Can Unseen Servant Reload?

[krackenjack]

What it says.

Working on a ranged character concept. Trying to do the dual hand crossbows (I know...) obviously it's hard to continue firing multiple per round, but it seems that an Unseen servant could reload A while I'm firing B, then switch. So questions:

1. Can US reload? Does that work at all?
2. Do I need to give a command every round, or can I cast once, say "reload my empties after I shoot", and focus on the fight? RAW seems to suggest it would continue until stopped.
3. How many could it reload per round? If I have a high level fighter with Crossbow Expert, could I spend round 1 setting this up and then go in to machine gun mode?
4. If this works, could also apply to other ranged weapons. "Bring back the knives after I throw them..."

Thanks!

[Xihirli]

Essentially you're asking if your Unseen Servant can Ready an Action to reload.

Using the Ready rules, it would only be able to get one. That's really all you need if you're picking the one you use Extra Attack for.

Now technically, the Loading property doesn't state that Loading the crossbow takes an action, it says "Because of the time required to load this weapon, you can fire only one piece of ammunition from it when you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to fire it, regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make."
From this, I'd say the rules specify that it takes too long to reload a crossbow for it to be used more than once a round and that doesn't necessarily change because another pair of hands is doing the reloading.

Of course, it could Ready an action to hand you another crossbow once you use one and drop it. There's no action required to load it, so it could pick up your discarded crossbow as a Free Action and Ready an Action to hand that one to you the next round.

EDIT: Though since you couldn't double up Hand Crossbows without the Crossbow Expert feat I don't see how this would come up after you get Extra Attack.

[Dalebert]

How are you reloading the other one without a hand free? That's the bigger issue. Even crossbow expert doesn't get around that issue.

That aside, I don't see why it needs to ready. The order to reload this crossbow whenever it's fired could happen between your turns. So I'd say yes it could but if this character is going to be all about hand crossbows, the feat is just so good that you should just take it and use the one. If it's all about the fluff, then maybe you can just take the feat and convince the DM to allow one in each hand because cool gangster-style factor.

Keep in mind the servant can only move at 20 ft and can't dash. That's likely going to be an issue at some point. Will your character be the caster of it? If not, then you also have to worry about it going more than 30 ft from the caster to follow you, ending the spell.

[JackPhoenix]

In addition to mobility concerns, the US can only interact with a single object per turn, so it won't help you with two crossbows, and you'll need to give it a new order every turn, using your bonus action, as the servant only completes the task once per order.

[Dalebert]

In addition to mobility concerns, the US can only interact with a single object per turn, so it won't help you with two crossbows, and you'll need to give it a new order every turn, using your bonus action, as the servant only completes the task once per order.

That gets into potentially endless arguments of semantics about whether you can phrase a task in an open-ended manner such that it's never really done and that comes down to how the DM decides to interpret the command on behalf of the spell. "Follow X around and whenever he fires his crossbow, reload it" for instance seems open-ended to me and so I'd have the servant continue doing it until ordered to do something else. Just the "follow someone around" part is open-ended in my interpretation. You're never done following someone "around" IMHO but if that seemed ambiguous, you could say "follow him for an hour and reload his crossbow whenever it's fired" thus making a task that cannot be completed in less than an hour. So you're not wrong with whatever interpretation when you're the DM but he should ask his DM how he interprets the wording of a task.

[JackPhoenix]

That gets into potentially endless arguments of semantics about whether you can phrase a task in an open-ended manner such that it's never really done and that comes down to how the DM decides to interpret the command on behalf of the spell. "Follow X around and whenever he fires his crossbow, reload it" for instance seems open-ended to me and so I'd have the servant continue doing it until ordered to do something else. Just the "follow someone around" part is open-ended in my interpretation. You're never done following someone "around" IMHO but if that seemed ambiguous, you could say "follow him for an hour and reload his crossbow whenever it's fired" thus making a task that cannot be completed in less than an hour. So you're not wrong with whatever interpretation when you're the DM but he should ask his DM how he interprets the wording of a task.

The order isn't really open-ended, the servant would reload the crossbow once it's shot.... once... and wait for more orders.

"Follow X around" isn't a valid order, though. You can order the servant to move up to 15' and interact with object. That's it. Now, if the servant needs to move around as part of the interaction, it seems fine, based on the examples, and reloading a crossbos fits under object interaction (ignoring the logistic issues of loading a crossbow someone else is holding), but following someone doesn't.

