Can gishes cast spells with twohanded weapons?

[magicalmagicman]

I mean like, if a gish holds a greatsword, he can let go one hand to cast a spell while holding onto the greatsword with his other hand right?

1. Can gishes cast spells while wielding a two handed weapon?
2. If 1 is true, then what is the advantage of a onehanded sword?

[Tiri]

I mean like, if a gish holds a greatsword, he can let go one hand to cast a spell while holding onto the greatsword with his other hand right?

1. Can gishes cast spells while wielding a two handed weapon?
2. If 1 is true, then what is the advantage of a onehanded sword?

Yes. He can let go to cast with his hand. The advantage of a one-handed weapon is that the gish can also threaten the area around him while casting. It's not really a significant one once you get to the point where spells begin to outstrip the fighting classes, though.

[Hiro]

I'm no expert on this, but I'd think a caster could, it the same thing mages whom carry staves work. They let go with one hand to cast.

But in your example- that greatsword would be too much for you to hold in one hand and keep level. You'd have to rest the point on the ground or something and that takes more effort for your char to lift if they got interrupt-attacked while casting.

The advantages are simple 1) personal taste. Some guys/gals just don't like hauling a big awkward slab of steel around.

2) encumbrance, awkwardness and weight- all of these together make greatswords very "trying" to carry around sometimes (like getting stuck in a door cuz the thing is slung over your back wrong or something ad getting pelted by arrows while attempting to correct that.)

3) If you're a gish, there's likely someone else in the party who'd be better served using it instead of you.

4) most gish classes are written/created in a way that compromises. YOu're good at alot of things just not everything.

Personally in my creation/games I limit gishes to using only one-handed weapons or spears for these reasons

[Fouredged Sword]

1 ) yes, but no.

The thing is you can't wield a two handed weapon and cast spells at the same time. That said, you CAN change between wielding two handed and holding one handed as a free action. The consequence of this is that there is a discrete period that you are not wielding your weapon, merely holding it, and you lose any bonuses that require wielding during that period. Opponents who notice this can use delayed actions to jump into the middle of your round to take advantage of this.

2 ) you have a free hand to do all kinds of interesting things. You can hold metamagic rods, wands, scrolls, potions, and other magic items. The difference in damage between a one handed and two handed weapon is small for non-strength, non-power attack based damage dealers.

The best of both worlds tends to be a quarterstaff. It is an unusual weapon in that it's a double weapon and yet not exotic. This means that it can be wielded one handed and also used as a two handed weapon. Most of my gishes end up with a magical staff (of useful emergency spells), two wand chambers, and one end enchanted to provide mostly defense buffs.

[Siosilvar]

I'm no expert on this, but I'd think a caster could, it the same thing mages whom carry staves work. They let go with one hand to cast.

But in your example- that greatsword would be too much for you to hold in one hand and keep level. You'd have to rest the point on the ground or something and that takes more effort for your char to lift if they got interrupt-attacked while casting.

The advantages are simple 1) personal taste. Some guys/gals just don't like hauling a big awkward slab of steel around.

2) encumbrance, awkwardness and weight- all of these together make greatswords very "trying" to carry around sometimes (like getting stuck in a door cuz the thing is slung over your back wrong or something ad getting pelted by arrows while attempting to correct that.)

3) If you're a gish, there's likely someone else in the party who'd be better served using it instead of you.

4) most gish classes are written/created in a way that compromises. YOu're good at alot of things just not everything.

Personally in my creation/games I limit gishes to using only one-handed weapons or spears for these reasons

A 5-6' long, 5-8 lb chunk of metal isn't all that more awkward than a staff... you're thinking of ridiculous fantasy weapons, not a greatsword. Not that ridiculous fantasy weapons are out of the question if the player wants them, but if you're basing your argument on realism concerns, look at real weapons.

Besides, aren't the compromises already written in?

[magicalmagicman]

If you have a two handed weapon, and you cast a standard or full round spell, do you still threaten the area around you?

[Tiri]

If you have a two handed weapon, and you cast a standard or full round spell, do you still threaten the area around you?

No, because you have to take your hand off the weapon to cast, and since you can't use a two-handed weapon with only one hand, you can't threaten.

[magicalmagicman]

No, because you have to take your hand off the weapon to cast, and since you can't use a two-handed weapon with only one hand, you can't threaten.

But you're done casting your spell by the end of your turn, which is when you could start wielding it again since it doesn't even take a free action to do that I think.

[Tiri]

But you're done casting your spell by the end of your turn, which is when you could start wielding it again since it doesn't even take a free action to do that I think.

Well, yes, you could always do that.

[Eloel]

The advantage of a one-handed weapon is that the gish can also threaten the area around him while casting.

I'll just repeat the quote I used in the other thread.

