Hello there. Apologies for any redundancy. I've scoured Google, and I've not been able to find an answer. Which is strange because I swear I've googled this before and gotten an answer fairly quickly, so maybe the keywords are incorrect this time? The answer usually being, "Yes, you can drop a weapon and then unsheathe another with no cost to your actual actions/bonus actions."
I'll give a direct example. I'm a kensei monk. I can make some weapons "Kensei weapons," a total of 5. Thematically, it's a very awesome sub-class. One of the very, very, very few, if not the only class/sub-class that encourages the use of "mastering," multiple different weapons. To me, it seems like a missed opportunity for WoTC (or whomever else are the DnD 5e dictators) to not make this more obvious and meaningful. The issue and situation is this:
I whipped an enemy 10ft away, successfully stunning him, and then decided it best for the team if I dropped my whip to unsheathe my longbow, and pick-off a mage from afar, which ended up killing him. Effectively taking two enemies out of combat.
I initially started the combat with my whip drawn, first round. This situation occurred on the third round of combat. So, I DIDN'T 1) unsheathe whip, 2) attack, 3) Drop whip, 4) unsheathe longbow, 5) attack. Granted that imho should be absolutely applicable for the Kensei sub-class. I could rant about Dedicated Weapons from Tasha's undermining Kensei Weapons from Kensei, but that's not worth the time. Ultimately, I could understand it being wrong, if on the first round of combat, I: 1) unsheathed my whip, 2) attacked, 3) dropped it, 4) unsheathed a second weapon, and 5) attacked with that; because that's two instances of un-sheathing within one turn. On the third round, it's really only one instance of un-sheathing. The true question: is dropping a weapon meaningful enough to be considered the use of the "Free action?"
I come to you experts to give me the proper answer and guidance, with references/sources if possible <3.
I’m not exactly sure what your asking. Are you asking if dropping a weapon and then using your interaction to pull out another weapon is within the rules?
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
I also think that dropping and picking things up is silly and immersion breaking - but it's also really just a result of being overly pernickity about the 'what's in your hands' rules. In the event that a character needs a free hand to cast a spell, and doesn't need to use an arcane focus, I'd just let them pass the item to their occupied hand or tuck it under their arm, cast the spell, and voila they have it back. It serves the same function without needing to imagine daft dropping actions.
Or essentially since it has no gameplay effect, just ignore it altogether.
In cases of the Eldritch Knight where the weapon isn't a focus, it's best to just allow the bonded weapon to be their focus to avoid it altogether.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
The battlemaster can pick it up as a free action, and I'd allow a character to kick it away (maybe moving it 15 feet) as a free action. Otherwise yes, if the battlemaster has no free hand to pick it up (e.g. they use a shield) then it's not much use.
is dropping a weapon meaningful enough to be considered the use of the "Free action?"
RAW i don't think it is written anywhere specifically that you can do this. It's free to release a grapple though but it's not the same thing.
Also Interacting with Objects Around is done in tandem with your movement and action.
What is not clear in the rules is if willingly dropping a weapon count as your item interaction.
''you can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack. If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action.''
We don't do the weapon dropping thing in my games either. If someone wants to switch weapons, it's fine. If they want to get complicated with things, then it will take their action to do so. There are times when it could be fun and cinematic to rip a shot with the bow, then toss it aside and draw one's sword. If someone wanted to do that, then yeah, that's pretty cool. But if they want to do the old "drop weapon, do a thing, pick up weapon" dance, then I'm going to discourage it either through the actions in combat, or just at the table by saying it is taking me out of the game mentally.
I did have a phase spider grab someone's dropped bow and then run off to the ethereal plane with it. It was just a normal bow, but the character was shamed until they could return to town and get another one.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
The battlemaster can pick it up as a free action, and I'd allow a character to kick it away (maybe moving it 15 feet) as a free action. Otherwise yes, if the battlemaster has no free hand to pick it up (e.g. they use a shield) then it's not much use.
And then the next step down that rabbit hole is "I use the +1 weapon, drop it, kick it 15 feet towards my buddy, who on his turn, picks up the weapon, uses it, drops it, and kicks it 5 feet, where the next player picks it up."
No, just no.
