I'm a new DM and me and one of my new players are wondering if the Psychic spells from The Great Old one patron, works as though it gets rid of both verbal and somatic at the same time, my player wanted to cast hold person (V,S,M) on an npc, but we disagreed on whether it only took one of those components away or both, need some help with this
"Or" on its own doe not imply exclusivity. You need context for that. "Either" in conjunction with "or" is the way to indicate an exclusive choice. My read is that this is a usage of "or" that means "and/or".
The normal usage of the word "or" in a negated context like that in English would mean it takes both components away.
If the intent were to only take one of them away, it would say something like "you can do so either without verbal components or without somatic components".
It not only says or. It also says components which is plural. You don't have multiple somatic components or multiple verbal components the only way you would remove a plural of components is if you removed both verbal and somatic components.
Essentially it means all somatic components and verbal components are ignored.
I'm a new DM and me and one of my new players are wondering if the Psychic spells from The Great Old one patron, works as though it gets rid of both verbal and somatic at the same time, my player wanted to cast hold person (V,S,M) on an npc, but we disagreed on whether it only took one of those components away or both, need some help with this
"Or" on its own doe not imply exclusivity. You need context for that. "Either" in conjunction with "or" is the way to indicate an exclusive choice. My read is that this is a usage of "or" that means "and/or".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And/or
The normal usage of the word "or" in a negated context like that in English would mean it takes both components away.
If the intent were to only take one of them away, it would say something like "you can do so either without verbal components or without somatic components".
pronouns: he/she/they
I agree that it removes the need for both components, not just one of them.
It not only says or. It also says components which is plural. You don't have multiple somatic components or multiple verbal components the only way you would remove a plural of components is if you removed both verbal and somatic components.
Essentially it means all somatic components and verbal components are ignored.