One of my players wants to use his mage hand trick to use his sword to make melee basic attacks from afar, or be able to hold his sword and shield while his mage hand uses his implement (wand).
Is that actually possible?
I ruled it out but he won't let it go.
Best Answer
No, that is not possible.
The Mage Hand power says only that the hand can pick up, move, and manipulate objects. Nothing in the power says it can be used to wield weapons/shields/implements or make attacks. Therefore it cannot be used to wield weapons/shields/implements or make attacks. To contrast, note the way that the Dancing Weapon magic weapon enchantment explicitly allows characters to attack with the weapon as if they were wielding it.
To look at it another way, the hand is only strong enough to pick up objects weighing 20 pounds or less. That's simply not strong enough to hit something and inflict damage, or to block an attack with a shield. Also, the hand can only move when the wizard explicitly uses an action to move it, which will make it hard for the hand to keep a shield in the correct place to block attacks.