Swapping Weapons & Interacting With Objects

Characters sometimes want to swap in hand items in combat.  Some games just allow whatever to happen (I have been known to do that) but it seems wrong for a character to sheath a sword, grab a ranged weapon from his back and put away his shield and then have a normal turn.  This post is aimed at defining where the line exists between free action to swap and spending an action. 

I found this topic discussed on Stack Exchange if you want to see other thoughts on the subject. 

The PHB p. 190 has a paragraph that addresses this in the Other Activity on Your Turn section.

You can also interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack.

Notice that is a singular weapon, not a pair and it says nothing about stowing a weapon. A few examples of things that can be done with a free action are included in the PHB.

• draw or sheathe a sword
• open or close a door
• withdraw a potion from your backpack
• pick up a dropped axe
• take a bauble from a table
• remove a ring from your finger
• stuff some food into your mouth
• plant a banner in the ground
• fish a few coins from your belt pouch
• drink all the ale in a flagon...

 

Dropping Items

Not addressed in RAW is the action cost of dropping an in hand item.  Fortunately, that has been addressed in a Sage Advice / Jeremy Crawford tweet.

@JeremyECrawford what are the rules on dropping weapons? People are dropping weapons to circumvent only having one 'Interaction with Object'
@DnDMontreal The intent is that letting go of something requires no appreciable effort. But picking it up does.

That can be stated as dropping one or more items is a FREE action.

 

Effect of RAW

At this point the effect of RAW is clear.  I'll give an example.

A fighter with a shield on one arm and a long sword in the other, who wants to shoot his long bow can do the following:

• Sheath his long sword (free action)
• Drop his shield (free action)
• Ready his bow (action, would have been free but for sheathing the sword)
• Use his bonus action 
• Use his movement action

If he wanted to attack in that same round, he would need to drop his shield & sword and ready his bow. The difference being the sword is now on the ground. 

 

Clear but Punishing

That's a clear rule, but it can be seen as too restrictive.  Mike Mearls thought so when he tweeted on the subject:

@mikemearls ... it seems you only get strictly one interaction, either sheathing or drawing a weapon.
@Brail4 DM is free to make a call, based on the situation
@Brail4 yeah - the intent is to avoid punishing players for that stuff by charging an action

 A co-creator of D&D 5E thinks that RAW can be too punishing in this area.

 

How Will I Handle This?

 I want to allow "reasonable" weapon swaps as a free action.  Something like sheathing a long sword and grabbing a handy throwing axe from your belt seems reasonable.  Returning a great sword to straps on your back and grabbing a flask of oil from inside a backpack does not.

I suppose the generalization of this is that the swap should be something that is essentially a practiced action and involve items that are typically at the ready (e.g. weapon in belt sheath vs item in pack with other things). My pass at how to say this in something closer to "rules" language:

In addition to RAW rules on in-hand items, swapping one in-hand item with a different item to/from accessible locations may be done as a FREE action; example: sheath a sword and pull long bow from shoulder.

The above wording conveys my intent while leaving the meaning of accessible vague. I'm not going to try to define it here.  This will be done on an as needed basis until (and if) I can can clearly generalize my meaning.

One Other Thing

In writing this article, I noticed a potential conflict with the example free actions (drink all the ale in a flagon) and the RAW rule on drinking potions. It would seem, that drinking a flagon would take no more time than drinking a potion, but that is not the case.

RAW DMG on drinking a potion:

Drinking a potion or administering a potion to another character requires an action.

Jeremy Crawford has tweeted a clarification that a potion(magic) is indeed not a flagon(mundane) the former takes an action to drink and the later can be a free action.  This is a game rule, not a reflection of reality.

I am still using my rule on potion use:

Drinking a potion (or eating a Goodberry) is an action or a bonus action, feeding it to someone else is an action,