Why is Quickdraw only usable with weapons?

[harpy]

This is one of my pet peeves with 3.0 onward, only finally fixed in 4e when you can finally quick draw and object that is readily available.

I've just never understood why it the feat was so restrictive in only focusing on weapons, making it only useful in very specialized builds rather than a good general feat that would be helpful to anyone.

I guess what irks me is that I don't understand the intent behind the design of the feat, and why it stayed that way in 3.5 and then in Pathfinder.

 

[Crothian]

I imagine the intent is to allow a character to quick draw a weapon. I don't see a clear defintion of weapon so it would be arguable that anything a person wants to call a weapon the feat can be used with.

 

[Edgewood]

I had a player want to draw a wand using Quick Draw. Reading the feat as written it wasn't considered a weapon. I thought that was a stretch and allowed him to do it. I also reminded him that NPCS will be able to do this as well. I think that if something is similar in size and is manipulated in a similar way when drawn, then quick draw can apply.

 

[Mark]

My take has always been that this is due to the holster/sheath, not so much the weapon. When someone bucks up for a custom made bandoleer for their potion vials, for instance, I allow the same effect be emulated with other than weapons.

 

[Aurumvorax]

This is one of my pet peeves with 3.0 onward, only finally fixed in 4e when you can finally quick draw and object that is readily available.

I've just never understood why it the feat was so restrictive in only focusing on weapons, making it only useful in very specialized builds rather than a good general feat that would be helpful to anyone.

I guess what irks me is that I don't understand the intent behind the design of the feat, and why it stayed that way in 3.5 and then in Pathfinder.

Attack of opportunity, that's why. Free actions don't normally provoke attacks of opportunity but retrieving an item does. Quick drawing items is also a balance issue as it leads to the "never-ending draw" where someone can simply free action: draw potion -> free action: drop potion -> free action draw potion -> free action: drop potion -> repeat. An even worse scenario are the magic items that are activated as free actions simply via command words.

It's up to the DM to say when free actions are getting ridiculous but it's better to overrule an unnecessary complexity with a more concise ruling IMO. The rules have always been clear on what constitutes a weapon. If it has stats and appears on a weapon chart, it's a weapon. If you're of the mindset that anything and everything can be used as an improvised weapon and thus should be allowed to quick-draw, then all I can do is warn you against the inevitable problem players who will find a way to break you or run away with your ruling.

In that last case, I just like to remind problem players that "Anything the PCs can do, the NPCs can do as well."

 

[harpy]

Attack of opportunity, that's why. Free actions don't normally provoke attacks of opportunity but retrieving an item does. Quick drawing items is also a balance issue as it leads to the "never-ending draw" where someone can simply free action: draw potion -> free action: drop potion -> free action draw potion -> free action: drop potion -> repeat. An even worse scenario are the magic items that are activated as free actions simply via command words.

I guess that is part of why I think it is undervalued, as burning a feat slot to pull out a magic item and use it without any provication is worthy of being a "quick draw."

But I don't really see the problem of potion abuse since you still have to spend a standard action to use a potion, so you can't really create an endless chain with the feat.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

My take has always been that this is due to the holster/sheath, not so much the weapon. When someone bucks up for a custom made bandoleer for their potion vials, for instance, I allow the same effect be emulated with other than weapons.

Funny enough, those not only exist, they don't even require Quick Draw to work.

Potion bandoleer from one of the FR books carried ten or twelve vials that could be drawn as a swift action, I believe.

Wand bracer from Dungeonscape carried five+ wands that could be drawn as swift actions.

Incidentally, quick draw is pretty dang useful in ALL builds, unless you regularly just handwave it to "Well, my weapons is always drawn forever."

 

[Aurumvorax]

I guess that is part of why I think it is undervalued, as burning a feat slot to pull out a magic item and use it without any provication is worthy of being a "quick draw."

But I don't really see the problem of potion abuse since you still have to spend a standard action to use a potion, so you can't really create an endless chain with the feat.

I'm not talking about a chain effect but what a character can do if his entire backpack is available in an instance. Think of a character that can quick draw an item turning into walking donkey cart that can pull out and set aside his party's entire inventory within 6 seconds or until the DM has the good sense to say "Okay, stop." The way I look at it, magic is powerful enough in 3.x without needing any more boosts or ways to have access to it. Ironically it usually hurts martial characters more not being able to draw magic non-weapons, but the feat was still designed for a more mundane application.

Incidentally, quick draw is pretty dang useful in ALL builds, unless you regularly just handwave it to "Well, my weapons is always drawn forever."

A good point. Often times the battle is decided by the very first round especially if one side is unprepared (IE surprised and/or has no weapons drawn). It's even worse for fighters who lose out on their full-attack because they have to draw their weapon. Quick draw has its uses but some DMs simply do the old "You always have your weapon drawn/you're always wearing your armor when battle starts."

 

[Plane Sailing]

Moved to 3e Forum

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I don't get it, either. I made a bunch of changes to Quickdraw to remedy this problem several years ago:

Quick Draw [General, Fighter]
Prerequisite: base attack bonus +1
Benefit: You may draw a weapon, retrieve potions from your belt, anything from a Heward’s Handy Haversack, or any other retrieval action that typically requires a move action as a free action. You may draw a hidden weapon as a move action and may make a full attack with thrown weapons.
Synergy: If you have this feat and Weapon Focus for a particular weapon, you may sheathe it as a free action as well.
Normal: See page 142 in the PHB.

So, you can basically draw anything that would have taken a move action as a free action with that revision. Makes Handy Haversack even more handy. Feat synergy is something I made up for two feats giving an added bonus when a character possesses both. Probably self-explanatory.