You still need components that are consumed by the spell for some rituals and spells (ruby, quicksilver, etc) in 5e but there´s no rituals in BG3 and you usually can go with a focus 90% of the time.
I've noticed in the gameplay videos, that Shadowheart casts Guiding Bolt often. She usually has a weapon and shield equipped when doing so. Guiding Bolt requires a Verbal and Somatic components, how can she cast it without the Warcaster feat? I'm not complaining, just trying to figure out Larians spellcasting system. It makes a huge difference for my planned spellcaster builds.
Shadowheart is a cleric, and clerics(and paladins) could bear the holy symbol in his shield. And as RAW, you can use the hand where you have your holy symbol or druidic/arcane focus or bard instrument/weapon focus to make the somatic components of a spell. So she can cast spells with somatic components with weapon and shield.
Sc:
https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/01/04/holy-symbol-on-shield/That only applies if there is a material component, which
Guiding Bolt doesn't have. That's what the
Warcaster feat is for.
I respectfully disagree. In the sage advice of the link the D&D developer Jeremy Crawford states literally:
Holy symbol engraved shield counts as material component, but does holding the shield replace somatic component also?
@JeremyECrawford
"The intent is that the shield hand can be used for a SOMATIC component if the holy shield is used to cast the spell"
-Minor detail, but this means you are moving your shield around to produce the somatic component, not that you are exempt?
@JeremyECrawford
That's correct. You still need use of the shield arm to move it while performing the somatic component.
And that´s what warcaster (amongst other things) do: You can perform the SOMATIC components of spells even when you have weapons or a shield in one or both hands. Clerics and Pallys could do that without the feat if their shield is his/her holy focus.
Pallys and Clerics can imprint a holy symbol in their shields. So, the shield in your hand is effectively a Holy symbol. It would also be a substitute for the material components because that´s what holy symbols are for: they substitute any (non-consumable) component of a spell. And as stated above, you can use your shield hand to also perform the "somatic" components of a spell because
And as RAW, you can use the hand where you have your holy symbol or druidic/arcane focus or bard instrument/weapon focus to make the somatic components of a spell. So she can cast spells with somatic components with weapon and shield.
.
So you can cast any spell with a weapon and shield as a cleric or paladin because your shield is your Holy symbol (Unless you´re silenced and the spell requires verbal)
Of course, that does not apply to wizards because they need a spellcasting focus, not a holy symbol, like a staff. But Shadowheart is a Trickery cleric of Shar.
Please do not take it the wrong way, but I think you have some misunderstanding about some basic terms on how spellcasting works in D&D and what the warcaster feat does. You can take a look here
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules/spellcastinghttp://dnd5ed.wikidot.com/feat:war-caster
As @Stabbey pointed out, Warcaster is still very useful for clerics because of the advantage in concentration checks and the AoO with spells. It´s one of the top tier feats of D&D5e for any caster.
