Hey, so I really am taking interest in playing a Bladesinger, and I understand that one hand must wield the Bladesinger's weapon of choice. However, do I need to have my spellcasting focus in the other? If so, then how will I be able to cast the somatic components of spells if my hands are full? Thank you so much for your help, guys!
One hand is for the weapon, the other is for spellcasting. If the spell requires a material component you need one free hand to provide that component or use an arcane focus if applicable. If the spell requires a somatic component you need one free to provide that component. If a spell requires both you need one free hand, the same hand that handles the material component/focus can also be the hand to provide somatic component.
So you will only ever need one free hand for any spellcasting. If the spell requires only a V component, you don't need to use any hands.
On your turns you do get some free actions - you absolutely can use a free action bring out the arcane focus (or the material component) on Turn 1 and cast a spell with an M or SM components. On your next turn you can use a free action to put the arcane focus away to cast a S component spell.
So, there is no need to worry.
If you would want to dual wield or something, then you'll run into issues. These can be mitigated with feats like Warcaster.
One hand is for the weapon, the other is for spellcasting. If the spell requires a material component you need one free hand to provide that component or use an arcane focus if applicable. If the spell requires a somatic component you need one free to provide that component. If a spell requires both you need one free hand, the same hand that handles the material component/focus can also be the hand to provide somatic component.
So you will only ever need one free hand for any spellcasting. If the spell requires only a V component, you don't need to use any hands.
On your turns you do get some free actions - you absolutely can use a free action bring out the arcane focus (or the material component) on Turn 1 and cast a spell with an M or SM components. On your next turn you can use a free action to put the arcane focus away to cast a S component spell.
So, there is no need to worry.
If you would want to dual wield or something, then you'll run into issues. These can be mitigated with feats like Warcaster.
The only worry is if you want to use Wand of the War mage which requires it to be held so putting it away as described above, prevents you from using it. But as pointed out, warcaster fixes that.
If you can use the hand that holds the focus to also perform the S (somatic) part of the spell, why do you need to put it away to cast a spell that only uses S?
edit: A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell's material components — or to hold a spellcasting focus — but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components.
there's nothing in there that says you can't hold the spellcasting focus and cast a spell with only S, or S but no M... it actually says you can do that.
What’s the amount of interaction needed to use a spellcasting focus? Does it have to be included in the somatic component?
If a spell has a material component, you need to handle that component when you cast the spell. The same rule applies if you’re using a spellcasting focus as the material component.
If a spell has a somatic component, you can use the hand that performs the somatic component to also handle the material component. For example, a wizard who uses an orb as a spellcasting focus could hold a quarterstaff in one hand and the orb in the other, and he could cast lightning bolt by using the orb as the spell’s material component and the orb hand to perform the spell’s somatic component.
Another example: a cleric’s holy symbol is emblazoned on her shield. She likes to wade into melee combat with a mace in one hand and a shield in the other. She uses the holy symbol as her spellcasting focus, so she needs to have the shield in hand when she casts a cleric spell that has a material component. If the spell, such as aid, also has a somatic component, she can perform that component with the shield hand and keep holding the mace in the other.
If the same cleric casts cure wounds, she needs to put the mace or the shield away, because that spell doesn’t have a material component but does have a somatic component. She’s going to need a free hand to make the spell’s gestures. If she had the War Caster feat, she could ignore this restriction.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
seems weird you can cast a spell that way using the hand with the spell focus to provide for both the S and M... but can't use the same hand when less requirements need to be met.
oh well, if that's the errata
It's not quite errata, it's just a clarification. It all hinges on the definition of what counts as a "free" hand. A hand with something in it does not count as free for the purposes of Somatic components with the singular exception of the case where the spell also has a Material component and the item in the hand is the requisite spellcasting focus.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
seems weird you can cast a spell that way using the hand with the spell focus to provide for both the S and M... but can't use the same hand when less requirements need to be met.
oh well, if that's the errata
just drop and pick it up as needed round by round as a free action
Not so easy at my table. Use a Free Action to drop an item in combat, and if you fail a DC 10 Sleight of Hand check, it bounces into a random adjacent square. Bending down to pickup a dropped item as a Free Action provokes an Attack of Opportunity from any opponent that has sufficient reach. If you want to use your Action, fill your boots.
