[RPG] Can an Unseen Servant create a distraction that grants you advantage on attack

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Whether via the Help action or the Use an Object action or just ordinary interaction with an object, can an Unseen Servant distract your enemy so as to grant advantage to your attack on that enemy?

The Help action says:

…you can aid a friendly creature in attacking a creature within 5 feet of you. You feint, distract the target, or in some other way team up to make your ally’s attack more effective. If your ally attacks the target before your next turn, the first attack roll is made with advantage. (emphasis mine)

And the Unseen Servant spell says:

Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object. The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things…

I know that we have an excellent 4e Q&A already on the general topic of Unseen Servant use in combat, that probably applies just as well to 5e, but I think does not address the specific question I have about creating a distraction.

The scenario in question

When a fight broke out in a kitchen, one of my players had his Unseen Servant carry a stack of dishes into close proximity. Then the player said, "The Servant will take the Help action, dropping the dishes to make a distraction."

I said I don't think an Unseen Servant can take the Help action. So the player said "The Servant is still going to shatter those dishes, which by the way are floating in the air right now, which I would think is pretty distracting to begin with."

I ended up ruling that the player would need to Ready his Attack action, then use his Reaction to time the attack with the Unseen Servant's shattering of the dishes; only in this way would the attack come with advantage.

The player begrudgingly accepted this, resenting that I made him delay his Attack until later in the round and use up his Reaction for it.

Did I rule correctly, based on the rules as written?

Best Answer

RAW, I believe that the Unseen Servant cannot take Actions, but can drop plates.

This spell creates an invisible, mindless, shapeless, Medium force that performs simple tasks at your command until the spell ends.

The spell does not say that it's a creature, or other being capable of taking actions. Things do what they say they do; note that the Find Familiar spell says that the summoned thing can take actions.

Your familiar acts independently of you, but it always obeys your commands. In combat, it rolls its own initiative and acts on its own turn. A familiar can't attack, but it can take other actions as normal.

However, the servant is capable of doing simple tasks that a human servant can do:

Once on each of your turns as a bonus action, you can mentally command the servant to move up to 15 feet and interact with an object. The servant can perform simple tasks that a human servant could do, such as fetching things, cleaning, mending, folding clothes, lighting fires, serving food, and pouring wine. Once you give the command, the servant performs the task to the best of its ability until it completes the task, then waits for your next command.

I would argue that dropping dishes is something that servants do, and is essentially instantaneous (no hesitation, because the servant is mindless). This should be able to happen during the bonus action on the player's turn, unless there's a reason otherwise (i.e. the activity takes too long).

Result

Causing a distraction by dropping plates is certainly something that the servant should be able to do on the player's bonus action. However, as the DM you get to decide what happens after that. When I DM, I personally use the Rule of Cool - in this case, I'd probably grant a wisdom save or intelligence check for the creature (at an appropriate DC) on the first set of dishes, and then either ignore future sets, or with advantage. If the player starts running around with stacks of dishes otherwise, remind them that dishes cost gold, and people don't like their dishes being stolen.

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