Magic Hand clarification

Daggerheart Nexus & Character Tools
1

Yup, another day, another curiosity/clarification that I’d like to inquire about!

Magic Hand: You can reach out with a magical hand the same size and strength as your own to anywhere within far range of you.

The SIZE part I get. But what does “SAME STRENGTH” mean, exactly?

If my PC has a STR Trait of +1, does that mean they can only lift 1lb objects or creatures? How does the STR Trait influence this spell?

I know that in D&D, Mage Hand has a 5 lb. limitation put upon it, but I’m not sure what that means here.

In Vox Machina, Scanlon is able to carry both himself and Grog on his Bigby’s Hand (although I think that was a one-time use per long rest, whereas this is a repeatable spell).

I would think that most adventuring PC’s would be able to lift themselves at STR +0 (but not at STR -1), which would mean I should judge this ability based on my PC’s weight instead, right?

If so, I will need to do a deep dive into the average weight per species to get a sensible association - else there will be 600 lb. Halflings running around the world!

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First off, this is spell is not a parallel for Scanlan’s Hand, as seen in Legend of Vox Machina. That spell is based on the D&D spell Bigby’s Hand, which is a giant, heavy duty thing. Magic Hand in Daggerheart is more of a parallel to the D&D Cantrip Mage Hand, which is a small magical hand which is more to do with reaching things at a distance or sleight of hand trickery.

“Same strength” refers to guidelines for gauging the lifting capacity of the hand. If it’s something that is easily picked up by anyone, your Magic Hand can lift it. If nobody could lift the object, Mage Hand cannot. If it’s an object that would be a challenge to lift, the GM might make you roll a check to see if you succeed in lifting it. Since the Magic Hand shares your Strength modifier, you can use Strength for the roll.

I would say lifting a small character up with a single hand might be a challenge for an average character, and would require a roll.

If you’re looking for direct mathematical rulings for how much weight in units can be lifted per point of your Strength modifier, I’m afraid that isn’t the way Daggerheart is presented by the game designers. It’s more based in improve, collaborative story telling, compromise, balancing rule-of-cool with suspension-of-disbelief, and a more abstract approach to applying rulings.

Ultimately, the rulings are based on if everyone is happy with them being applied and how it effects the story. If YOU think the Magic Hand should be able to lift characters, because you want to do X, Y, and Z with it, that should be how you approach convincing your fellow players and GM to allow it, rather than trying to break things down into numbers and precise equivalents. If the GM has trouble accepting this as a precident, you could offer compromises, like taking stress or giving the GM a fear.

This is just my interpretation of course, but I hope it helps, even if it only provides you a view point you don’t agree with and can then dismiss, helping you narrow down a solid POV you align with :slight_smile:

3

Thanks. That gives me a lot to think about. I am not looking to scam the system here, just wanting to know where the line-in-the-sand is and how close i want to approach it (without stepping over).

I like your “is easily picked up by anyone” approach, and then modify if a player has a higher or lower STR trait initially - and then, naturally, roll for success of the attempt if things get “colorful”. :slight_smile:

I’m more so looking for the hand to push any big red button that I see… or Austin Powers judo-chop an unsuspecting fairy (those nasty evil fluttering things)…

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Interesting, I hadn’t considered it, but there’s nothing that outright states you couldn’t attack with the hand. If you have a Strength-based 1H melee weapon, the hand could presumably hold it and attack with it, giving you a far range with said weapon…

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It would only do 1d4 PDMG (or perhaps MDMG because it’s a spell?), but it could be useful in some situations.

My comment was more in jest because I hate those flying insects, and I’d like to backhand them whenever they’re around - but still… :stuck_out_tongue: :slight_smile: :smiley:

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