Hands free spells?

[LastWildWonder]

Last dnd session a wyvren landed on top of me (human sorcerer) rendering me completely helpless and nearly resulted in my demise. I would rather this not happen again so I am inquiring about hands free spells, if they exist at all.

[Damon_Tor]

As a sorcerer you could invest in the subtle metamagic effect.

[Bubzors]

Misty step is your greatest ally dear squishy caster. Grappled by that barbarian? Kraken has you in his tentacles? That group of goblins surrounding you? Just misty step 30 ft away, run another 30 and then cantrip baby

[PhantomSoul]

In addition to the Subtle metamagic, you can look here (amongst sites) and filter based on components: https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/spells/

[LastWildWonder]

As a sorcerer you could invest in the subtle metamagic effect.

Could you elaborate? Sorry I'm still rather new to the game

[Bubzors]

Could you elaborate? Sorry I'm still rather new to the game

One of the sorcerer meta magic abilities is subtle, which allows you to spend sorcerer points to cast a spell without vocal or somantic components. That way you can cast a spell without chanting or waving hands. Very useful

[Zevox]

Could you elaborate? Sorry I'm still rather new to the game
All spells have what's called components, which you can see in their stat blocks. One of those, somatic components, means they require some kind of body motion, usually hand gestures for humanoids. The Sorcerer metamagic ability "subtle spell" lets you cast a spell without that (or verbal components, i.e. spoken words) if they're normally required.

Additionally, certain spells just don't have that as a requirement at all in the first place, such as the Misty Step spell mentioned earlier, which has only verbal components, not somatic. You can always check the spells you have known/prepared to see if any don't require somatic components if you're in a bind.

[Greywander]

Last dnd session a wyvren landed on top of me (human sorcerer) rendering me completely helpless and nearly resulted in my demise. I would rather this not happen again so I am inquiring about hands free spells, if they exist at all.
Go to this link: https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/spells/
Sort by "Components: no somatic". You can further sort it by class, level, concentration, casting time, school, etc. as you need to.

As a sorcerer, there's not a lot of somatic-free spells. That said, some of the ones that are are spells like Misty Step and Dimension Door, allowing you to get away from whatever might be restraining you and preventing you from using somatic components.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot about the Subtle Spell metamagic. It lets you ignore the verbal and somatic component requirements of spells. Usually, I see this being suggested as a way to cast spells "stealthily", such as using magic to manipulate people without them realizing you're even using magic at all. But it would also work to allow you to cast spells while unable to speak or move your hands.

[Chugger]

misty step only has V component, but if dm rules wyvern is "on top of you" and you can't see where to go, I don't think m.s. will work. You have to see where you are going. A wiz w/ a familiar can possibly see thru fam's eyes and do it.

what "condition" did the dm use to justify you not being able to cast or use somatic part of spell? A wyvern "on top of you" is grappling and/or restraining? I don't recall wyverns having that ability, so dm is homebrewing - which they can do. But as per the phb if restrained or grappled you can still move enough to cast a spell.

This seems to me like a DM who feels he isn't doing his job unless he kills a character every three adventures. There are DMs like this, and if you wanna sit at their table, just get used to dying. You can die less if you understand the rules and if you can do more to protect yourself, but a bloodthirsty dm will homebrew stuff just to occasionally satisfy his lust for player blood. I don't like that kind of game - some do. You can try other DMs if this is how it is, and if you don't like that. You are not stuck - there are online games too, if there are few DMs to pick from in your area.

[Callak_Remier]

Cause fear

[fbelanger]

RAW and RAI, prone. grappled or restrained don’t prevent casting.

[Yunru]

RAW and RAI, prone. grappled or restrained don’t prevent casting.

RAW and RAI they do, if it has a Somatic component.

[col_impact]

RAW and RAI they do, if it has a Somatic component.

You have to grapple, restrain, and then immobilize the hands (ie bind with rope) or apply the incapacitate condition.

https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/44790/what-conditions-prevent-a-caster-from-using-somatic-spells

[Contrast]

RAW and RAI they do, if it has a Somatic component.

I am of the opinion that you're wrong so I'd be keen for you to support the argument that its RAW/RAI. A DM may rule a particular style of restraint is using up your hands (this has little to do with conditions - holding a glass of water in each hand that you didn't want to spill would prevent spellcasting somatic components for example) but nothing implicit in the conditions requires that to be the case.

You could be grappled by someone grabbing the scruff of your shirt, leaving your arms totally free. You could be restrained by having your torso and legs webbed to a wall, again leaving your arms totally free.

Of course something that stopped a spellcaster casting somatic spells would also generally stop a martial attacking for much the same reasons.

[Yunru]

I am of the opinion that you're wrong so I'd be keen for you to support the argument that its RAW/RAI. A DM may rule a particular style of restraint is using up your hands (this has little to do with conditions - holding a glass of water in each hand that you didn't want to spill would prevent spellcasting somatic components for example) but nothing implicit in the conditions requires that to be the case.

You could be grappled by someone grabbing the scruff of your shirt, leaving your arms totally free. You could be restrained by having your torso and legs webbed to a wall, again leaving your arms totally free.

Of course something that stopped a spellcaster casting somatic spells would also generally stop a martial attacking for much the same reasons.
That's both simple and complex.
You are a spellcaster, if you are prone, grappled, or restrained, you're probably already dead.
(Yeah, I got nothing, late night posting, y'know?)

[LastWildWonder]

misty step only has V component, but if dm rules wyvern is "on top of you" and you can't see where to go, I don't think m.s. will work. You have to see where you are going. A wiz w/ a familiar can possibly see thru fam's eyes and do it.

what "condition" did the dm use to justify you not being able to cast or use somatic part of spell? A wyvern "on top of you" is grappling and/or restraining? I don't recall wyverns having that ability, so dm is homebrewing - which they can do. But as per the phb if restrained or grappled you can still move enough to cast a spell.

This seems to me like a DM who feels he isn't doing his job unless he kills a character every three adventures. There are DMs like this, and if you wanna sit at their table, just get used to dying. You can die less if you understand the rules and if you can do more to protect yourself, but a bloodthirsty dm will homebrew stuff just to occasionally satisfy his lust for player blood. I don't like that kind of game - some do. You can try other DMs if this is how it is, and if you don't like that. You are not stuck - there are online games too, if there are few DMs to pick from in your area.

Oh no my DM is fine, he is just rather new to it and the party is a bit large (7 people, it just sorta happened) so it's a tad much for him but he is doing his best. We were doing rather well for ourselves (again, 7 people) so I imagine he wanted to challenge us. But I appreciate the concern.

Also the wyvern landed on my arms, preventing me from casting spells. It then picked me up and dropped me from the air, and I was blinded by accident by a well meaning teammate and was knocked unconscious shortly. Luckily we were in a ash field so I landed softly lol.