[RPG] What action type is switching two items between main hand and off-hand

dnd-4e

Here are two related questions, actually.

1st: What action type (time) does it take to pass an item from one hand to another (assuming the other hand is free)?

2nd: I know that retrieving or stowing an accessible item is a minor action, but how much time (action type) does switching items in hand take? With switching items I mean, for example, passing a weapon wielded in my main hand to my off-hand and, simultaneously, passing the implement in my off-hand to my main hand.

Thank you.

Best Answer

I don't believe there are written rules to address this.

However, I would consider both actions you describe as roughly equivalent to retrieving an item from a pouch, and therefore say that it costs a minor action.

As for how long it takes in "real-time", the most accurate statement anyone can make is that it would take no more than six seconds - which is the approximate time given for one round of combat. With the exceptions of rests, rituals, and travel across distances, most actions do not have any rules stating how long they take to complete.

This does beg the question though, "Why do you need to do this?". As far as I'm aware, there's no effective benefit or penalty for using one hand or the other for most purposes.

1. We get no benefit from the DIS feat if we cast with the off-hand implement.

2. We can cast through our off-hand implement...

...though we must designate main-hand and off-hand to determine the application of the feat as per above.

BUT: This is a weird fringe case with no explicit rules.

I'm gonna get wordy here, because so far as I can tell there is no official ruling on handedness as it relates to implements. The best we can do is look at weapon rules for these cases, and try to extrapolate, and then decide if that inference is valid.

Why am I talking about weapons?

Because Dual Implement Spellcasting did it first, and they're fundamentally the same thing for purposes of balance.

At their base mechanical function, weapons and implements serve identical purposes. They both provide a progressive enhancement bonus (+1 through +6) to the attack and damage rolls of powers channelled through them (and follow the same price advancement). With some bizarre exceptions they must both be held in at least one hand to be used. They each usually have powers or features that can only be used with attacks that use the item in question.

The feat in question uses a term ("off-hand") that is otherwise exclusively reserved for weapon mechanics. I believe that if they meant something more vague like "other hand," they probably would've said that instead; this may be optimistic on my part, but I'm running with it because I prefer "not so much leaping to conclusions as building elaborate cantilevered structures so as to reach conclusions more efficiently for prolonged periods."

So, what are the mechanics for off-hand weapons?

Off-Hand [from the DDI Compendium, also verbatim in RC 270]

An off-hand weapon is light enough that the attacker can hold it and attack effectively with it while also holding a weapon in his or her main hand. An adventurer can’t attack with both weapons in the same turn, unless he or she has a power that allows such an attack, but he or she can attack with either weapon.

I also found a parenthetical that may help clarify things, in the Two-Blade Fighting Style ranger feature [PHB1 104]:

(Make sure to designate on your character sheet which weapon is main and which is off-hand.)

In addition to this parenthetical, there's a plethora of items and features and powers which treat handedness as permanent ("while you wield this weapon in your off hand" isn't "when you consider this weapon to be in your off hand"), and many powers and feats (including this one) are obviously balanced on that assumption.

Together these indicate that handedness is permanent: characters are not ambidextrous, nor can they choose to change which hand is their primary. "Off-hand" is a mechanical term that means something definable and permanent to a character. (It also strains credulity that all adventurers are perfectly ambidextrous, but I won't argue realism on a 4e rules question.) This is the crux of the issue.

Dual Implement Spellcasting grants no unusual handedness privileges or exceptions.

If we allow ourselves to generalize what we learned from the off-hand weapon rules, when we dual-wield implements we must signify which implement is in the main- and which in the off-hand.

The off-hand weapon rules I've co-opted for implements say we get to choose which implement to attack through without penalty. This is how I answered question two.

But, DIS only gives the damage bonus when attacking with the main hand. This is how I answered question one.

If we want to cast through the implement currently in our off-hand and gain the enhancement bonus from the implement currently in our main hand, we must switch implements to the other hands. Feats and items which allow us to do this efficiently are outside the scope of this already-lengthy answer, so I'll link to Bag of Blades: A Guide to Off-Hand Properties and Free Action Item-Swapping and RPG.SE's own (slightly outdated) What action type is switching two items between main hand and off-hand?.

_{[On a side note, "staff" and "quarterstaff" are two separate items: a "staff" is a one-handed implement which can be wielded as a quarterstaff weapon but not enchanted as one, and a "quarterstaff" cannot be used or enchanted as a "staff" unless an exception is explicitly made. I mention this because my research for this question brought up dozens of attempts to use "DIS" with a single staff.]}

[RPG] What’s the Fastest Way to Reload an Off-Hand Hand Crossbow

Just take the Two-Fisted Shooter feat and move on.

You can treat the hand crossbow as an off-hand weapon, and you can reload it one-handed as a free action. When you score a critical hit and have a loaded hand crossbow in your off hand, you can make a ranged basic attack with that weapon as a free action. (MP 140)

This will let you reload a hand crossbow with the hand you're holding it in, and eliminate any other silliness.

It's totally possible to juggle weapons like your talking (actually what you probably want to do is juggle the rapier and the hand crossbow in the same hand and keep your off hand free). But really, there's a feat for this, that has an additional cool mechanical benefit. Take that and move on.

One more possible solution if you don't mind spending a minor every other turn or so.

Start turn with unloaded HCB in off hand, rapier in main.
drop rapier (free action)
Load HCB (Free action)
attack with HCB (standard action)
Reload HCB (free action)
Pick up Rapier (minor action)

You now have a loaded HCB, and the rapier is back in hand. If you do this every other turn, you can attack with the HCB and have the rapier available for opportunity attacks or melee situations.