[PF] Free Hands and Greatswords

[PsyBomb]

I have a PC who is playing a Mindblade/Aegis, heading eventually into Metaforge. His Mindblade manifests as a Greatsword, which (paired with Aegis customizations for Powerful Build and tons of Strength) leads to surprisingly high damage out at level 3.

He just got his fourth level, which is going to let him take a Blade Skill from the Mindblade class. He has chosen Mind Shield, which gives him a +2 Shield bonus to AC while he has at least one hand free. He is claiming that, combined with Free Action swapping between holding his weapon in one or two hands (default to the system, with FAQ reducing it to "no more than a few times in a turn" to be reasonable), it effectively has no drawback.

Something smells a bit fishy here, but I'm not sure what would cause it to not work. I don't mind either way, it's not THAT overpowering, but I'd like to resolve this debate cleanly for future reference.

[linklord231]

Remind him that free actions can only be done on your turn*, which means he has to choose between having a hand free to benefit from the shield, or using 2 hands to make AoOs with his sword. 

*At least, that's how it is in 3.5. 

[PixelHead777]

Remind him that free actions can only be done on your turn*

*At least, that's how it is in 3.5.

Just checked Pathfinder's SRD page for combat, it's implied free actions are also only on your turn there too.

What I'm seeing here is that his drawback is he can't make AoOs (or makes them at MEGApenalty) if he chooses to free-action swap his hold-style at the end of his turn. Which, all said, isn't necessarily that bad. At least, unless he wants to make a lot of Attacks of Opportunity, in which case he's a tad screwballer'd, but 'ey, that's the price you pay for a freaking awesome brain-sword of sliceydeath AND a thought-shield of safetydance.

[Power]

Nope, this is legit. People do it all the time. The only downside is that he can't swing a greatsword one-handed and you can't take free actions out of turn (except for short talking), so if he gets his shield bonus, he gets no AoOs with his greatsword (but he could take them with an unarmed attack or natural attack or armor spikes if he has those). There really isn't any limit on the number of free actions you can take per turn. The FAQ ruling doesn't provide any limit and there shouldn't be. Originally that FAQ had a hard limit to free actions recommended and paizo's own forums actually went apeshit for once because this was an extremely obvious nerf to gunslingers who use an ungodly amount of free actions to reload with their full attacks and somehow there were enough people on board that didn't worship paizo that paizo undid the ruling and nerfed weapon cords instead.