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Infernal Legacy grants tieflings ability to cast Hellish Rebuke as a reaction at 3rd level, as if it was cast using a 2nd level spell slot. Hellish Rebuke as spell has Verbal and Somatic components.

How can a tiefling using a sword and a shield (or wielding two weapons, separate item in both hands anyway), cast it in a battle, as a reaction? Is there something which allows practical use in regular battle, or is this class feature nearly useless for most front line fighting tieflings? Am I missing something obvious here?

The spell description does say "point a finger", which could be plausibly done with weapon in hand, but I don't think requirements of somatic component allow such exceptions strictly RaW?

I mean, it can still be used in bar fights, but 3d10 fire damage seems rather excessive retribution for some peasant hitting you with a beer mug... And I guess there's the odd ambush where damage is done when the PC does not have weapon in hand yet. And a principled good-aligned warrior might walk into a battle with an empty hand, and only envelope the baddie in hellfire after receiving a damaging hit, and then draw a weapon, but that is getting a bit ridiculous...

Alternatively, are there other options for making that high-AC front-line tiefling warrior, who can use its racial abilities in battle well?

WakiNadiVellir
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    Possible duplicate of How do foci and somatic+material components interact when it comes to occupying a hand? or Can you cast spells with a Somatic component if you're holding a two-handed weapon?. – Rykara Sep 03 '19 at 23:11
  • Related: How to combine melee combat with Material components for spells? – Rykara Sep 03 '19 at 23:14
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    @WakiNadiVellir, can you confirm whether one or several of the questions linked above match/address the question you're asking? – V2Blast Sep 03 '19 at 23:26
  • @V2Blast Well, the question is kinda tiefling specific, and I edited it a bit more, because that "build a different tiefling type" mentioned in the answer is what I am actually going to use. – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 09:13
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    @linksassin Yeah, but the current only and accepted answer actually answers the edited question, so I don't really see a point of asking a different question, and then marking it as duplicate of this one because this one has an answer for it... – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 12:23
  • Ah, I see that now. Unfortunately you can't see the answers from the review queue. In that case [edit] the whole question and make it ask that and remove the duplicate stuff and I will vote to reopen. – linksassin Sep 04 '19 at 12:25
  • @linksassin I edited mostly the title, I think it is now sufficiently different, while keeping the current answer fully valid. – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 12:54
  • I'm not sure this being about a tiefling makes it fundamentally different from the linked questions. Why do you think it is? You are asking how can I cast a reaction spell (source doesn't matter) when my character has their hands occupied. – NotArch Sep 04 '19 at 13:10
  • @NautArch Well, because here the solution is "there are Tieflings which have different racial abilities, so you are not forced to take Hellish Rebuke". – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 13:16
  • But then the question isn't about a Tiefling with Hellish Rebuke. It's either about it or it isn't, i'm kinda confused. – NotArch Sep 04 '19 at 13:24
  • @NautArch My problem was how to reconcile Tiefling (with default ability Hellish Rebuke) with using Sword and Shield, and make a good character out of that (because not being able to use your abilities is not fun). And for me the best solution would be to use a different tiefling, which was revealed to me with the accepted answer. What is so confusing about this? – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 13:35
  • This latest edit changes the question significantly enough - from a rules question to a build question - that I strongly recommend you roll it back and move the edits to an entirely new question. – Stop Being Evil Sep 10 '19 at 05:58
  • @sevenbrokenbricks The current answer IMO (answers my question. I see no reason to take any action here myself (other than suggest re-opening, which was rejected). If you want to ask the new question on my behalf, go ahead, but I don't see how that wouldn't then be a duplicate of this. – WakiNadiVellir Sep 12 '19 at 10:26
  • @WakiNadiVellir It’s not that, it’s a matter of that kind of change to a question retroactively and rudely changing all its answers to be off topic (because they answered the old question). SE as a whole calls these “chameleon questions”. – Stop Being Evil Sep 12 '19 at 23:51
  • @sevenbrokenbricks Except in this case I edited the already closed (so no more answers coming) question to match the only answer. So in fact the opposite happened, I made the answer more on-topic by editing question. The edit was directly inspired by part of the answer, which was the solution for me, but not covered by the first version of the question. – WakiNadiVellir Sep 13 '19 at 00:06
  • @sevenbrokenbricks And I am aware of how Stack Exchange sites work, and I would not have made the edit if it had invalidated existing answers. And I don't want to edit/roll back the question out of some principle, because that would hurt the answer. – WakiNadiVellir Sep 13 '19 at 00:26

1 Answers1

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You have some options.

