So I am playing a Wizard and am trying to best benefit from using a shield with my spellcasting. From what I can gather online, taking the feat war caster only eliminates the need to have your hands free for somatic spellcasting, so multi-classing would allow me to gain shield proficiency thus gain the benefit of a shield without negating my spellcasting.
But I'm confused, war caster is best paired with shield proficiency, but when I read the penalty of using a shield without proficiency, no where does it say that WITH shield proficiency, you would still be unable to cast spells that have somatic requirements while the shield is equipped, as War Caster seems to imply.
So my question is, without War Caster, if you have a shield in one hand and nothing in the other can you cast somatic spells? If you have both hands occupied, let's say like a wand or dagger or something. Are you than incapable of casting somatic spells. Does taking War Caster actually give you proper fully free control over spellcasting while benefiting from a shield?
It isn't a rule for the object, but a rule about the somatic component itself:
Somatic (S)
Spellcasting gestures might include a forceful gesticulation or an intricate set of gestures. If a spell requires a somatic component, the caster must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures.
War caster allows you to perform somatic components with the same hand that is holding a shield or weapon.
So you do not need war caster if you have a shield and an empty hand, but you do need war caster if you have a shield and a wand (assuming the spell has a S component, but no M component as that lets you use the wand).
So my question is, without War Caster, if you have a shield in one hand and nothing in the other can you cast somatic spells? If you have both hands occupied, let's say like a wand or dagger or something. Are you than incapable of casting somatic spells. Does taking War Caster actually give you proper fully free control over spellcasting while benefiting from a shield?
You need at least one free-hand to perform the Somatic component. So a shield in one hand works just fine. You also need a free hand to provide the Material component but it can be the same hand for both.
If you want to have things in both hands then you need the War Caster feat.
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So I am playing a Wizard and am trying to best benefit from using a shield with my spellcasting. From what I can gather online, taking the feat war caster only eliminates the need to have your hands free for somatic spellcasting, so multi-classing would allow me to gain shield proficiency thus gain the benefit of a shield without negating my spellcasting.
But I'm confused, war caster is best paired with shield proficiency, but when I read the penalty of using a shield without proficiency, no where does it say that WITH shield proficiency, you would still be unable to cast spells that have somatic requirements while the shield is equipped, as War Caster seems to imply.
So my question is, without War Caster, if you have a shield in one hand and nothing in the other can you cast somatic spells? If you have both hands occupied, let's say like a wand or dagger or something. Are you than incapable of casting somatic spells. Does taking War Caster actually give you proper fully free control over spellcasting while benefiting from a shield?
It isn't a rule for the object, but a rule about the somatic component itself:
War caster allows you to perform somatic components with the same hand that is holding a shield or weapon.
So you do not need war caster if you have a shield and an empty hand, but you do need war caster if you have a shield and a wand (assuming the spell has a S component, but no M component as that lets you use the wand).
You need at least one free-hand to perform the Somatic component. So a shield in one hand works just fine. You also need a free hand to provide the Material component but it can be the same hand for both.
If you want to have things in both hands then you need the War Caster feat.