When you cast a spell you can be holding a staff, and a rod, and still somehow do somatic components.
This is not true.
"Somatic (S): A somatic component is a measured and precise movement of the hand. You must have at least one hand free to provide a somatic component."
You could avoid this problem if you took a couple levels in juggler bard.
They can hold up to 3 items and still be considered to have a free hand. That means you can have two cross bows, reload a bolt, and still have a hand to cast a spell (or use the deflect arrows feat it gets for free at level 1)
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"Somatic (S): A somatic component is a measured and precise movement of the hand. You must have at least one hand free to provide a somatic component."
May not be true, but there are an awful lot of clerics or druids who get by holding a heavy shield and a weapon, and still get to cast without issues.
In general needing a free hand to cast is one of the most frequently hand waved away rules I have ever encountered.
I'd like to hand wave it away too, but unfortunately my hands are full.
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I believe that with the divine casters, the usual explanation is shifting things into one hand. A greatsword wielding Paladin would take one hand off the hilt for a moment to present their focus (this makes a lot of sense to me), a Sword and Board Cleric would shift the longsword into his shield hand for a second while he presents the focus (this one works in the rules but is a bit harder to accept in my opinion since it's more actual actions, even if they're all free). That said, those following the rules properly would not permit them to use a metamagic rod if they have a weapon in hand, since that would then fill up that hand (if just a shield, you can hold the rod in the same hand as the shield without issue - you can't *cast* with that hand, but you can hold stuff). Same applies to a Wizard with a quarterstaff focus who is actually following the rules - you cannot use a metamagic rod without still spell or taking the hit for casting without the focus since you'd have the staff in one hand, the rod in the other, and no more hands free to cast a spell.
The main benefit of focus tattoos is it's a lot harder to knock you over the head and steal your focus :) There is a shield modification that permits the shield itself to function as your divine focus.
I had a funny conversation with someone today. This is sorta rulesy. but I'm not looking for rules so much as helping understanding (either of rules for or agianst the following) so I went with general discussion since I am pretty sure it'll go off rules at some point. and i'm looking more for what I or they ovelooked. Do note that 1 we only use the actual books (and updates on the paizo prd. So the FAQ's aren't something we use until they are printed official BUT do mention them of my own sake of knowledge please).....
FAQ's are not always printed, but errata will be. An FAQ explains the idea behind how something is supposed to work. An example is the TWF FAQ. Errata which is sometimes printed into the FAQ section will actually result in a change in the words in the book.
..About how the book doesn't; actually say it requires a free empty hand to reload a crossbow, just that it can't be reloaded by one. So it just requires two hands. Not necessarily empty hand (because various parts of the book does specify an empty hand, but not reloading).
To answer your question you basically need two hands to hold and reload the crossbow. The answer is really because that is the rules. <---That is all you need if you are looking for a rules answers.
Some GM's will allow creativity to trump the rules at times. <----In that case you may need someone who knows more about real weapons to decide if this is feasible or not.Also sometimes the rules are not written as precisely as they could be. When the rules call for 2 hands to do something they tend to assume free(empty) hands. As an example, you can't hold a staff, and reload a crossbow because the staff is occupying one hand.
I couldn't figure out a good way to respond to that.. so I went and read all the crossbow stuff i could and general stuff I could find.
and really I can't find anything that says agianst or for it.
So it sort of feels like this is one of those details that change depending on your persepctive because it's not intrincitcly called out in the text so it changes slightly depending on who reads it first.
I honestly can't think of any reason why you can't... In rules in the...
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worth mentioning that the rules don't require a free hand for material components or focus components, only somatic components. Thats beside the point however, as if a cleric can shift their grip to hold a melee weapon in their shield hand, the same logic should allow a crossbow or gun wielder to shift their weapon to their other weapon hand and reload it with the free hand that provides.
Since no one allows people dual wielding crossbows to perform these shenanigans, I see no reason that casters should be getting the free ride they typically do, heck, half the time GM's don't even seem to make casters take any penalty for having a weapon and a meta magic rod both drawn while casting spells.
Yeah, I've usually always considered a Divine Focus to be either a necklace, or something like a string of prayer beads with the symbol attached wrapped around the wrist. It has to be visible, but not necessarily held in hand.
The shield hand is considered open for holding things with a light shield, just not capable of fine manipulation. Is there a special rule someplace preventing combining a shield and a crossbow or 1-handed gun? None that I'm aware of. You'd take a penalty for firing the crossbow 1-handed (they're technically 2-handed weapons with a provision to use 1-handed at a penalty). But aside from that, you can still use the hand, so there's no reason you can't use it to reload the crossbow or gun (or if the GM is being picky about the manipulation bit, do the same trick and shift, reload, shift). I believe there is a PRC, Shield Marshal, that is specifically built around this for Gunslingers.
In the case of a two-handed gun, or wielding a crossbow with both hands, you can also do the exact same "take a hand off and put it back on" trick.
Now when you're talking two guns or two crossbows - that's a totally unrelated matter. You don't have a free hand in either of those cases, your hands are full of guns or crossbows. The only reason the shield hand is considered free for this is special rules for shields.
I believe that for 2 handers you can hold but not wield the object in 1 hand. Thus if you cast a spell requiring a hand free and you shift your great sword to 1 hand, you are not wielding it for that round, and do not threaten with it. Most shields are strapped to the forearm and allow you to use the hand, but again you lose the benefit of the shield for the round if you do so. For crossbows, if you dual wield repeating crossbows I think you are fine until its time to change the cartridge. Then a couple levels of juggler would help..