Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Githyanki Mage Hand should be removed or fixed

Githyanki Mage Hand can be cast in battle and shove enemies more times than allowable. Even when the percent of shoving reduces down to 0% because an enemy is already knocked down, it can still push them off.

I think Githyanki mage hand should either be removed or when shove action is taken, the hand becomes visible and queues into battle.

Mage hand should not be able to shove, period.
It's a utility cantrip that can be used to pull otherwise inaccessible lever, or pick remote key.
For combat application there is actual Telekinesis spell.

I agree with you entirely on this point. I don't recall reading mage hand being able to do this in the rule book. I don't know if this is an original Larian thing or a real mistake

I think this is general critique about the Mage Hand spell, which is accessible to most spellcasters.

I agree that Mage Hand is more of a combat ability at this point, rather than a utility spell. The PHB specifically states: "The hand can't attack, activate magic items, or carry more than 10 pounds."
Personally, I don't mind it too much and Larian basically is making its own 'homebrew' version of D&D 5e. But I wish there was more utility for the Mage Hand, which is easier to do in a live D&D game than programming all possible wacky ideas into a single cantrip. So I do understand their direction.

This is a perfect example as to why randomly powering up cantrips doesn't work.

In PnP Mage Hand is almost entirely a utility cantrip for carrying small items, opening doors etc. It can't move anything of more than 10lb weight and doesn't have many combat applications (you can use your action to have the hand move 30 feet and open a flask of alchemists fire for example) unless you are an Arcane Trickster Rogue and even then only in certain circumstances (AT Rogues can use it as an ally for advantage purposes or have it steal or plant an item in an opponent's pocket using slight of hand).

By giving Mage Hand the additional capability to shove (and implication massively stepping up it's weight limit on interactions) it has been boosted quite a lot and in fact steps on the toes of a number of other spells (e.g. Gust of Wind and Thunderwave), but most egregiously it entirely co-opts one of the main elements of Bigby's Hand. Bigby's Hand is a 5th level spell that creates a large phantasmal hand that you can manipulate allowing you to use oen of 4 different bonus actions on your turn while it persists. One of these is Bigby's Forceful Hand, which moves a creature within 5 feet of the hand in a direction you choose (distance moved is 5 + (5 x Spell Mod) feet). It seems insane to me that a cantrip can reliably mimic even a quarter of a 5th level spell and is one of the reasons I am extremely leery of all of the changes to cantrips that Larian have made.

For the Githyanki version, this is entirely RAW as the Gith get a bunch of 'psionic' powers as a part of their racial abilities, it is supposed to be invisible because it isn't actually a hand but a type of telekinetic manipulation. Basically if Mage Hand did what it was made to do then it wouldn't be an issue but because it has been buffed and because they have implemented the fluff surrounding the Githyanki version of Mage Hand as written it overall makes it far too powerful.

That said, as you can tell from above I am generally of the opinion that most of the buffs to the cantrips need to be retconned as they make them far too powerful, in many cases mimicking or overwriting elements of far more powerful spells, I mean why cast Fireball and expend a 3rd level slot if in most cases Firebolt + environmental patches does the exact same job without the sunk cost of a spell slot.

Agree wholeheartedly. The way Larian have modified cantrips to make 5e feel like DoS really breaks the balance of 5e. Same with almost all of their other changes and deviations from 5e. They've really disrupted the decades of balance that's gone into making D&D classes, skills, and spells balanced. So many higher level spells, unique skills and feats, etcetera, are now mundane, obsolete, and even unfavorable because of these changes.

Agreed, obviously... I really don't get why Larian was so adamant to "upgrade" cantrips to make them more exciting, or something. In 5e, they mostly are intended to be the basic attcks of casters, plus a bit of utility other classes get from their respective abilities and skills. I mean, they didn't go and make bows and swords "more interesting", did they? Rogues don't get the innate ability to throw alchemist's fire, they throw knives or shoot bows... why do mages shoot their basic ranged attacks with an "added effect"? Doesn't make sense...

As others have said. Mage hand shouldnt be able to shovd

I must be in the minority - I don't think I have ever used any of the Cantrips?