conjured help

[da newt]

Can conjured animals take the HELP action? If so, does it make any sense to summon 8 giant owls (flyby) and task them to do nothing but provide ADV to everyone's attacks rather than go with the more common 8 wolves who gang up and attack - or is that super inefficient?

[CheddarChampion]

They certainly can use the help action. They "Obey any verbal commands" you give them and "Create openings for my allies to attack" is a verbal command.

[JackPhoenix]

Help is a generic action that can be used by anyone and anything, assuming there are no restrictions (which apply to ability checks rather than attacks, you need to be able to make the ability checks on your own to Help someone with them). However, remember that the summoned creatures are still limited by their mental abilities. Giant Owls are smart enough to have their own language, though, so that shouldn't be a problem.

How efficient it is depends on how the rest of the party can use the advantage and they relative positions in the initiative order: Help only gives advantage on the next attack, so you would need some owls to stick around with readied actions if you want to give advantage on every attack from someone with Extra Attack, for example.