If you can use the hand that holds the focus to also perform the S (somatic) part of the spell, why do you need to put it away to cast a spell that only uses S?
Because the somatic component is manipulating the maaterial component if they have both, if it only has somatic it needs to be free.
Your main concern is being stuck with a focus when you cast the Shield or Absorb elements spells. These both require somatic components. Silvery barbs can be a less effective stand in for shield with only a verbal component though.
The easiest thing to do is not choose spells with M components. For a bladesinger, protection from Good and Evil is the only "must have" combat spell with a material component and that is often going to be cast in the first turn before you draw your weapon.
The short answer is. No. The long answer is also no, but here's the reason why:
Casting some Spells requires particular Objects, specified in parentheses in the component entry. A character can use a Component pouch or a Spellcasting focus (found in “Equipment”) in place of the Components specified for a spell. But if a cost is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell.
If a spell states that a material component is consumed by the spell, the caster must provide this component for each casting of the spell.
A Spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell’s material components—or to hold a Spellcasting focus—but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic Components.
Your spellcasting focus can always be used to perform the Somatic parts of a spell as well as materials, though. They should probably have said that in both Somatic and Material, 'cos it is confusing people for no damn reason.
Your spellcasting focus can always be used to perform the Somatic parts of a spell as well as materials, though.
Only if the spell requires both S and M components. If it only has S components, a hand with a spell focus in it does not count as a free hand to perform somatic components. As is clarified here in the Sage Advice Compendium:
What’s the amount of interaction needed to use a spellcasting focus? Does it have to be included in the somatic component?
If a spell has a material component, you need to handle that component when you cast the spell. The same rule applies if you’re using a spellcasting focus as the material component.
If a spell has a somatic component, you can use the hand that performs the somatic component to also handle the material component. For example, a wizard who uses an orb as a spellcasting focus could hold a quarterstaff in one hand and the orb in the other, and he could cast lightning bolt by using the orb as the spell’s material component and the orb hand to perform the spell’s somatic component.
Another example: a cleric’s holy symbol is emblazoned on her shield. She likes to wade into melee combat with a mace in one hand and a shield in the other. She uses the holy symbol as her spellcasting focus, so she needs to have the shield in hand when she casts a cleric spell that has a material component. If the spell, such as aid, also has a somatic component, she can perform that component with the shield hand and keep holding the mace in the other.
If the same cleric casts cure wounds, she needs to put the mace or the shield away, because that spell doesn’t have a material component but does have a somatic component. She’s going to need a free hand to make the spell’s gestures. If she had the War Caster feat, she could ignore this restriction.
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Canto alla vita alla sua bellezza ad ogni sua ferita ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I've never had that problem with a bladesinger. If the spell has both S and M components, you can do it with the arcane focus hand. If the spell doesn't have M components, but does have S, you can free your hand as an interaction. The issue is when using your reaction (eg shield or counterspell). To fix that all you have to do is make sure you have your hand free at the end of your turn.
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.
Material (M)
A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell’s material components — or to hold a spellcasting focus — but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components.
Somatic=need free hand
Material=need full hand
Somatic and Material= need "free hand" AND "full hand" but "full hand" is considered "free hand" because of somatic component
If the "full hand" is considered a "free hand" when a spell is S,M...why would it THEN be considered full when it was just S?
If its "free enough" to be used with S,M it should be "free enough" to be used with S.
There are myriad posts in these and other forums on this topic. TL;DR, one can by RAW drop a weapon at the end of one's turn (or during turn) and retrieve at the beginning of one's next turn to facilitate casting spells. If one is worried about the weapon being kicked away, then purchase a chain to link it to your wrist. This may be immersion breaking but is doable RAW.
