Generally no - warcaster allows you to do somatic components with the weapon but unless the weapon is the material component ( booming blade, etc) you still need a free hand for the material component. One way around that is the ruby of the warmage which is attached to your primary weapon turning it into a spell focus eliminating the need for components that are reusable and of no appreciable value. Expendable/valuable components you will still need a free hand. For that you might want to specify that you have a “sword knot” which is a loop of line attached to your wrist and the weapon so it hangs and can be recovered easily.
A wereboar is not going to exchange their heavy 2-handed weapon to wield short swords.
If you disarmed him and then kicked his maul across the room it would be foolish to take a spell AOO to go pick it up. The point is not to exchange his weapon as much as it is to take yours without taking an AOO.
This discussion started because the tactic for the bladesinger is not to attack but to disarm and kick the weapon across the room. If the bladesinger is going to do that as a regular tactic why wouldn't the enemy?
The example I used is not a unique situation, it is how I try to play a bladesinger. If I am using misty step it is generally to misty step way ahead of the party into a bunch of enemies. The advantage on concentration saves is nice if you take damage, but the higher AC is going to mean you take damage less often (assuming you save your shiled
My poinit is this - If you are taking 5-10 attacks a round in the opening rouns of combat, that extra point of AC, along with shield or silvery barbs will enable you to keep concentration more than the advantage will, because not taking damage and not having to save is more effective than advantage.
If you have a cloak of displacement that makes it a lot easier, but I have never had that on any of the 10+ bladesingers I have played, so I don't really think you can count on it.
I agree that Blur or PEG is "situationally" better than dodge or haste (if you don't have a magic item like my cloak), but again, in your disarming wereboar scenario, if you have all of the wereboars focusing on you (or no weapons in hand) then dodge is a pretty easy action to take and using your reaction to shield = successfully fulfilling the role of tank.
The problem is you will get hit regularly doing this and when you will get hit you will need to make a concentration save (and if you are concentrating on haste you can't take actions the following turn if you fail). The only way to make hits almost never happen is to combine disadvantage with shield.
For example going against 3 wereboars while dodging with a 21 AC (Mage Armor+Haste+Dex+Bladesong+disadvantage) you will statistically get hit 1.25 times every 3 rounds and have to make a concentration save. So that is a con save once or twice every fight. If you use the above things with shield (26AC+disadvantage) you will get hit once every 67 rounds of combat. You will have to make a con save 25 times as often if you don't use shield.
You're thinking of a very specific encounter while myself and others advocating for the War Caster feat seem to be thinking of a more broad use for the feat.
I was not thinking of a specific encounter. What I said holds true for almost any medium or higher-level encounter with CR approriate foes wielding weapons. It is not just Wereboars, the math is largely the same if fighting Ettins, or Sucubbi or Gladiators or most such foes.
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Generally no - warcaster allows you to do somatic components with the weapon but unless the weapon is the material component ( booming blade, etc) you still need a free hand for the material component. One way around that is the ruby of the warmage which is attached to your primary weapon turning it into a spell focus eliminating the need for components that are reusable and of no appreciable value. Expendable/valuable components you will still need a free hand. For that you might want to specify that you have a “sword knot” which is a loop of line attached to your wrist and the weapon so it hangs and can be recovered easily.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
If you disarmed him and then kicked his maul across the room it would be foolish to take a spell AOO to go pick it up. The point is not to exchange his weapon as much as it is to take yours without taking an AOO.
This discussion started because the tactic for the bladesinger is not to attack but to disarm and kick the weapon across the room. If the bladesinger is going to do that as a regular tactic why wouldn't the enemy?
The example I used is not a unique situation, it is how I try to play a bladesinger. If I am using misty step it is generally to misty step way ahead of the party into a bunch of enemies. The advantage on concentration saves is nice if you take damage, but the higher AC is going to mean you take damage less often (assuming you save your shiled
My poinit is this - If you are taking 5-10 attacks a round in the opening rouns of combat, that extra point of AC, along with shield or silvery barbs will enable you to keep concentration more than the advantage will, because not taking damage and not having to save is more effective than advantage.
If you have a cloak of displacement that makes it a lot easier, but I have never had that on any of the 10+ bladesingers I have played, so I don't really think you can count on it.
The problem is you will get hit regularly doing this and when you will get hit you will need to make a concentration save (and if you are concentrating on haste you can't take actions the following turn if you fail). The only way to make hits almost never happen is to combine disadvantage with shield.
For example going against 3 wereboars while dodging with a 21 AC (Mage Armor+Haste+Dex+Bladesong+disadvantage) you will statistically get hit 1.25 times every 3 rounds and have to make a concentration save. So that is a con save once or twice every fight. If you use the above things with shield (26AC+disadvantage) you will get hit once every 67 rounds of combat. You will have to make a con save 25 times as often if you don't use shield.
I was not thinking of a specific encounter. What I said holds true for almost any medium or higher-level encounter with CR approriate foes wielding weapons. It is not just Wereboars, the math is largely the same if fighting Ettins, or Sucubbi or Gladiators or most such foes.