Jan 18, 2016 by [ "James R. Miller"
]
Categories:
rpgs
Tags:
dnd
5e
free-actions
Every DM has encountered this in a DND-inspired game: “I store my longbow and then draw my sword to attack in the same turn!” Can your players do that? Read on.
Page 190 Player’s Handbook under the ‘Other Activity on Your Turn’ heading
Page 165 Player’s Handbook (implied rules due to dual wielder feat stating you need the feat to interact with the second weapon in a single round)
Alternately, Mike Mearls has tweeted on the topic here:
https://twitter.com/mikemearls/status/490632291656667136 . In short, the tweet
stated: yeah - the intent is to avoid punishing players for that stuff by charging an action.
This leaves us with two ways to run the game:
Follow page 190: it says that you can interact with “one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action”. This implies that you could stow one weapon, or draw one weapon, but not both. This is how I typically rule in my games, however, I allow my players to drop the first weapon on the ground and then draw the second weapon. I think this is the right way to rule, considering the dual wielder feat. Ruling according to Mearls defeats a reason to take the dual wielder feat. I also like that the players have a negative repercussion if they want to switch weapons in one turn: by dropping the weapon on the ground it means no immediately switching back to it in the next round.
Follow Mike Mearls: let the players swap their weapons around willy nilly. I don’t like this approach. If a round is intended to be 6 seconds of combat, I just don’t see how a fighter can stow a long bow, strike with a sword, then sheath the sword, draw the bow, and fire all in the span of 12 seconds, no matter how well trained and rehearsed. However, if your game does not use the optional feat system, then you may want to consider ruling Mike Mearls’s way.
What do you think? Let us know.