TL;DR, one can by RAW drop a weapon at the end of one's turn (or during turn) and retrieve at the beginning of one's next turn to facilitate casting spells. If one is worried about the weapon being kicked away, then purchase a chain to link it to your wrist. This may be immersion breaking but is doable RAW.
It is RAW, but someone else could pick it up too. In which case they now have your weapon, with you chained to it.
Depends on the length of the chain. When I've done this, it's always been fairly short so that the sword would not fall on the ground and could be yanked back into the hand like a yo yo. I guess one could argue that a creature could make an attempt to grab the chain to move or reposition the character. However, that opens the door to pulling on every creature's belt, cloak, or cape moving forward. Then everyone would be like the Incredibles, i.e., no capes.
Depends on the length of the chain. When I've done this, it's always been fairly short so that the sword would not fall on the ground and could be yanked back into the hand like a yo yo. I guess one could argue that a creature could make an attempt to grab the chain to move or reposition the character. However, that opens the door to pulling on every creature's belt, cloak, or cape moving forward. Then everyone would be like the Incredibles, i.e., no capes.
If the weapon is on the ground any other humanoid within reach can pick it up without an action, just the same as you can. At which point he would be carrying it and you would have to disarm him to get it back. The length of the chain is not really relevant, it would limit how far you could move, and how far he could move without dropping the sword, but would not do much else IMO unless one of you used an action for something else (wrap up the other one or tie it off, jerk the other guy to the ground or whatever).
my point is that it is illogical to assume you can perform a hand gesture with a focus in your hand for some spells but not others regardless of chains and drops and free actions, I can give a "Road Rager" the BIRD while holding a pistol. I dont have to put down my pistol JUST to flip him off.
My point was that a creature cannot pick a sword up from the ground if it is hanging at the wizard's side and not laying on the ground.
If you can attack something 5 feet away with this then the chain would need to be long enough for the weapon to hit the ground. Also tied to your wrist specifically I would not assume that your hand is "free" for casting. I think that is highly debatable. Tied to your belt sure.
I actually think this is a lot easier to do with the focus than with the weapon.
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Hey, so I really am taking interest in playing a Bladesinger, and I understand that one hand must wield the Bladesinger's weapon of choice. However, do I need to have my spellcasting focus in the other? If so, then how will I be able to cast the somatic components of spells if my hands are full? Thank you so much for your help, guys!
Ren
The rule ( Spellcasting - Player's Handbook - Sources - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com)) basically says you need to have a free hand. That free hand can hold the focus, and if it does, that same hand handles the somatic component.
However, if you cast a spell with a somatic component and no material one, you have to put the focus away.
There are three methods around this madness (and may be more).
Enjoy!
There is a fourth option here, as I did 10 years ago, on a campaign.
4. Start to be enough sad to just begin crying a lot, until the DM just adjust the campaign on my favour.
hehehehe
My Ready-to-rock&roll chars:
Dertinus Tristany // Amilcar Barca // Vicenç Sacrarius // Oriol Deulofeu // Grovtuk
One hand is for the weapon, the other is for spellcasting. If the spell requires a material component you need one free hand to provide that component or use an arcane focus if applicable. If the spell requires a somatic component you need one free to provide that component. If a spell requires both you need one free hand, the same hand that handles the material component/focus can also be the hand to provide somatic component.
So you will only ever need one free hand for any spellcasting. If the spell requires only a V component, you don't need to use any hands.
On your turns you do get some free actions - you absolutely can use a free action bring out the arcane focus (or the material component) on Turn 1 and cast a spell with an M or SM components. On your next turn you can use a free action to put the arcane focus away to cast a S component spell.
So, there is no need to worry.
If you would want to dual wield or something, then you'll run into issues. These can be mitigated with feats like Warcaster.
My Homebrew: Races | Subclasses | Backgrounds | Spells | Magic Items | Feats
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The only worry is if you want to use Wand of the War mage which requires it to be held so putting it away as described above, prevents you from using it. But as pointed out, warcaster fixes that.
This was clarified in the Sage Advice Compendium:
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
It's not quite errata, it's just a clarification. It all hinges on the definition of what counts as a "free" hand. A hand with something in it does not count as free for the purposes of Somatic components with the singular exception of the case where the spell also has a Material component and the item in the hand is the requisite spellcasting focus.
