Spell Combat and Two-handing a one-handed weapon

[TheFlyingPhoton]

I have a Mindblade Magus in my game. Spell Combat says you need a free hand in order to use it, but can a Magus grab their one-handed weapon with both hands as a free action after initiating Spell Combat?

Since he's a Mindblade, he eventually gets the ability to use Spell Combat with a two-handed weapon at 13, so if he already can two-hand one-handed weapons, the only benefit he gets at 13 is an increase in damage dice. If he can't, then there's a huge damage output jump.

[Val'bryn2]

If he could, why would they give him the ability? Seems obvious to me that he can't.

[John Murdock]

you can as a free action remove the grip of your hand on the weapon and then cast and then again as a free action regrip your weapon, the number of time you can do it is limited by the GM as with all free action

[Trish Megistos]

By the same logic you could dual wield one weapon and hit twice by attacking once with the right hand (but actually holding it with both) and then attacking with the left hand (but again holding it with both).

[John Murdock]

you can't attack with two weapon at the same time (unless you got a feat) and you cannot wield two weapon with the same hand, you can hold them but not wield them, and if you have a weapon in both hand and you want to cast you need to drop that weapon, which is a free action too

[Katapesh Fried Chicken]

Trish Megistos wrote:

By the same logic you could dual wield one weapon and hit twice by attacking once with the right hand (but actually holding it with both) and then attacking with the left hand (but again holding it with both).

You can't "dual" wield a single weapon. Dual means two ...period and you can't apply Two-Weapon Fighting to a single weapons since it specifically calls out both "two weapons" and a "second" weapon. No matter what mumbo jumbo you do with your hands it's still only one weapon. However with iterative attacks you can sure can do as you describe. I imagine monks or lighter fighters like swashbuckler doing things like that to disorient opponents could work as fluff.

As for the OP, I don't see any reason why you can't release a hand to cast a spell and place it back on your weapon to two-hand it. If I'm not mistaken Paladins can do it when they lay on hands. It makes thematic sense too since the magus charges his hand with the spell and transfers it to his weapon to be delivered.

[Volkard Abendroth]

Spell Combat is a full-round action that requires a free hand.

Spells are casts and all attacks are made as a part of this full-round actions.

You cannot use a free action to two-hand your weapon while taking the full-round Spell Combat action, though you could do so after casting all spells and completing all attacks.

The Mind-Blade has specific exemptions that allow him to THF/TWF while performing the Spell Combat action.

Spell Combat wrote:

To use this ability, the magus must have one hand free (even if the spell being cast does not have somatic components), while wielding a light or one-handed melee weapon in the other hand.

Mind Blade wrote:

When using two-weapon fighting with two psychic weapons or a psychic double weapon, the mindblade can use her spell combat ability as though she had a hand free.

[Katapesh Fried Chicken]

Volkard Abendroth wrote:

Spell Combat is a full-round action that requires a free hand.

Spells are casts and all attacks are made as a part of this full-round actions.

You cannot use a free action to two-hand your weapon while taking the full-round Spell Combat action, though you could do so after casting all spells and completing all attacks.

The Mind-Blade has specific exemptions that allow his to THF/TWF while performing the Spell Combat action.

Yeah, my bad. I confused spell strike with spell combat. Volkard is right, since it calls it out as a full round action that requires a free hand, no two-handing anything during that turn.

[Trish Megistos]

@Katapesh
I suppose it was meant to be some reductio ad absurdum, but really more of a joke.

[Chess Pwn]

Nope, has to be free the entire round to spell combat.