Hawk Diesel
Adventurer
RAW are covered above. RAI is subject to debate as I'm not really sure whether designers would gave wanted that access toshield without a feat or free hand. However, this is one of those situations where I encourage folks that are not bound by the RAW to ask what ruling seems like more fun? D&D when reasonable player requests are granted. It encourages creativity and heroics that feel like heroics. To that end, regardless of RAW, I'd allow it.
This. All day, every day. The rules serve a purpose, but do we let the rules become such rigid boundaries that it hampers fun or runs counter to intuition?
Especially when you consider this is a big trade-off for a player. Yes, they save themselves from a potentially life-threatening attack (another good point. Would you still prohibit this if the attack could be lethal if it connects?), but this player wields a weapon for a reason. Obviously they can use magic, but clearly this weapon is more likely to be their primary means of attack, otherwise they'd just use their cantrips. That mears regardless, this player is either losing their next action to pick up the weapon, or they are doing sub-prime damage for the remainder of the encounter.
This player is already taking a hit by dropping their weapon. Does it really make sense to punish them even further because they are trying to survive an encounter?