Well seeing as how you get one free interaction they can't pick it up, drop it, and kick it in the same turn anyway.
They could pick it up, use it, and drop it but not kick it.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
The battlemaster can pick it up as a free action, and I'd allow a character to kick it away (maybe moving it 15 feet) as a free action. Otherwise yes, if the battlemaster has no free hand to pick it up (e.g. they use a shield) then it's not much use.
And then the next step down that rabbit hole is "I use the +1 weapon, drop it, kick it 15 feet towards my buddy, who on his turn, picks up the weapon, uses it, drops it, and kicks it 5 feet, where the next player picks it up."
No, just no.
Well seeing as how you get one free interaction they can't pick it up, drop it, and kick it in the same turn anyway.
They could pick it up, use it, and drop it but not kick it.
Read the post I quoted, where that poster was giving players 2 free actions. Or it is as simple as Player 1 uses sword, drops it, next player picks up same sword, uses it, drops it, and the chain continues. I have never seen players do this, but it is possible, unless a DM steps in.
But they would have to move and pick it up which would be completely acceptable but they would all end up in the same area... So I'm not sure what is the problem?
It's not hard to come up with a way in which this charade could work within the action economy. Suffice it to say, the mechanics are not the problem so much as the fact that someone would try to do this in a game.
Or maybe it's not a problem at all in your game. I can only speak for my own experience.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
The battlemaster can pick it up as a free action, and I'd allow a character to kick it away (maybe moving it 15 feet) as a free action. Otherwise yes, if the battlemaster has no free hand to pick it up (e.g. they use a shield) then it's not much use.
And then the next step down that rabbit hole is "I use the +1 weapon, drop it, kick it 15 feet towards my buddy, who on his turn, picks up the weapon, uses it, drops it, and kicks it 5 feet, where the next player picks it up."
No, just no.
Well seeing as how you get one free interaction they can't pick it up, drop it, and kick it in the same turn anyway.
They could pick it up, use it, and drop it but not kick it.
Read the post I quoted, where that poster was giving players 2 free actions. Or it is as simple as Player 1 uses sword, drops it, next player picks up same sword, uses it, drops it, and the chain continues. I have never seen players do this, but it is possible, unless a DM steps in.
But they would have to move and pick it up which would be completely acceptable but they would all end up in the same area... So I'm not sure what is the problem?
Guys... he was responding to the red big text, above.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
The battlemaster can pick it up as a free action, and I'd allow a character to kick it away (maybe moving it 15 feet) as a free action. Otherwise yes, if the battlemaster has no free hand to pick it up (e.g. they use a shield) then it's not much use.
And then the next step down that rabbit hole is "I use the +1 weapon, drop it, kick it 15 feet towards my buddy, who on his turn, picks up the weapon, uses it, drops it, and kicks it 5 feet, where the next player picks it up."
No, just no.
Well seeing as how you get one free interaction they can't pick it up, drop it, and kick it in the same turn anyway.
They could pick it up, use it, and drop it but not kick it.
Read the post I quoted, where that poster was giving players 2 free actions. Or it is as simple as Player 1 uses sword, drops it, next player picks up same sword, uses it, drops it, and the chain continues. I have never seen players do this, but it is possible, unless a DM steps in.
But they would have to move and pick it up which would be completely acceptable but they would all end up in the same area... So I'm not sure what is the problem?
Guys... he was responding to the red big text, above.
Ah gotcha... Yeah I mean dropping is pretty much free but picking up/kicking would take your object interaction
There is no rule about dropping items, one way or another. Some have mentioned it could be a flourish (which is free). Others have mentioned that releasing grapples is free, so this logically follows. Some have mentioned that it was free in past editions. Very, very few (if any, but I bet someone has) have argued that it should cost your interaction.
Drop and draw seems ok to me, but repeating that every turn gets a bit cheese-y to me, especially when you are trying to do it for some mechanical benefit rather than flavor. For that reason I don’t think I’d allow free pickups from the ground every turn.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
The battlemaster can pick it up as a free action, and I'd allow a character to kick it away (maybe moving it 15 feet) as a free action. Otherwise yes, if the battlemaster has no free hand to pick it up (e.g. they use a shield) then it's not much use.
