4
\$\begingroup\$

The official description of the warmage class (Complete Arcane p.10) doesn't say that it needs a free hand to cast spells with somatic components, but other casting classes do appear to have that as a requirement, and it seems like it could be a balance issue without it. Is there a default or hard-and-fast rule about this?

\$\endgroup\$

1 Answer 1

3
\$\begingroup\$

Spells with somatic components require a free hand, yes. This is a general rule, and you can only get around it if something specifically says you don’t need one. The warmage class does not say any such thing anywhere in its description, so yes, warmages do need a free hand to cast spells.

Note, however, that there are numerous ways to kind-of ignore this.

If you were interested in a shield as well as a weapon, a buckler leaves your hand free enough to cast a spell. Warmages ignore the arcane spell failure chance of “light shields,” which strictly speaking does not include bucklers, but it would be a cruel DM who insisted on that. If necessary, though, a mithral buckler has 0% ASF (and 0 ACP, which is nice). So you can use a weapon and shield as long as that shield is a buckler. This does make the warmage’s proficiency and ability to ignore the ASF of light and heavy shields rather pointless, unless you wanted to go without a weapon, but ultimately that’s a really, really small loss (since the only advantage of a light shield over a buckler is that it can be used to bash, and the only advantage of a heavy shield over that is a measly +1 shield bonus to AC).

On the other hand, if you were interested in a two-handed weapon, you can let go of that with one hand as a free action, cast your spell, and then grab your weapon again as another free action. So the weapon is no impediment to your spellcasting at all.

The only time you really get into trouble with this rule is when you want to use two-weapon fighting. You can do it just fine with a quarterstaff, since it’s a two-handed weapon (see above) that you can TWF, but actually using two separate weapons is where you have a problem. Letting go with one hand means actually dropping a weapon in this case, so that’s no good. There is no good way to sheathe a weapon quickly enough to be workable with this, and there are few enough ways to cast a spell despite having a weapon in each hand. The daggerspell mage prestige class from Complete Adventurer is one way, but it costs at least one, and usually two, levels of spellcasting as well as a really bad feat on top of Two-Weapon Fighting itself. Generally, this just isn’t recommended.

However, ultimately, for a warmage, your BAB is poor and you can only use simple weapons. On top of that, your spell list is full of blasting, and almost no buffs that would improve your weapon-combat abilities. Your spells are supposed to replace weapons, not augment them. It’s entirely valid for a warmage to not even bother holding a weapon; holding a magic item like a wand or rod is probably better.1

Finally, just a note: the warmage is a really, really weak class. Warmage edge is a trap; after about 5th level or so, it just adds too little damage to justify investing in Intelligence (you are better off getting higher Charisma for better DCs, higher Dexterity for better initiative and ranged touch attack rolls, higher Constitution for more HP), so unless you are staying in the absolute lowest levels, you should basically ignore the class feature. All the armored mage stuff is nearly worthless, as it’s really easy to ignore arcane spell failure. And the warmage spell list is awful. I strongly recommend just playing a sorcerer; you will be much better at the things the warmage is good at, and you will be able to do a lot more things that the warmage never could. The only reason to play a warmage, really, is as a self-nerf when playing with a low-power party and you want to avoid overshadowing them.

  1. In reality, the best approach is probably to use either rod that counts as a weapon, or a weapon that has a wand chamber, as described in Dungeonscape, so that you can hold both at once.
\$\endgroup\$
3
  • \$\begingroup\$ Possibly worth mentioning that double weapons can be used to TWF but easily let go of like two-handed weapons? It's just about the only thing double weapons are good for. \$\endgroup\$
    – A_S00
    Feb 23, 2017 at 20:22
  • \$\begingroup\$ @A_S00 Ah, a good point! Since warmages are only using simple weapons anyway, a quarterstaff is quite reasonable for one. \$\endgroup\$
    – KRyan
    Feb 23, 2017 at 20:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ General rule from d20srd.org/srd/magicOverview/castingSpells.htm . Worth a ref? \$\endgroup\$
    – joedragons
    Feb 24, 2017 at 16:37

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .