Can Sorcerers Cast While Holding Weapons?

[almightygm]

Like the subject says. The book says that the Sorcerer has to be able to gesture with his/her hands to cast magic. Can sorcerers gesture enough while holding a sword and shield? Just a sword? A dagger? Is it just GM's discretion? Sorcery is the only magic type that seems to have the gesture requirement.

 

[Loz]

As long as your hands aren't tied, or your arms immobilised, then yes, you can hold a weapon whilst doing so. However, doing so could well make you a target for melee combatants, so it might be more practical to hang-back and prepare the spell for maximum effect.

 

[almightygm]

Thank you for the clarification. The other thing that came up was if magic users get Combat Maneuvers when casting spells. Our idea was that they do as long as the spell was one where there (1)is a victim and (2) the victim got some sort of resistance/evade roll.

 

[Loz]

Can you explain this about more? I don't quite follow what you mean.

 

[almightygm]

For example, a character casts the Fate spell on his friend during his turn and gets a Critical Success. Does he get a Combat Maneuver? Doesn't seem to make sense that he would as the caster is not attacking anyone and there is no comparative level of success.

On the other hand, if the magician is casting Dragon's Breath, gets a CS, and the victim gets an MS on the evade, then would the caster get a combat maneuver (such as Choose Location)? This makes more sense since he is attacking someone.

So as a general rule I assume that getting a Combat Maneuver when casting a spell can only occur when the spell is inherently offensive AND the victim gets a chance to resist so that there can be a level of success comparison to determine if and how many combat maneuvers are awarded.

 

[aelius]

As long as your hands aren't tied, or your arms immobilised, then yes, you can hold a weapon whilst doing so. However, doing so could well make you a target for melee combatants, so it might be more practical to hang-back and prepare the spell for maximum effect.

I don't know, Loz, the first rule of fantasy role playing is "Kill the Wizard". When I see some guy hanging back with no weapon waving his arms around he goes to the top of my target list. If he is holding a weapon I might not realize he is casting. After all, he could be one of those idiots that thinks waving his weapon around looks cool.