I've been having trouble figuring out the right way to rule this for my scimitar wielding druid, but now I'm also DMing for a cleric and a paladin, both wielding a shield in one hand and a weapon in the other... How do I approach this?
As far as I know, their shield can have their holy symbol embedded in it, allowing them to casts spells with material components while wielding it with a weapon, but somatic components however, require a free hand.
I usually allow them to drop their weapon as a free action and app linked pick it up again after casting as an item interaction, which I think doesn't break any rules, but (at least for me) breaks some of the immersion to favour the game's mechanics and also makes the War Caster feat less effective.
How do you usually handle this?
I simplify the interpretation of the rules as follows, as I really don't feel it is fun to micromanage hands/casting and there are various reading of the rules notably around Holy Symbols, etc.
My simplification : if you are using a shield/weapon or dual wielding, and cast a spell, we consider that your one Item "Interaction" of the turn has been used. It may seem slightly more generous than the stricter interpretation, but generally amounts to the same result (more or less).
Plus considering casters using two-handed weapons, bows or crossbows do not have to bother with this fuss, I do not feel it is necessary to make this more complicated than necessary for shield users (who must be proficient to start with) and dual wielders. BUT the DM could/should then be stricter on what object/environment "Interaction" they can do if they casted.
Steam profile : https://steamcommunity.com/id/baraz/
As a DM or as a player, I've never really had to deal with the Somatic components of 5e as written. Which is a good thing, since I find the rules to be pretty imbalanced and impractical, apart from requiring proficiency to cast in armor. It's not like full casters need more ways to be stronger than half- and 3rd casters in this system. So for Solasta, I tend to just turn off the somatic components.
For tabletop, I like to incorporate it with a more Pathfinder-esque system, where grappling or entangling/webbinng the enemy can prevent somatic components.
Typos happen. More so on the phone.
Are you asking about rulings in pen-and-paper table top games or in Solasta?
In real games I assume players will handle it as part of their object interaction. In Solasta I turn off the requirement for Somatic components, since that's just not fun.
as the OP and Baraz point out it is usually possible to cast with sword and board by doing some juggling and on the table top you can hand wave [pun intended] pass the issues, but in solasta you need either go through the annoying extra steps each time or kinda 'cheat' by turning off the somatic requirements, however, most of the time you won't be cheating just skipping some steps.
yellow flower of courage
just need the other hand free, or the War Caster feat, which allows you to cast spells with somatic component while wielding shield and weapon. You can, you just need the other hand free, or the War Caster feat, which allows you to cast spells with somatic component while wielding shield and weapon.
There is no War Caster feat in Solasta. If the OP is asking about tabletop D&D, this isn't the right forum for it.
Community Expansion mod has a War Caster feat available. If you don’t want to use mods, and find the somatic components implementation of Solasta more of a pain than a feature, you can just turn them off in game settings.