That reminds me that I never made the rules forum post about how a 1+ H bow interacts with Nimble Shield Hand.
You are so used to wielding a shield that you can do so even while using the hand that’s holding it for other tasks that require the dexterity of a hand. The hand you use to wield a shield counts as a free hand for the purposes of the Interact action. You can also hold another object in this hand (but you still can’t use it to wield a weapon). This benefit doesn’t apply to tower shields, which are still too cumbersome.
A few items, such as a longbow, list 1+ for its Hands entry. You can hold a weapon with a 1+ entry in one hand, but the process of shooting it requires using a second to retrieve, nock, and loose an arrow. This means you can do things with your free hand while holding the bow without changing your grip, but the other hand must be free when you shoot. To properly wield a 1+ weapon, you must hold it in one hand and also have a hand free.
Side by side, I think it pretty clearly works with the RaW.
Nimble Shield Hand doesn't let you wield a 2nd thing with it, but 1+ H explicitly says that you are not wielding with that 2nd hand, and just need to "have a hand free."
This is also interesting because that means Shield Spikes + bow are totally on the table for Runesmith. Though feat-wise, the class is so loaded with amazing picks, it'll be hard to justify in a non-FA game.
That said... one of the few gaps in Runesmith is that the class seems to lack a suite of Reaction options. With the exception that the class comes pre-loaded with Bastion's only requirement, lol.
The runesmith might be the squishiest class ever playtested. Their saves are awful and they desperately want to play in melee. I think the playtest is testing whether just using a shield and some of their sheild related runes is going to be enough to keep them alive. I don't think it will be personally. I think something (or likely things) is going to have to give with the class as far as Save DC, weapon proficiency and rune damage to give the class back some necessary defensive class features.
So for the play test, I think the shield stuff is front and center to try to push play testers to see if the shield stuff is enough to keep a runesmith alive or not.
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I don't see how nimble shield hand helps with the Trace Rune action and a bow.
The hand you use to wield a shield counts as a free hand for the purposes of the Interact action.
So you don't meet all free hand requirements — just the ones applied due to any interact actions.
That would help if the Trace Rune action only required a free hand because it incorporated an interact action, but that's not the case since it doesn't involve any interact actions and has its own free hand requirement anyway.
And since bows are Dex-based while shield spikes are Str-based, that's not a great combo anyway.
Nimble shield hand would work a little better with a gauntlet bow since you could trace runes with your gauntlet bow hand, fire a bolt (applying Remote Detonation if desired), and then use your shield hand for the interact action needed to reload.
But even then shield spikes and the gauntlet's melee function would both be Str-based so they won't mesh well with the Dex-based crossbow.
hmm, you're right that it is not "definitely RaW." Trace is the bigger issue, but even the bow's +1 use is left a little ambiguous RaW; while Interact is an open-ended action, the GM must agree that the 1+ H use would be inside that umbrella.
The devil in this detail is that Interact isn't one prescribed action like most are. Things like Draw are not actions, but specific examples of possibilities included inside Interact, which is intended as a general catch-all that tables add edge cases to when they come up.
(otherwise PCs are unable to pick items up off of tables, because Pick Up specifies "the ground")
Honestly, I think a lot of GMs might see that combo as RaW thanks to examples like Reload being forward thinking enough to explicitly say that it's an example action inside Interact umbrella.
The RaW of the exact "Interact action" text is actually super small and rather open-ended, all the Swap, etc, stuff are just examples:
You use your hand or hands to manipulate an object or the terrain. You can grab an unattended or stored object, draw a weapon, swap a held item for another, open a door, or achieve a similar effect. On rare occasions, you might have to attempt a skill check to determine if your Interact action was successful.
IMO, retrieving, drawing, and shooting an arrow is "safely" within that umbrella. Thanks to 1+ H confirming the 2nd hand never needs to wield, I think it's easy to say that the +hand never participates in the actual Strike itself, which only leaves the +hand to be doing "item interaction" stuff, aka Interact.
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But Trace... would not really have much reason to be in there. It's not object manipulation like the bow is. Without being able to Trace, that would break the combo.
I guess wearing a Buckler for the occasional free Raise via an Etched rune + Invoke may be a preferred Runesmith strategy.
Oh wow, forgot that the gauntlet bow is capacity 4. That's actually plenty of ammo to get a Runesmith through most fights thanks to all the other rune actions they'll be doing. Would not have expected such a generous ammo count for a free-hand ranged weapon, wow.
Ugh, mixed up capacity and repeating again. It's still an Interact between every shot.
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You know, the more I think about the proficiencies and the way that the class seems to be built, the more I wonder if the designers didn't try to cram two or three different incompatible classes into one. Maybe they wanted to make a whole "runic magic system" with classes to support it, but only got approval for a single class based on runes. It would certainly explain why the class identity feels a bit all over the place.
The entire Tracing setup needing a free hand, with options to W,FF runes out and use blood to spam magic on someone, or use their true name to screw up their saving throws after moving some runes off of one target to a new one... all of that feels like a runic mage. Especially with the multi-discipline rune invocation bonuses. A mage who should be in robes or lighter armor, standing back a bit further, balancing out spreading runes onto enemies and allies before detonating them for massive effects.
But then the shield block, medium armor, martial proficiencies, and "Hit with weapon to apply rune, shoot arrow to set off runes on target" options combined with the base features of getting extra damage through any weapons with rune based enchantments... feels more like the actual smith part of "Rune Smith." A magic item crafter who knows how to use and modify the tools they make, and when need be is more than willing to go out and deal with a problem personally. Probably while testing out the latest runic combinations they've figured out and doing some in the field troubleshooting. Etching as well feels more like it should fall under this part, rather than on the mage, for reasons we've very much seen in the damage calculations.
But neither idea is really fully fleshed out, and they're mashed together, but they're not mashed together really well. Only a few features really seem to blend them in ways that are both healthy and usable, while others bleed together in ways that lead to... well, shenanigans or seemingly unusable features.
You can still build the runesmith to lean into a specific class identity and role, but at least a few people have mentioned that if you're going for some of those, it might be better to archetype something that supports it and only take a small handful of actual Runesmith feats that you'd need.
I don't get a mix on class identity but I also didn't look to the copy pasted photos for inspiration.
I read about a class that uses the power of words to do magic and that's what it is
To me if anything feels forced it's martial proficiency.
Like even if this was a caster I'd have fun with it.
I actually get a weird rune cleric vibe (cleric has a lot of gishy feats)
To me if anything feels forced it's martial proficiency.Like even if this was a caster I'd have fun with it.
I actually get a weird rune cleric vibe (cleric has a lot of gishy feats)
That's what I'm talking about. Martial proficiencies and martial related feats and abilities with armor proficiencies and bonus damage with magic weapons... all on a very clear solid "this is a mage" setup that uses magic rune effects you create with actions in battle to do a bunch of stuff, while needing a hand empty or holding artisan's tools to cast.