The order would be "Move 15' towards X and reload his crossbow once he shoots it", but it would take your BA every single turn.

[Hytheter]

Man, imagine trying to reload a crossbow that somebody else is holding while they are doing other things and can't see you.

Alternately imagine trying to aim a weapon at somebody while an invisible creature messes with something in your other hand.

Can unseen servant reload a crossbow? I don't see why not. Can unseen servant reload a crossbow that you are holding as you try to shoot a different one? Sure, if your intent is to perform a humorous skit, but for actual battle I highly doubt it.

Have you tried just asking your DM for some kind of repeating crossbow? Or hell, since you're taking crossbow expert anyway just refluff it as being two crossbows while mechanically treating it as one.

[Segev]

The Servant acts in your bonus action. Have two crossbows. Fire one, then fire the other. Order the servant to reload one as a bonus action. Reload the other yourself.

This is not as clean as in 3e, where reloading had its own specified action, but there’s no reason this shouldn’t work if you keep in mind what the mechanics are modeling: a servant doing a task for you while you do your own thing. A servant could absolutely keep reloading and handing weapons back to his master who is firing them steadily.

[JackPhoenix]

The Servant acts in your bonus action. Have two crossbows. Fire one, then fire the other. Order the servant to reload one as a bonus action. Reload the other yourself.

This is not as clean as in 3e, where reloading had its own specified action, but there’s no reason this shouldn’t work if you keep in mind what the mechanics are modeling: a servant doing a task for you while you do your own thing. A servant could absolutely keep reloading and handing weapons back to his master who is firing them steadily.

You'll notice you've ran either out of hands (you need a free hand to reload the crossbow, which means you can't hold the other at the same time) or out of free object interactions (you can't both give the crossbow to a servant and take it back, and the servant can't both take the crossbow from you, reload it and hand it back to you in one turn) if you try that.

In fact, purely by RAW, the servant can't actually reload the crossbow, as Ammunition weapon property states "Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack (you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon)."

[sophontteks]

How is the servant taking the crossbow, reloading it, and giving it back in one turn?

[Segev]

You'll notice you've ran either out of hands (you need a free hand to reload the crossbow, which means you can't hold the other at the same time) or out of free object interactions (you can't both give the crossbow to a servant and take it back, and the servant can't both take the crossbow from you, reload it and hand it back to you in one turn) if you try that.

In fact, purely by RAW, the servant can't actually reload the crossbow, as Ammunition weapon property states "Each time you attack with the weapon, you expend one piece of ammunition. Drawing the ammunition from a quiver, case, or other container is part of the attack (you need a free hand to load a one-handed weapon)."

I suppose.

Tell me, leaving the specific game mechanics aside, would you find it ridiculous or impossible for a servant to stand by a gentleman on a hunt who has a single-shot hunting rifle, the servant maintaining one or more spare rifles, and re-loading them while his master keeps up a steady stream of shots?

What if this servant were an invisible, magical one that can do anything a servant can do?

In 3e, the mechanics did work out to permit it by the book. In 5e, it seems they don't, but 5e is deliberately loosey-goosey when it comes to how things can be ruled. Would you find it an unreasonable ruling for a DM in 5e to permit this trick to work? It's pretty clear what this trick is modeling, and I don't think it's an impossible, undesirable thing to have modeled.

[JackPhoenix]

I suppose.

Tell me, leaving the specific game mechanics aside, would you find it ridiculous or impossible for a servant to stand by a gentleman on a hunt who has a single-shot hunting rifle, the servant maintaining one or more spare rifles, and re-loading them while his master keeps up a steady stream of shots?

What if this servant were an invisible, magical one that can do anything a servant can do?

No, and I would allow it to work. However, due to specific game mechanics, you would find that the "steady stream of shots" isn't that fast, and that the human servant would be able to do it better and faster than the magical force. And that if the gentleman had appropriate training, he would actually be able to reload and shoot even faster.

[Rara1212]

If you are taking the feat Crossbow Expert, you can use a single hand crossbow in one hand and the other empty, shoot as many bolts as your attack action allows, then shoot an extra time with your bonus action.

And if the "using two crossbows" is really important to you image, just fluff all of this as using 2 crossbows, even though you only have one. Nothing needs to change mechanically

EDIT:
Even the reloading can be fluffed as the Unseen Servant doing it, without it actually doing anything.