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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Elethiomel" data-source="post: 3352249" data-attributes="member: 49897">I'd say the hand is needed for the "finger play" bit of the somatic component - not the entire somatic component, or casters could walk around in full plate with no penalty. As I see it you need to move pretty much your whole upper body precisely to cast spells - or why do breastplates have a whopping 25% spell failure even if the PHB depiction shows hardly any coverage on the right arm? And why would a shield in the off hand give ASF if only one arm was needed to cast spells? No, it says you need a free hand, not a free arm. An item with ASF 0 doesn't hamper the overall body movements of spell casting, and so shouldn't block spellcasting with whatever hands are attached to any limbs it may cover.</blockquote>