Sheath your weapon in advance.

Just before ending your turn, if you expect to be hit, you can use your item interraction to sheath your weapon. This allows you to cast hellish rebuke and then you can draw your weapon again at the beginning of your following turn.

Just keep in mind you only have one item interraction on every turn, so you can't draw and sheath during the same turn.

Have the War Caster feat

This feat states that:

You can perform the somatic components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands.

This option is available by 4th level, if the GM allows feats.

Know the Subtle Spell metamagic.

This metamagic states:

When you cast a spell, you can spend 1 sorcery point to cast it without any somatic or verbal components.

This option is available to 3rd level Sorcerers.

Be a different kind of tiefling

It's a bit of a copout, but it's worth mentioning that WotC published no less than 10 different kinds of tieflings, and some grant racial spells that may be more suitable to a frontliner, such as the Zariel Tiefling from Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes, which states:

You know the thaumaturgy cantrip. When you reach 3rd level, you can cast the searing smite spell as a 2nd-level spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. When you reach 5th level, you can cast the branding smite spell once with this trait and regain the ability to do so when you finish a long rest. Charisma is your spellcasting ability for these spells.

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Ruse
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  • Another option, instead of sheathing your weapon would be to simply drop it, though this comes with its own risks – Exempt-Medic Sep 03 '19 at 23:19
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    Another option is wielding a Two-Handed weapon. You can release one hand from the weapon without dropping it, which removes a lot of possible negatives – Exempt-Medic Sep 04 '19 at 01:39
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    @Medix2 the question is specifically about sword and board or dual wielding. – Ruse Sep 04 '19 at 01:53
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    I mean you also mentioned the counter idea of being a different kind of tiefling entirely, but fair – Exempt-Medic Sep 04 '19 at 04:17
  • Different kind of tiefling, excellent! Not sure if I'll pick the one you suggest, or something else (for a more versatile build), but "you don't have to pick a build with hard-to-use racial ability" is the gist of it :-) – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 09:15
  • About Sorcerer Subtle Spell metamagic... Is that limited to Sorcerer spells, or are Tiefling racial spells allowed to use it too? (As a side note, I edited the question a bit, but I don't think it matters for this answer.) – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 12:55
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    A common option (far more common in my experience than any of the above) is 'just don't care about v,s or m' and cast it anyway. Requires DM permission of course, but I have only met one DM who really cares about that kind of thing. – SeriousBri Sep 04 '19 at 12:59
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    @wakiNadiVellir metamagic can be used on non-sorcerer spells https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/53714/does-a-sorcerers-metamagic-work-for-non-sorcerer-spells – Ruse Sep 04 '19 at 14:26
  • @Medix2 sorry, I wasn't very clear. I suspect based on the way the OP mentioned dual wielding and sword & board, that the OP already knew hellish rebuke is't impeded by a two-handed weapon, so I didn't think it was worth mentioning it as a counter idea. Whereas I thought the tieflings would be worth mentioning because the OP may not have known of their existance. – Ruse Sep 04 '19 at 14:38
  • @Ruse Well, I wasn't clear on two-handed weapons (I think that too requires some interpretation unless the weapon is versatile but that is beside the point), but I was not interested in that option, so I specified as I did in the question. – WakiNadiVellir Sep 04 '19 at 14:49
  • @SeriousBri This group seems to care about the subtle differences of spells (which is the way I like it too). Spells are balanced also by their component requirements, so ignoring components can make casters stronger than they should be. – WakiNadiVellir Sep 12 '19 at 10:40