Do you need a free hand to reload?

[Ravingdork]

I cannot seem to find any rule that specifically states you need a free hand to reload in Starfinder.

Can a skittermander using his Fusillade feat to empty six pistols start reloading them? Or does he need to drop or put one or more of them away first?

Alternatively, do I need to spend a swift action to switch my two-handed longarm to one hand before being able to pull out a new battery to reload it?

[Fuzzypaws]

SRD wrote:

Unless stated otherwise, reloading is a move action that includes grabbing ammunition you have readily available.

So logic would seem to hold, you have to grab the ammo to reload it which means you need a free hand. (If a race with four arms had weapons in two hands and two other free hands I would probably allow it to reload both weapons at once.)

The specific exception would seem to be the Automated Loader augment for powered armor, which allows you to have your armor reload weapons mounted to it, presumably without requiring you to have a free hand since a computer is doing it for you.

[Joshua James Jordan]

Magnetized clips and specialized pockets on your armor make it so you can reload with a free hand. You can also stick a gun under an armpit while reloading the other. Don’t overthink it gang, it’s a move activity to reload and that’s it. ^_^

[Jhaeman]

Hm, I think it's a good, FAQ-worthy question, as I can see plausible arguments on each side.

[Ravingdork]

Joshua James Jordan wrote:

Magnetized clips and specialized pockets on your armor make it so you can reload with a free hand. You can also stick a gun under an armpit while reloading the other. Don’t overthink it gang, it’s a move activity to reload and that’s it. ^_^

I'm thinking this is probably the intent as well.

[Pax Miles]

There are quite a few reload related armor and drone upgrades. I'm inclined to believe that the intent is that free hands are required to load, if only because it nerfs a bunch of other things if reloading requires no hands.

[Ravingdork]

That may well be, but requiring a free hand pretty much nerfs longarms and heavy weapons doesn't it?

[Pax Miles]

Ravingdork wrote:

That may well be, but requiring a free hand pretty much nerfs longarms and heavy weapons doesn't it?

How so? You should be able to hold the weapon in one hand, while loading with the other. And you don't need to reload for every shot, just every set of shots as per the weapon's capacity.

Are you thinking of a particular weapon?

Most of the weapons have a large capacity where they should be able to fire many times without reloading. Most weapons with a low capacity also have the Unwieldly rule (like Sniper Weapons), so aren't really nerfed by having low capacity. The IMDS Missile Launcher is probably the only weapon that comes to mind as having low capacity and lacking the Unwieldy rule, but that weapon does obscene damage, so I hardly see the unintended nerf.

Drone weapon mounts don't require additional hands to load, though they have other limitations (like having a set limit on spare ammo).

The Automated Loader armor upgrade seems like the intended option for Heavy Weapon users in Powered Armor (and Heavy Armor wearing Soldiers with the Enhanced Tank Ex).

My characters, so far, have really only reloaded a couple of times in-combat. Most of the time we reload between combats, or just switch to an already loaded weapon. Especially when any weapon can be Called for a very low cost, the need for fancy reloads has proven limited.

[Ravingdork]

Pax Miles wrote:

Ravingdork wrote:

That may well be, but requiring a free hand pretty much nerfs longarms and heavy weapons doesn't it?

How so? You should be able to hold the weapon in one hand, while loading with the other. And you don't need to reload for every shot, just every set of shots as per the weapon's capacity.

It's a matter of action economy. Switching hands around is a swift action now. So, under this interpretation, you would need to spend a swift action to put your two-handed weapon into one hand, reload as a move action, then spend another swift action to put it back in both hands so that it can be fired.

You just spent an entire turn doing nothing but reloading, which really hurts your overall DPR.

You're right that you don't have to reload too often, but many two-handed ranged weapons have as few as five shots. You've basically emptied the clip with two full attacks.

To say nothing of autofire weapons which empty their clip with every autofire attack!

This is one of the many reasons why I don't believe you need a hand free. It hurts too much to be sensible.

I've heard it said at the automatic loader exists so that you don't need to exit the powered armor to reload your weapon mounts.

[Valfen]

Which is more likely ?
1) Freeing a hand to reload a weapon is included in the "Reload" action.
Or
2) Developers intended you to waste two Swift actions freeing a hand to reload any two-handed weapon, and neglected telling us in the rules.

I'd go with interpretation 1) without an hesitation.

[Ravingdork]

I agree Valfen, but needing a hand free has been a rule for so long, through so many editions, that I feel asking the question in the hopes of getting a clear answer is still warranted--specially for things like Society play.

[Valfen]

Ah, I see your point.

For some reason, I approached Starfinder as its own set of rules quite easily (maybe because I've dabbled in way too many other game systems), but I can understand how people really used to PF/D&D history could be thrown off by that kind of quiet change.

[Pax Miles]

Ravingdork wrote:

Pax Miles wrote:

Ravingdork wrote:

That may well be, but requiring a free hand pretty much nerfs longarms and heavy weapons doesn't it?

How so? You should be able to hold the weapon in one hand, while loading with the other. And you don't need to reload for every shot, just every set of shots as per the weapon's capacity.

It's a matter of action economy. Switching hands around is a swift action now. So, under this interpretation, you would need to spend a swift action to put your two-handed weapon into one hand, reload as a move action, then spend another swift action to put it back in both hands so that it can be fired.

I don't think this qualifies as switching hands twice. I'd consider it a drop item action. Both hands hold the gun, you drop grip from one as a free action. You'd reload as a move action, and then shift your grip as a Swift to take the empty hand to grab the weapon with two hands.

Unless the weapon in question is too bulky to be *held* one-handed, of course. That would be up to the GM, as I don't think any of the weapons are presently too bulky for this, but maybe if the GM was allowing you to just barely wield an oversized weapon, in example.

[Fuzzypaws]

If the question is whether you can reload when you're just holding a two handed weapon, then yeah, I'd totally say the move action for reload allows you to do everything you need without any further swift actions - the reload move action explicitly includes grabbing readily available ammo. When I said you would need a free hand, I was more thinking a situation where you were dual wielding two weapons, or were holding a shield or toolkit in the other hand, or whatever.

[Claxon]

If you need a free hand, it makes fusillade feat even more dubious then it already is. Also, wielding two weapons at once. Both of which have marginal usefulness since they don't grant extra attacks.

Personally, I would go with the interpretation that the move action to reload includes any shuffling of hands (or anything else) necessary enable you to reload. Don't overthink it.

It probably could stand to be directly addressed though.