Mage hand and cover.

[Aussiehams]

G'day all.

Is their anything in RAW that dis/allows mage hand carrying something less than 10 pounds in front of the caster to provide some cover?
I'm thinking a shield, bushy branch, sheet on a stick etc.

[greenstone]

I don't think anything 10lb or less provides any useful cover. What particular item were you thinking of?

[Aussiehams]

Nothing in particular, it was just a random thought. A black sheet with some bamboo to hold it spread out may be under 10 lbs, and block line of sight.

[etrpgb]

The main problem I see with this is that you need to use your action (bonus action if arcane trickster) to move the hand, so it is very expensive in terms of action economy.

About RAW it is unclear, the examples in the cover section are about quite tough objects like a tree, not just a large random sheet of paper. However, it can work fine for being considered an unseen attacker.

[Aussiehams]

You don't really need to move it though. Set it up, then pop in and out of cover to attack. It won't stop anything going through, but should make you unseen.
I doubt it would be worth it as it's easy to get around, but I was wondering if it's allowed by RAW.

[MoiMagnus]

I don't think anything 10lb or less provides any useful cover. What particular item were you thinking of?

A shield? The 5e shield weight is 6lbs, which is essentially the same weight of a 4ft x 2ft kite shield, so far enough to make a good cover.
10lbs is far enough to have a reasonable cover made in wood.

From a realism point of view, the main problem is that the mage hand doesn't have enough strength to keep the shield in place against any reasonable force (and the object is not fixed to the ground). It would probably get forcefully rotated and/or pushed by an arrow, so unpractical against a sequence of attacks. And don't even think about blocking melee attacks.

[sayaijin]

Not sure if this is off topic, but you could accomplish nearly the same thing with mould earth. Use action to make a column of dirt to take cover behind.

[Joe the Rat]

for ranged attacks, I'd treat the floating (hard) cover like a shield as 1/2 concealment - basically treating it as an interposing creature.

Since it is static unless you use your action, side-stepping will keep it from being total cover.


If you go for the "bedsheet on a quarterstaff" concealment, then they've got disadvantage until they sidestep enough to see part of you. as a DM


Mold Earth is going to be most effective - use it to make a foxhole, pop-shoot-duck and force them to use prepped actions to target you (with at least half cover due to you being semisubmerged). I would NOT recommend this strategy with enemy casters or AOE belching monsters.

[da newt]

WRT mold earth - the cantrip can create a 5'*5'*5' hole and a same size pile of dirt (I like to think of it as the minecraft cantrip). By RAW the pile of dirt or the hole will provide total cover for a MED or smaller creature (who inhabits a 5x5x5' area), but your DM may decide to rule differently. Of course you always have the option to drop prone too. The only downside is that you need to be somewhere with a dirt floor, and it will burn an action.

[Segev]

Shape water can make water opaque and hold a form. Takes two castings for both, though. How thinly can you spread a waterskin's worth of water?