greater steed... but now we are talking about a 10th level bard...

What are your chances of being able to cast it as a Ritual (10 minutes) and then having combat in the hour that you have it?

[diplomancer]

If you cast it regularly once it expires, 5 times out of 6, more if you are not ambushed.

Actually, if you are not concentrating on a spell during exploration, even more, since nothing stops you from start casting it as a ritual once 50 minutes pass by)

[JackPhoenix]

What are your chances of being able to cast it as a Ritual (10 minutes) and then having combat in the hour that you have it?

Pretty good, if you keep recasting it all day.

However, US will perform the action once, if possible, and then returns for more instructions. If there are no fallen comrades at the moment you give the order, it will do nothing.

[MaxWilson]

Assuming that you, as a DM, would allow someone to feed a goodberry to someone at 0 HPs, would you allow an unseen servant to do it?

If yes, would you be ok with the instruction, given as a Bonus Action at the beginning of combat "give this to any of my fallen comrades". Sounds in-line with the general "they can do what a human servant could" line of the spell, but also looks like cheese.

What do you say?

Post inspired by Treatmonk's video analysis of 1st level spells.

I would be okay with an Unseen Servant doing whatever a human servant could do, but consuming a Goodberry requires an action from the creature being healed, so servants/familiars/friends/etc. can't feed you Goodberries in a way that lets you benefit from it. It's not entirely clear from the spell text why consuming a Goodberry requires a full action instead of an object interaction (maybe you have to chew it thirty times before swallowing?) but the answer is: for me, the initial assumption does not hold.

[diplomancer]

I would be okay with an Unseen Servant doing whatever a human servant could do, but consuming a Goodberry requires an action from the creature being healed, so servants/familiars/friends/etc. can't feed you Goodberries in a way that lets you benefit from it. It's not entirely clear from the spell text why consuming a Goodberry requires a full action instead of an object interaction (maybe you have to chew it thirty times before swallowing?) but the answer is: for me, the initial assumption does not hold.

Yes, it is the greatest hurdle... but you can administer a potion to a fallen ally, it could be argued that goodberry would work similarly. If you disagree, would you allow the unseen servant (or the familiar) to administer a healing potion? I would say giving a healing potion to a fallen ally falls within "simple task that a human servant could do"

You can even make an unconscious person chew -though that would be beyond an Unseen Servant or Familiar's capabilities, I guess.

[MaxWilson]

Yes, it is the greatest hurdle... but you can administer a potion to a fallen ally, it could be argued that goodberry would work similarly. If you disagree, would you allow the unseen servant (or the familiar) to administer a healing potion? I would say giving a healing potion to a fallen ally falls within "simple task that a human servant could do"

You can even make an unconscious person chew -though that would be beyond an Unseen Servant or Familiar's capabilities, I guess.

In general, forcing fluids or solids down the throat of an unconscious person is a good way to kill them, but I'd allow a healing potion only because the DMG explicitly says you can (IIRC). Why can't you drink a potion with just an object interaction? Well, I infer that there's something you need to do before drinking the potion which can nevertheless be done by someone else (uncork it, shake it, blow on it?) and then I guess it works as soon as it touches their lips or something. Goodberry on the other hand doesn't explicitly allow this, so I'd default to just following both RAW and medical good sense and saying that no, consuming a Goodberry is something you need to do for yourself. They can put the berry in your mouth but it doesn't do anything unless you actively consume it as your action.

Therefore, I would let an Unseen Servant administer a potion, but not a Goodberry.

[Man_Over_Game]

Plot twist: Characters don't "drink" the potions. They're administered to the lungs and you "breathe" them. The potion inherently repairs any damage this causes to your lungs (it's a healing potion, duh), but it does leave adventurers emotionally scarred from using them regularly.

[Rukelnikov]

My DM has allowed my Imp and US to administer potions to fallen companions. Imps and sprites are smarter than the average human, and any henchman can do it. So the only argument against it would be the lack of strength necessary to uncork the vial, which while plausible I find iffy, would a Str 3 halfling be likewise unable to do it?

For regular familiars, lack of hands can be a problem though.

[Galithar]

Plot twist: Characters don't "drink" the potions. They're administered to the lungs and you "breathe" them. The potion inherently repairs any damage this causes to your lungs (it's a healing potion, duh), but it does leave adventurers emotionally scarred from using them regularly.

This description of the use of potions is more cannon in all of my campaigns.