mud buddy vs unseen servant

[Shinoskay]

Is Mud Buddy strictly better? or what benefits do Unseen servant have over mud buddy (besides being invisible, of course)?

[Rebel7284]

- Only available in pathfinder, while unseen servant is also available in 3.5
- Invisibility is a huge deal as you point out. Makes it harder to target and can be used for shenanigans/bluffing
- In certain environments, it can be difficult to find 5 cubic feet of earth/mud
- I imagine that there are cases where walking on water can be better than swimming as you can manipulate objects higher up

In general, it looks like Mud Buddy was designed to be a slightly more powerful version of Unseen Servant (with a combat application!), but the spells are just different enough that sometimes Unseen Servant will certainly be better!