Archmage, with a crossbow slung across his back

[ThirdWizard]

Yes, I'm sure.

Oh! Oh! I want to play, too!

My DM says that my cleric has to drop his morningstar
to cast spells. Is he right?

Yes and no. To cast a spell with a somatic (S) component,
you must gesture freely with at least one hand. (Player’s
Handbook, page 140) A cleric (or any caster, for that matter)
who holds a weapon in one hand and wears a heavy shield on
the other arm doesn’t have a hand free to cast a spell with a
somatic component (which includes most spells in the game).
To cast such a spell, the character must either drop or sheathe
his weapon.
Another simple option is for the cleric to carry a buckler or
light shield instead of a heavy shield. The buckler leaves one
hand free for spellcasting, and you don’t even lose the
buckler’s shie bonus to AC when casting with that hand. The
light shield doesn’t give you a free hand for spellcasting, but
since you can hold an item in the same hand that holds the light
shield, you could switch your weapon to that hand to free up a
hand for spellcasting. (You can’t use the weapon while it’s held
in the same hand as your shield, of course.) The rules don’t
state what type of action is required to switch hands on a
weapon, but it seems reasonable to assume that it’s the
equivalent of drawing a weapon (a move action that doesn’t
provoke attacks of opportunity).

Don't you love the FAQ?

 

[Qualidar]

The 5th lvl wizard in our Shackled City campaign has a heavy crossbow he uses all the time. Sometimes it pays to save the big guns for the right situation.

~Qualidar~

 

[rgard]

Almost all mages I’ve seen equip a crossbow, staff, and dagger at 1st level. This item will sometimes, occasionally be used up to 3rd level. But once the mage gets 2nd and 3rd level spells, these weapons rarely, if ever, get used. Yet the weapons remain equipped. I have seen 8th, 9th, and 10th level mages with crossbows. The halfling sorcerer 10 in my game now has a crossbow and a staff strapped to his back (gotta leave hands free), and a dagger on his hip. Every time I see this note on the character sheet it kind of stumps me. It’s sort of like seeing a jet fighter pilot with a rifle strapped to his back – just doesn’t look right.

I had a wizard a few years ago that had only a dagger. And I didn’t even have it listed as a weapon – didn’t have attack bonus or damage written down for it. It was a joke among the group that if I ever had to pull out that dagger in a fight, we were in serious deep trouble. But my wizard did not have a crossbow or other weapon.

Do you see this phenomenon? Does your mage have and use weapons other than his/her spells? At what level can a mage dump the weapons? At what level "should" a mage dump the weapons to avoid looking like a novice cantrip-thrower?

Quasqueton

When my first addition MUs ran out of spells, they would draw daggers and attack. I do it less often in 3.5 playing a Mystic Theurge, but I'm a bit more judicious with the spell use along with a boatload more spells to expend. That said the Theurge also carries a very nasty longsword...just in case and has used it.

If you want to be a punk about it and use a ranged weapon, own two heavy crossbows. The last spell you have/cast is Unseen Servant. Have the Unseen Servant load the one crossbow while you shoot the other.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

My last wizard was a halfling in the Eberron setting. Borrowing a few aspects of Dark Sun "barbaric" halfling culture, he believed that making a bone weapon out of a specific species granted you bonuses against that species. So he had a bunch of daggers.

He never used them, however, and I think he used his crossbow once, possibly never. (He started at 8th-level, replacing my shifter rogue character. Presumably if I had been using him at 1st-level he would have been forced to rely on his crossbow for a couple of levels.)

IMO the dagger is actually an annoyance. Making an AoO when you'll probably miss and will maybe do 1d4+1 damage isn't exciting; it's just slowing down the game. Not that it slows it down much; pretty much anything with an Int score of 5 or better goes out of its way to avoid AoOs.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I've had characters never run out of their first 10 sling stones.

 

[Barak]

Spellcasters I run from level 1 always will have a weapon, until level 20.

Spellcasters I create at level 10 or above never will have a weapon, 'cause I have enough to deal with without trying to figure out their to-hit or damage with a weapon they'll never use. In fact, I just created a 15th level wizard for an arena-type game with a strenght and Dexterity of 2, and he sure has no weapons.

 

[cattoy]

Most of the time, my arcane spellcasters will carry around a weapon they don't intend to actually use.

It helps to keep opponents guessing as to exactly what they are, which if you get ambushed might be the difference between alive and not so much.

(if you wear monkish robes and have a pair of kama stuck in your belt, people don't tend to fire arrows or area effect attacks at you) Good thing too, seeing as how your AC and reflex saves are usually awful.

Also, they are good to have on hand in case your buddies lose theirs.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Many, many years ago in 1st ed. AD&D I had a wizard (magic user in those forsaken times) who had a higher strength than intelligence. In fact he had a higher strength than the party fighter.

He really liked clobbering people, and continued this antisocial behavior until the campaign ended, at which time he was twelfth level. He was also a barroom brawler, and drank his whiskey neat, soaking his cigars in the stuff before ligting them. He was based, ever so loosely, on my great grandfather.

The Auld Grump

 

[Sejs]

After a certain point, I've found the crossbow or sling being mainly used as a tool more than a weapon. Cast a spell on a crossbow bolt or sling stone, then fire it off at something distant.

You've still got it, you just don't fight with it much anymore.

 

[JoelF]

My 6th level abjurer routinely runs into combat by round 3-4 (partially explained by his 5 Wisdom). Once he's buffed up, he's still got one of the best ACs in the party. He'll let loose with a big gun offensive spell, and sometimes a flaming sphere which is controlls with his move action, and then goes at an enemy with his staff. He normally attacks some mooks to free up the better fighters, but he's also helped out the fighters when they're up against a tough enemy and having a hard time hitting - he'll set up flanks, and use the aid another to give +4 to an ally, and rarely gets attacked by the enemy, since he's not really perceived as a threat.

He also packs a scroll or two of truestrike, and often saved the day with the resulting auto hit (except on a 1). And one time, he memorably grappled an enemy rogue for a full 5 rounds, keeping him from joining the fight as we as from escaping.

His one caveat about using weapons is he refuses to even carry a missle weapon, since "his magic is all he needs at range."

I'm sure he'll go into combat less as he rises in levels, but I also know he'll be going into the Initiate of the Seven Veils PC, and could be interesting in melee with those prismatic wards up. Especially with Tenser's Transformation.