And then the next step down that rabbit hole is "I use the +1 weapon, drop it, kick it 15 feet towards my buddy, who on his turn, picks up the weapon, uses it, drops it, and kicks it 5 feet, where the next player picks it up."
No, just no.
Well seeing as how you get one free interaction they can't pick it up, drop it, and kick it in the same turn anyway.
They could pick it up, use it, and drop it but not kick it.
Read the post I quoted, where that poster was giving players 2 free actions. Or it is as simple as Player 1 uses sword, drops it, next player picks up same sword, uses it, drops it, and the chain continues. I have never seen players do this, but it is possible, unless a DM steps in.
But they would have to move and pick it up which would be completely acceptable but they would all end up in the same area... So I'm not sure what is the problem?
Guys... he was responding to the red big text, above.
Ah gotcha... Yeah I mean dropping is pretty much free but picking up/kicking would take your object interaction
You can pick up an item as a free action (picking up a battleaxe from the ground is listed as an example of a free action in the PHB) as is kicking down a door. I don't think it takes more effort to kick away a weapon than it does to kick down a door, or bend down and pick up the weapon while you have an orc in your face.
The whole thing about characters kicking weapons to each other is purely forum nonsense and no group of players have ever done that. The rules aren't meant to cover all scenarios, but making Disarming Attack worthwhile by letting a character kick a weapon away seems reasonable to me.
Hello there. Apologies for any redundancy. I've scoured Google, and I've not been able to find an answer. Which is strange because I swear I've googled this before and gotten an answer fairly quickly, so maybe the keywords are incorrect this time? The answer usually being, "Yes, you can drop a weapon and then unsheathe another with no cost to your actual actions/bonus actions."
I'll give a direct example. I'm a kensei monk. I can make some weapons "Kensei weapons," a total of 5. Thematically, it's a very awesome sub-class. One of the very, very, very few, if not the only class/sub-class that encourages the use of "mastering," multiple different weapons. To me, it seems like a missed opportunity for WoTC (or whomever else are the DnD 5e dictators) to not make this more obvious and meaningful. The issue and situation is this:
I whipped an enemy 10ft away, successfully stunning him, and then decided it best for the team if I dropped my whip to unsheathe my longbow, and pick-off a mage from afar, which ended up killing him. Effectively taking two enemies out of combat.
I initially started the combat with my whip drawn, first round. This situation occurred on the third round of combat. So, I DIDN'T 1) unsheathe whip, 2) attack, 3) Drop whip, 4) unsheathe longbow, 5) attack. Granted that imho should be absolutely applicable for the Kensei sub-class. I could rant about Dedicated Weapons from Tasha's undermining Kensei Weapons from Kensei, but that's not worth the time.
Ultimately, I could understand it being wrong, if on the first round of combat, I: 1) unsheathed my whip, 2) attacked, 3) dropped it, 4) unsheathed a second weapon, and 5) attacked with that; because that's two instances of un-sheathing within one turn. On the third round, it's really only one instance of un-sheathing. The true question: is dropping a weapon meaningful enough to be considered the use of the "Free action?"
I come to you experts to give me the proper answer and guidance, with references/sources if possible <3.
I’m not exactly sure what your asking. Are you asking if dropping a weapon and then using your interaction to pull out another weapon is within the rules?
if so, yes that is within the rules.
Your sequence of activities is within the rules and feels acceptable.
It has been confirmed as RAI that dropping something is a completely free thing to do. Where I get annoyed is people dropping a weapon, casting a spell, then using their interaction to pick the weapon up. That sequence makes a mockery of the restrictions on how many things you can hold in your hands. My personal house rule is that you can drop for free, but you cannot pick up the same thing you dropped on the same turn without using your Action. Gives enemies a chance to take advantage of your careless treatment of your own weapon.
In my game, your hasty dumping of the whip to bring the bow to bear would be fine - you may be unable to recover that whip if the rest of the round went awry so the sacrifice has been made.
I also think that dropping and picking things up is silly and immersion breaking - but it's also really just a result of being overly pernickity about the 'what's in your hands' rules. In the event that a character needs a free hand to cast a spell, and doesn't need to use an arcane focus, I'd just let them pass the item to their occupied hand or tuck it under their arm, cast the spell, and voila they have it back. It serves the same function without needing to imagine daft dropping actions.
Or essentially since it has no gameplay effect, just ignore it altogether.
In cases of the Eldritch Knight where the weapon isn't a focus, it's best to just allow the bonded weapon to be their focus to avoid it altogether.
Picking something up from the ground in my game costs an action. That way it makes disarming skills and dropping items matter.
Battle Masters can disarm but it doesn't do anything meaningful when the bad guy can just pick it up for free.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
The battlemaster can pick it up as a free action, and I'd allow a character to kick it away (maybe moving it 15 feet) as a free action. Otherwise yes, if the battlemaster has no free hand to pick it up (e.g. they use a shield) then it's not much use.
RAW i don't think it is written anywhere specifically that you can do this. It's free to release a grapple though but it's not the same thing.
Also Interacting with Objects Around is done in tandem with your movement and action.
What is not clear in the rules is if willingly dropping a weapon count as your item interaction.
''you can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack. If you want to interact with a second object, you need to use your action.''
We don't do the weapon dropping thing in my games either. If someone wants to switch weapons, it's fine. If they want to get complicated with things, then it will take their action to do so. There are times when it could be fun and cinematic to rip a shot with the bow, then toss it aside and draw one's sword. If someone wanted to do that, then yeah, that's pretty cool. But if they want to do the old "drop weapon, do a thing, pick up weapon" dance, then I'm going to discourage it either through the actions in combat, or just at the table by saying it is taking me out of the game mentally.
I did have a phase spider grab someone's dropped bow and then run off to the ethereal plane with it. It was just a normal bow, but the character was shamed until they could return to town and get another one.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Well seeing as how you get one free interaction they can't pick it up, drop it, and kick it in the same turn anyway.
They could pick it up, use it, and drop it but not kick it.
But they would have to move and pick it up which would be completely acceptable but they would all end up in the same area... So I'm not sure what is the problem?
It's not hard to come up with a way in which this charade could work within the action economy. Suffice it to say, the mechanics are not the problem so much as the fact that someone would try to do this in a game.
Or maybe it's not a problem at all in your game. I can only speak for my own experience.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
Guys... he was responding to the red big text, above.
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
Ah gotcha... Yeah I mean dropping is pretty much free but picking up/kicking would take your object interaction
Thanks so much for the answers and that follow-up discussion! Appreciate it. Hope you all have an awesome weekend and great adventures ahead!
There is no rule about dropping items, one way or another. Some have mentioned it could be a flourish (which is free). Others have mentioned that releasing grapples is free, so this logically follows. Some have mentioned that it was free in past editions. Very, very few (if any, but I bet someone has) have argued that it should cost your interaction.
FWIW The lead developper have said numerous times on twitter that the intent was to be effortless and that as DM he'd allow drop and draw tactic.
https://twitter.com/DnDMontreal/status/584404987293396992
@DnDMontreal what are the rules on dropping weapons? People are dropping weapons to circumvent only having one 'Interaction with Object'
@JeremyECrawford The intent is that letting go of something requires no appreciable effort. But picking it up does.
https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/709792039546687488
@_Matafer Interactions in combat, can you drop something, and then draw something?
@JeremyECrawford The intent is that you can drop something effortlessly. As DM, I'd let you drop something and draw something. #DnD
Drop and draw seems ok to me, but repeating that every turn gets a bit cheese-y to me, especially when you are trying to do it for some mechanical benefit rather than flavor. For that reason I don’t think I’d allow free pickups from the ground every turn.
Yeah it mostly goes back to what the players are actually doing and what their intent is.
If someone is doing it just to cheese its like "come on..."
But if they do it once or twice a campaign...who cares?
Just do it in an interesting way :)
"Not all those who wander are lost"
You can pick up an item as a free action (picking up a battleaxe from the ground is listed as an example of a free action in the PHB) as is kicking down a door. I don't think it takes more effort to kick away a weapon than it does to kick down a door, or bend down and pick up the weapon while you have an orc in your face.
The whole thing about characters kicking weapons to each other is purely forum nonsense and no group of players have ever done that. The rules aren't meant to cover all scenarios, but making Disarming Attack worthwhile by letting a character kick a weapon away seems reasonable to me.