Baldur's Gate 3

It can't carry, but it can throw stuff from the ground. Came useful in one side quest.

Other than that, used it few times to pull a lever or such. Nothing terribly handy (sorry, not sorry)

Mage hand is the kind of spell that is incredibly useful and dynamic in actual ttrpgs, and incredibly difficult to design around in a video game.

A GM is going to consider the distance and weight limits of the spell, and determine of it makes sense of not. If you stole The One Ring from Frodo, for example, the GM can pivot and make the world react to that.

The video game has to program all possible uses of the spell while also trying to keep a prewritten story on track. If you steal The One Ring from frodo, the game would have to reinvent the plot dynamically, which isn't really possible. The end result is that they have to severely limit the uses of Mage Hand.

Because Mage Hand is so potentially chaotic, it can't be as useful as it would seem. The same would go for the spells Fly and Invisibility. Imagine the Black Gate of Mordor. If there was a level 6 wizard, they could use fly + invisibility to get everyone safely over the wall. Now, sure, it would take a while waiting for spell slots, but this is supposed to be the most fortified pass in the entire world. Even GMs have problems with this. Suddenly every remotely secure area needs a mage on staff detecting intruders, or permanent enchantments. At that point, Fly might as well not exist.

Edit: I forgot that fly and invisibility both require concentration. Oops. Still, now you only need a level 6 mage and a level 4 mage, which is still pretty easy to pull off.

Drop items like healing potions, bombs, etc. with one of your characters. Then use mage hand to throw it by right clicking the dropped items. It's like having a cheap (but weak) bonus healer shaped like a floating hand

I used it to

• Steal the idol of Sylvanus from the Emerald Grove without starting a fight.
• Open doors attached to levers on the other side of gates or rooms I could otherwise see into, but not enter.
• An extra bit of damage in combat; or to shove someone off a cliff from a distance.
• Grabbing objects that for whatever reason was out of reach of my character (often something on the top of a high shelf).
• Throwing things I can't reach.

I’ve only ever seen people write about using it in combat to knock enemies prone, otherwise, it’s oddly non-utilitarian for a spell I’ve almost always considered to be a utility spell.

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, but I totally use mage hand to throw an NPCs backpack they couldn't reach to them. Saved me having to try and tiptoe through a bunch of environmental hazards.

In actual DnD I've used it to pull people's pants down twice, once to break concentration and also to start a barroom brawl.
I've also used it to sneak in and tie people's shoe laces together, causing them to trip and go prone when we rushed them into combat.
Most useful cantrip ever.

I used it a whole 2 times in my entire playthrough. Once to get a certain book from it's trapped pressure plate by throwing it, another to help a certain dwarf from his predicament. The biggest thing that stops me from experimenting more with it is it's limitation to once per short rest and only being present for 10 turns. I get that it's for combat balancing purposes but it does make me just never bother summoning it. Wish they removed that limitation, gave it more utility uses and just completely disabled it's combat abilities instead.

I keep the permanent one summoned forever. Nice to have them around when the enemy is at 1hp. I also use it to reposition enemies to avoid needing to use Disengage

There's also an achievement for killing someone with it

These are what I used the mage hand for

• Push enemy to prone or off the cliff
• Throw stuffs at enemy
• Throw items that bugged and hard to reach on the floor where you can reach them.
• Pull lever

It can punch mages to potentially break their concentration

I used it to activate the levers to make the bridge way above the grymforge work. It's good for that I guess. Also to give me something to punch stupid undead that come back with 1 health or someone with death ward.

Read Mage Hand's 5e rules again. I'm convinced the only reason Mage Hand is so "useful" at the table is because of DM fiat on things it shouldn't be able to do or non-functional utility that has no analogue in a hard-coded game. There's no mechanic for pulling a shirt over someone's head or pulling their pants down.

I'm not even sure they're allowed to make checks or force saves.

I also fail to grasp the utility of this spell.

I once used it to throw an unreachable chest into a chaam out of spite...

MH can only throw items that are on the ground.

If you drop some items on the ground from your inventory, MH can throw them without it requiring your action.

Thrown healing potions can revive/heal teammates.

Water bottles will make enemies vulnerable to lightning/frost spells/arrows.

A lit candle can be moved to stay close to anyone needing to dip.

I used it to press the button to save Mayrina. That's about the only thing that it was really useful for in that whole playthrough, though.