Honestly I do not think that allowing characters who can cast spells to cast spells without needing to perform the cumbersome actions of putting away or dropping their weapons/shield every time is a game breaker. If you leave it in, people will complain about excessively long animations, and they wouldn't be wrong.
I agree of course. But I was going with what I thought was the RAW. As Larian is
suppose to stick closely to the rules.
D&D is designed to be flexible and the DM can put in house rules for all sorts of things to suit the tastes of that particular table.
When I DMed 2e, I added in a lot of house rules. For instance the 1e Assassin, 21st - 36th levels, Unearth Arcana, Oriental Adventures, Dragon Lance, 1e DMG Artifacts and Relics, and a segment (6 seconds) combat system with speed factor, weapon reach, and casting times. I even made a combat round board.
