[3.5] Taking hands off two handed weapons

[Thurbane]

Hey all,

I asked about this in the Q&A thread a while back.

It is commonly accepted that you can release one hand from a two-handed weapon as a free action, say, to cast a spell.

Where is this specifically spelled out in the rules?

What action type is it to return the hand to the weapon?

I thought there was a Rules of the Game article (possibly by Skip Williams) that went into more detail on this, but a lot of searching has failed to turn it up.

Any info appreciated.

Cheers - T

[Lightlawbliss]

if you have every used a "2 handed" weapon irl, you would understand it very quickly. holding onto a "2 handed" weapon with one hand isn't all that hard and grabbing a weapon your other hand is holding already is rather trivial on weapons in this category (plenty of space to grab and all) and such an action is actually rather common in many fighting styles.

edit: If you want to prove this to yourself, see how hard it is to swing a wet kitchen mop around with one hand (you will likely prefer doing this in a back yard or similar). That is about how hard swinging a two handed polearm around with one hand is.

[Karnith]

There are to the best of my knowledge no rules directly covering this in any book; in my experience people typically say that they extrapolate it from the rules for dropping an item (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#dropanItem) (though the rules for drawing and sheathing weapons (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/combat/actionsInCombat.htm#draworSheatheaWeapon) may apply).

The Rules of the Game article that (briefly) references taking a hand off of a weapon can be found here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20041102a), with this being the important bit:

There are some tricks you can use to threaten those adjacent squares when you're using a reach weapon. If you're a monk, your unarmed attacks continue to threaten the squares adjacent to you. Even if you're not a monk, you can use a smaller weapon to threaten the adjacent squares. You'll have to hold the reach weapon in one hand and wield the smaller weapon in the other hand. Since most reach weapons are two-handed weapons, you're only holding onto the reach weapon, not wielding it, and you don't threaten an area with it. Although the rules don't mention it, letting go of a two-handed weapon with one hand or putting a free hand back on the weapon is a free action for you. Drawing the smaller weapon requires an action, but if you have the Quick Draw feat, it's a free action. Note that you can take a free action only during your turn.
(Emphasis mine)

[Thurbane]

Thanks Karnith - that's exactly what I was looking for. :smallsmile:

[Darrin]

There isn't really much support for this in the Core rules. However, bows are two-handed weapons, and if you couldn't take a hand off to draw ammunition as a free action, it would be impossible to use bows. The same reasoning should work for greatswords: if you can take your hand off to draw ammunition, you can also do so to draw spell components or make somatic gestures.

[Psyren]

FWIW, Pathfinder explicitly lets you do this too. (http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9qda) It's not unbalanced or anything.