I'm not sure if this should be in rules section or here, but my question refers mainly to Stone Sorcerer and Hexblade Warlock, so I'm sticking it here.
Doesn't it seem that an ability or feat is needed to make the sword and shield build work for these classes? Both get proficiency with shields and seem designed for fighting with a one handed melee weapon and a shield. That puts some major limits on your spellcasting, though. You can take the war caster feat which would let you cast spells that have verbal and somatic components, but any spell that requires a material component can't be cast. You won't have a free hand to access your component pouch or to hold your Arcane focus. You'd have to attack on one turn, use your free object interaction to sheathe your weapon. The next turn you could use your free object interaction to draw your Arcane focus and cast a spell. Next, you could cast a spell and put away your focus and the next​ turn draw a weapon and attack. You need to waste your object interaction to switch between casting and weapon fighting or make due with a subset of your spells. That seems very clunky. It seems there should either be a class feature allowing them to use a blade as a focus or a feat that allows that.
Basically, you can consider your shield or your weapon as the arcane focus (obviously the shield or the weapon need a bit of "arcane" preparation). With the arcane focus in hand, you can use the same hand for Somatic and Material components for the spells. This is not the case when the material component has a price and it is consumed by the spell. You need that component in hand.
A Paladin according to the PHB can use their shield as their spellcasting focus, it seems to make sense that a Hexblade lock, or one that is a PotB, should be able to use those as a focus....
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I'm not sure if this should be in rules section or here, but my question refers mainly to Stone Sorcerer and Hexblade Warlock, so I'm sticking it here.
Doesn't it seem that an ability or feat is needed to make the sword and shield build work for these classes? Both get proficiency with shields and seem designed for fighting with a one handed melee weapon and a shield. That puts some major limits on your spellcasting, though. You can take the war caster feat which would let you cast spells that have verbal and somatic components, but any spell that requires a material component can't be cast. You won't have a free hand to access your component pouch or to hold your Arcane focus. You'd have to attack on one turn, use your free object interaction to sheathe your weapon. The next turn you could use your free object interaction to draw your Arcane focus and cast a spell. Next, you could cast a spell and put away your focus and the next​ turn draw a weapon and attack. You need to waste your object interaction to switch between casting and weapon fighting or make due with a subset of your spells. That seems very clunky. It seems there should either be a class feature allowing them to use a blade as a focus or a feat that allows that.
Hope this can help
http://www.sageadvice.eu/tag/focus/
http://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/04/09/2-weapon-arcane-focus/comment-page-1/
Basically, you can consider your shield or your weapon as the arcane focus (obviously the shield or the weapon need a bit of "arcane" preparation). With the arcane focus in hand, you can use the same hand for Somatic and Material components for the spells. This is not the case when the material component has a price and it is consumed by the spell. You need that component in hand.
A Paladin according to the PHB can use their shield as their spellcasting focus, it seems to make sense that a Hexblade lock, or one that is a PotB, should be able to use those as a focus....