Heya folks, I'm going to be playing a battlemage of sorts in a upcoming campaign and I'm in need of clarification on something.
I'm deciding between a one-hander or a two-hander to go along with my caster; for example sake lets say a shortspear or a longspear.
Since I need a hand free for somatic components, I'm obviously curious about the drawbacks of wielding a two-handed weapon, however I can't seem to find clear rulings on this in the core.
If I am wielding a longspear and want to cast a spell with a standard casting time, I assume I could let go of it with one hand and just carry it with the other.
1. When can I regrip it with both hands? After the standard action (but say, before a move action), during a move action, or at the end of my turn?
2. Would I lose attacks of opportunity until my next turn?
3. Anything else I should know?
Thanks in advance.
1 anytime in your turn, as long as you are not interrupting any other action
2 only if you don't regrip your weapon before the end of your turn
3 there is actually no RAW on the matter, that's why you didn't find anything. However the dev-suggested rule that everyone was using anyway is that changing weapon grip from 1 to 2 hand or back is a free action. Thats the basis I used to answer to the questions 1 and 2.
Unless you are playing a magus, there is almost no problem whatsoever, since switching hands is a free action.
You wield your tw-handed weapon as you normally would, but whenever you cast a spell on your turn, you switch it to one hand (at which point, you are merely holding it, not wielding it), cast your spell, then re-grip it with both hands.
Simple.
Even when it isn't your turn (such as when casting immediate action spells) you can still do this, since free actions can be taken along with any other kind of action (in this case, freeing a hand as a free action as part of the immediate action casting).
Ah that clears it up for me, thanks for your answers.
You do not threaten during the time you are casting, so if you provoke an AOO, opponents can use untrained (not having the feat) CMB checks to trip/grapple/any other CM that can be done in place of an attack of opp.
You do not threaten till your next round if you cast full round spells (sleep, summons).
Appart from that there is no specific drawbacks, well you cant cast melee touch spells and hold the charge while making weapon attacks (not that you would)
Partially correct. Only disarm, sunder, and trip maneuvers can be made as part of an attack of opportunity. All the others require specific actions, such as grapple, which requires a standard action.
You are correct though that you would not get an AoO of your own for their untrained combat maneuver since you are, technically, not wielding a weapon (and thus not likely threatening any squares).
You could always wear a cestus or gauntlet on the hand you cast with, too, to get past the "you don't threaten while casting".
I don't think a normal gauntlet lets you threaten anymore than your fist would. Spiked gauntlets on the other hand...
Even the wizard in our group utilizes something to threaten at all times. His happens to be a spiked armored kilt.
lol.
Only disarm, sunder, and trip maneuvers can be made as part of an attack of opportunity.
Disarm and trip, but not sunder. Sunder is made as part of an attack action in place of a melee attack. Since an AoO is not an attack action, you can't replace that attack with a Sunder attempt.
Heya folks, I'm going to be playing a battlemage of sorts in a upcoming campaign and I'm in need of clarification on something.
I'm deciding between a one-hander or a two-hander to go along with my caster; for example sake lets say a shortspear or a longspear.
Since I need a hand free for somatic components, I'm obviously curious about the drawbacks of wielding a two-handed weapon, however I can't seem to find clear rulings on this in the core.If I am wielding a longspear and want to cast a spell with a standard casting time, I assume I could let go of it with one hand and just carry it with the other.
1. When can I regrip it with both hands? After the standard action (but say, before a move action), during a move action, or at the end of my turn?
2. Would I lose attacks of opportunity until my next turn?
3. Anything else I should know?
Thanks in advance.
This is one of the biggest reasons my clerics will not wield shields. Shields just get in the way of spellcasting too much. It's far easier to just go offense with a big 2 handeder so I can cast without spending several rounds to get off a critical heal or similar. At higher levels I'll just get a buckler and load it with special abilities (+1 buckler of heavy fortification is a good investment) and focus more heavily on my armor and such. Or a dancing shield, because they're kind of broken. >.>
Only disarm, sunder, and trip maneuvers can be made as part of an attack of opportunity.Disarm and trip, but not sunder. Sunder is made as part of an attack action in place of a melee attack. Since an AoO is not an attack action, you can't replace that attack with a Sunder attempt.
I managed to get clarification from one of the designers that the intent is that it works like disarm and trip (leading me to believe that the mention of attack action is a misprint or a holdover from when it meant something else).
I managed to get clarification from one of the designers that the intent is that it works like disarm and trip (leading me to believe that the mention of attack action is a misprint or a holdover from when it meant something else).
Got a link? If they won't make an official FAQ for it, at least we could get it updated on the d20pfsrd.
I managed to get clarification from one of the designers that the intent is that it works like disarm and trip (leading me to believe that the mention of attack action is a misprint or a holdover from when it meant something else).Got a link? If they won't make an official FAQ for it, at least we could get it updated on the d20pfsrd.
It's been a long time, but I will see if I can dig it up.
EDIT: Tis a bit dated, but this link shows the developer's early intent/thought process.
Here is the clarification that you can sunder as part of a full attack.
I also found one of my older threads which discusses this issue in depth.
That's all I could find for now.
Here is the clarification that you can sunder as part of a full attack.
There was some confusion in that thread as to what an attack action was, with people thinking it was any action that involves an attack. JJ says here to take it to the rules forum.
So we're back to FAQing your thread / waiting for the next errata.
argh