D&D 5E (2014) legal staff and shield for hexblade?

[brehobit]

Hi folks,
I want to check if the following is legal.
Could I take a hexblade (playtest version at least), wield an arcane focus staff and a shield and still:

• Use Hex Warrior to add charisma for attack and damage
• Take full advantage of polearm mastery?
• Cast spells freely (no "item manipulation" stuff)?

 

[Nick Hatfield]

You will have to take the War Caster feat in order to deal with the somatic components of spells. There is also some debate whether an arcane staff is the same as a quarterstaff, but if you take War Caster you can just wield a quarterstaff and have your focus/competent pouch as well.

 

[jaelis]

You will have to take the War Caster feat in order to deal with the somatic components of spells. There is also some debate whether an arcane staff is the same as a quarterstaff, but if you take War Caster you can just wield a quarterstaff and have your focus/competent pouch as well.

I think you can perform somatic components with the hand holding your focus.

 

[Nick Hatfield]

I think you can perform somatic components with the hand holding your focus.

I think you are right, after looking at the spellcasting rules again.

 

[brehobit]

So it sounds like the whole thing would work? Seems like a cool build other than AC problems. Might start as a fighter for medium armor prof, good con saves, and a few other benefits. 1st level will suck (STR 10, Dex 14, feat has to do with weapon he won't be using) but after that, looks great.

 

[jaelis]

So it sounds like the whole thing would work? Seems like a cool build other than AC problems. Might start as a fighter for medium armor prof, good con saves, and a few other benefits. 1st level will suck (STR 10, Dex 14, feat has to do with weapon he won't be using) but after that, looks great.

hexblade already grants med armor of course.

 

[LapBandit]

They really should errata that Polearm Master requires wielding a weapon two-handed.

 

[Blue]

I think you can perform somatic components with the hand holding your focus.

Technically, you can only perform somatic components with the hand holding your focus IF the spell also has material components.

Odd and counter-intuitive. I'm not fond of it, but that's technically the rule. I house rule it at my table.

 

[jaelis]

Oh yes that's right.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

wield an arcane focus staff

An arcane focus is a special item that costs a lot of money (it is 25× the cost of a quarterstaff). Do you really want to be whacking dirty monsters with it?

Depending on what it is made of, an arcane focus might be too fragile to use in combat (more than once, anyway). Combat might wreck its ornate decoration and arcane ingredients, making it useless for spellcasting.