While casting a spell, you don’t threaten any squares around you.

[Flickerdart]

The advantages of a one-handed weapon are that you can have a shield, or a hand free for things like Snatch Arrows. They are very slight advantages, which is why very few people use one-handed weapons.

[Elder_Basilisk]

It depends on the gish and on the game rules.

3.x, a lot of people have covered this. You don't threaten while you are casting if you let go with one hand, cast your spell, and then put your hand back on the weapon. But unless you are casting a one round spell (enlarge person, summon monster X) that only matters if someone does something that would provoke with a readied action because you threaten before your turn and after your turn.

Now, there are still some advantages to a one-handed weapon. You can use a buckler with a one-handed weapon (at high levels, you can get an animated shield, but before level 10+, an animated shield is a big dent in your total wealth so you can get noticeably better defenses with a one-handed weapon and buckler). Depending on your style of gish, it may also be important that you can hold a bow in your buckler hand while you cast spells, then draw a one-handed weapon if forced into melee. When you get out of melee, you can then drop the one handed weapon and go back to firing the bow. If you used a two-handed weapon, you had to drop the bow in order to wield your two-handed weapon. And if your one-handed weapon is light, you can wield it in a grapple. Also, this depends on your campaign, but one-handed and light weapons are typically thought of as side-arms and are convenient and acceptable in a lot of situations where two-handed weapons would not be. A well dressed gentleman might wear a longsword or rapier to a ball or to court, but walking into the audience with a glaive is not going to go over too well. And dancing with a halberd is problematic. One handed and light weapons can also be finesseable which will make a difference for some gishes.

The balance will generally be in favor of two-handed weapons, but there are reasons to have one-handed or light weapons too.

In Pathfinder, it is much more class dependent.
The prototypical gish class, magus requires a one-handed weapon to use its signature abilities. Other classes will tend to use two-handed weapons but there are some reasons to stick with one-handed weapons. Though divine rather than arcane (and thus not a traditional gish) Inquisitor actually does switch hitting quite well, so a bow and one-handed blade style described above can be advantageous. Arcane archer is more of a gish in pathfinder and the bow and one-handed blade style is worthwhile. Eldritch Knight? Still probably sticks with a two-handed weapon. Bard gishes will often go one-handed simply because they don't have many good two-handed weapon proficiencies (longspear is good but not everyone wants to wield one).

And in Pathfinder, all one-handed weapons can be used in a grapple, so that is a good corner case advantage for them even if it will generally not tip the balance towards a one-handed weapon.

[Eloel]

One advantage of a one-handed weapon is if you want to use your other hand to wield another weapon. Or a torch. Or if you're climbing and need the hand free (comes up often in seafaring campaigns). Or if you have a one-handed weapon that is superior to the best two-handed weapon you can find (when you don't build a high-level character from scratch). Or if you are a soulknife or incarnate and you can summon a one-handed weapon.

[magicalmagicman]

You can use bucklers with two-handed weapons with a -1 attack penalty.

[Nibbens]

I know in PF - letting go of a 2 handed weapon and re-grabbing it with your off hand after casting a spell are both free actions (http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/24463/in-pathfinder-what-are-the-rules-for-holding-a-two-handed-weapon-in-one-hand-wh), and thus the only limitations to the number of times you can let go and regrab the weapon in a single round are up to the DM. as far as threatening is concerned, you're fine, because you still are wielding the weapon effectively, regardless of casting a spell during the round.

[Elder_Basilisk]

You can use bucklers with two-handed weapons with a -1 attack penalty.

But unless you spend a feat (or the two-handed weapon is a bow), you are just taking a -1 attack penalty for no AC benefit. It's not really worth it unless you are using a one-handed weapon and will want to take advantage of the buckler's AC from time to time.

[magicalmagicman]

But unless you spend a feat (or the two-handed weapon is a bow), you are just taking a -1 attack penalty for no AC benefit. It's not really worth it unless you are using a one-handed weapon and will want to take advantage of the buckler's AC from time to time.

Good catch! wow my skimming habit is really costing me.

Ok I decided to go with 1 handed then. That buckler AC is too important for my character until higher levels.

edit: Can I do this?
grab onehanded weapon with two hands and attack, then let one hand go before turn ends?

[Elder_Basilisk]

Good catch! wow my skimming habit is really costing me.

Ok I decided to go with 1 handed then. That buckler AC is too important for my character until higher levels.

edit: Can I do this?
grab onehanded weapon with two hands and attack, then let one hand go before turn ends?

You can do that, but I think most DMs will rule that you don't get the AC bonus from the buckler if you do that.

In pathfinder at least it's RAW: "In any case, if you use a weapon in your off hand, you lose the buckler’s Armor Class bonus until your next turn."