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
Not so easy at my table. Use a Free Action to drop an item in combat, and if you fail a DC 10 Sleight of Hand check, it bounces into a random adjacent square. Bending down to pickup a dropped item as a Free Action provokes an Attack of Opportunity from any opponent that has sufficient reach. If you want to use your Action, fill your boots.
Because the somatic component is manipulating the maaterial component if they have both, if it only has somatic it needs to be free.
Your main concern is being stuck with a focus when you cast the Shield or Absorb elements spells. These both require somatic components. Silvery barbs can be a less effective stand in for shield with only a verbal component though.
The easiest thing to do is not choose spells with M components. For a bladesinger, protection from Good and Evil is the only "must have" combat spell with a material component and that is often going to be cast in the first turn before you draw your weapon.
The short answer is. No.
The long answer is also no, but here's the reason why:
Your spellcasting focus can always be used to perform the Somatic parts of a spell as well as materials, though. They should probably have said that in both Somatic and Material, 'cos it is confusing people for no damn reason.
Only if the spell requires both S and M components. If it only has S components, a hand with a spell focus in it does not count as a free hand to perform somatic components. As is clarified here in the Sage Advice Compendium:
Canto alla vita
alla sua bellezza
ad ogni sua ferita
ogni sua carezza!
I sing to life and to its tragic beauty
To pain and to strife, but all that dances through me
The rise and the fall, I've lived through it all!
I've never had that problem with a bladesinger.
If the spell has both S and M components, you can do it with the arcane focus hand.
If the spell doesn't have M components, but does have S, you can free your hand as an interaction.
The issue is when using your reaction (eg shield or counterspell). To fix that all you have to do is make sure you have your hand free at the end of your turn.
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.
Material (M)
A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell’s material components — or to hold a spellcasting focus — but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform somatic components.
Somatic=need free hand
Material=need full hand
Somatic and Material= need "free hand" AND "full hand" but "full hand" is considered "free hand" because of somatic component
If the "full hand" is considered a "free hand" when a spell is S,M...why would it THEN be considered full when it was just S?
If its "free enough" to be used with S,M it should be "free enough" to be used with S.
There are myriad posts in these and other forums on this topic. TL;DR, one can by RAW drop a weapon at the end of one's turn (or during turn) and retrieve at the beginning of one's next turn to facilitate casting spells. If one is worried about the weapon being kicked away, then purchase a chain to link it to your wrist. This may be immersion breaking but is doable RAW.
It is RAW, but someone else could pick it up too. In which case they now have your weapon, with you chained to it.
Depends on the length of the chain. When I've done this, it's always been fairly short so that the sword would not fall on the ground and could be yanked back into the hand like a yo yo. I guess one could argue that a creature could make an attempt to grab the chain to move or reposition the character. However, that opens the door to pulling on every creature's belt, cloak, or cape moving forward. Then everyone would be like the Incredibles, i.e., no capes.
If the weapon is on the ground any other humanoid within reach can pick it up without an action, just the same as you can. At which point he would be carrying it and you would have to disarm him to get it back. The length of the chain is not really relevant, it would limit how far you could move, and how far he could move without dropping the sword, but would not do much else IMO unless one of you used an action for something else (wrap up the other one or tie it off, jerk the other guy to the ground or whatever).
My point was that a creature cannot pick a sword up from the ground if it is hanging at the wizard's side and not laying on the ground.
my point is that it is illogical to assume you can perform a hand gesture with a focus in your hand for some spells but not others regardless of chains and drops and free actions, I can give a "Road Rager" the BIRD while holding a pistol. I dont have to put down my pistol JUST to flip him off.
If you can attack something 5 feet away with this then the chain would need to be long enough for the weapon to hit the ground. Also tied to your wrist specifically I would not assume that your hand is "free" for casting. I think that is highly debatable. Tied to your belt sure.
I actually think this is a lot easier to do with the focus than with the weapon.