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can an official give an answer on to whether or not spellcasting requires a free hand in general?
it's never specified it doesn't, but at the same time it doesn't specify it does
example. it says spellcasting is basically entirely obvious, and all the spellcasters in the book show that they are using their FREE hands, but nothing specifies otherwise anywhere and people are freaking out trying to abuse it in ways that might not be intended
people are trying to use 2 handed heavy weapons, or any combination of weapons that fill all their hands, and then just cast spells because they think they can
and I feel this needs to be added to the FAQ that it SPECIFICALLY does or does not, none of this vague bs
I don't know, but I'm sure I could come up with something and that there are probably many many MANY people that would love to tell you what you want to hear
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I don't know, but I'm sure I could come up with something and that there are probably many many MANY people that would love to tell you what you want to hear
"people are freaking out trying to abuse it in ways that might not be intended" This implies you know of some abuse out there that is attempting to happen now, if you don't know what the abuse is what did you mean by this statement in your OP.
people are trying to do full round spell casting while having things such as a heavy weapon taking up all their arms
you wont believe how crazy the people on facebook get over these vague details, thinking they can become a literal in game deity simply because things aren't worded correctly
now maybe you DONT need free hands to do spell casting because paizo wanted to make it easier, maybe you do. it isn't stated either way and people are getting into trolling wars over it
it's also stated that this is not pathfinder, so they should have been absolutely clear about things like this. Just because spellcasting no longer has components, doesn't mean it doesn't use a hand
in almost every single picture in the core rule book where a character is using magic, they are using their hands and making odd hand gestures/hand signs
it also says we need to concentrate. now since it wasn't clear about it, and all the art involves it, for all we know we do need a free hand and to concentrate on doing the right hand motions
using 2 hands to hold onto say, a big machine gun of sorts, and then somehow making those hand gestures while still holding onto it to do something like use spellcasting as part of their full action to load the gun with magic and shoot it, all without any class feature of anything that would allow them
I'm talking about society by the way
Not only do you not need your hand free for spellcasting, you don't even need hands.
They removed all the components from most spells.
You no longer need to provide somatic components, or material components, or verbal components for (most) spells.
Spells that do still have components have them specifically called out in their description, such as the Undead creation spells.
So this means you don't need to wave your hands, chant, or sprinkle bat guano anymore.
Why does the art show it that way?
Because they're probably using the same artist for Satfinder as they do for Pathfinder. And also it might be confusing to try to draw magic happening without it making it look the person is doing something.
Is this slightly confusing, perhaps a little.
But no components required means no hands required.
In Pathfinder a spell without material or somatic components doesn't require a freehand.
Well, the description of the pinned condition says that you can cast when you can take only verbal and mental actions, so without verbal components to a spell the answer seems to be yes.
Everyone in the future casting silent stilled spells is why it takes them so long to learn how to cast the higher level spells... :)