Nettie's page

Cool. Seems everyone agrees that I am reading too much into the “gesturing freely” part. Thx!

I think you're assuming a balance factor that isn't really there.

Just wanna comment on that: Having to add a hand to a weapon or not (costs an interact action) does change balance. If we talk battle caster or gish, that’s significant, as Arachnofiend’s post confirms, it’s not just me who noticed that issue. Any weapon with the two-hand trait does deal higher damage when used two handed, so the question was if that damage comes at a cost for a battle caster. Like the higher range of the crossbow comes at the cost of the reload.

In 5e for example it specifically says that you only need two hands for two-handed weapons while attacking with it, meaning that adding and removing a hand isn’t an action but part of the attack. So gesturing freely for a spell and then attacking with a two-handed in one round would be theoretically possible if the action economy allowed it. In 2e, by deduction, that cannot be, because adding a hand to a weapon is an action.

So my question ultimately might be: We should I spend an action to add a hand to a weapon, as in where does this additional action make the game more functional?

The rules for somatic components say that you must be able to gesture freely, but also that you may hold something in your hands while casting a spell with somatic components.

Now, since two-handed weapons give a clear advantage in terms of damage over 1-handed weapons, it sounds like game balance-wise, spellcasters should not be able to cast while wielding a two handed weapon. But RAW, this doesn’t seem crystal clear. It seems weird to I imagine a spellcaster gesturing while holding a heavy crossbow.

Im looking for clarification.