I have a game in 24 hours, in which their is going to be an epic showdown. One of my players has informed me that he intends to cut off the evil wizards hands, to stop him from casting spell. This lead me to thinking: Can a wizard cast spells without his hands.

It's a D&D 4e game BTW

This should be in GM workshop.

As mostly a rules question, Gaming Discussion, actually.

Moved and system handle added.

Well, I don't know about 4e, but typically you would always have wanted your hands to make the somatic components - the spells would have to be Stilled (or have no somatic components) otherwise. One hand would be enough, though.

Any spell without somatic components would work. Or a stilled spell. Or a contingency healing or regeneration spell could kick in and give the evil wizard hands in time to cast. Or a delayed action potion, I think you can do some feat with a potion which lets you activate it sometime after it was taken but within a certain time from consumption.

Responses above sound right.
I was wondering, are you bound by 4E rules to allow such an attempt a chance at directly succeeding?

Perhaps a hit from the wizard throws off the warrior's perception somewhat (or even without that playing into it)...

The warrior's first attempt causes severe wrist wounds (and damage). The next causes severe wounds, but higher up on the arm(s). So on and so on without the hand(s) getting cut off. If specifying that an attempt of cutting of hands has a chance at working, why not just specify 'Im going to cut off the wizard's head.' (My apologies if I'm just way off, I'm not familiar with 4E, but I would be surprised if such a 'called shot' were given a legit chance. It's not like he's just saying he will trip or grapple.)

If I were a wizard, I would rather someone slash at my hands/arms than go for a grapple. In the case of grapple, and/or someone grabbing an arm to aid in cutting off a hand (in 3.5 and Pathfinder at least) - Grease cast ahead of time on self gives a bonus vs grapple.

In 4e the equivalent of a 'somatic component' would be the powers that require an implement, like a wand or orb. Much like powers that require a weapon, you can't use them if you can't hold the thing you need. If the power requires an implement, lopping off the hands would theoretically stop the power from going off. Otherwise, it would do nothing.

Thank you all for you advice. This should go great.

Sorry if I posted this in the wrong place. I had second thoughts when I saw the GM's Workshops section.

Note that REQUIRING an implement or a weapon is very different from having the respective keyword, and will be noted explicitly in the power.

I thought that was a specific thing with the half-implement, half-weapon classes like the cleric and paladin. I'm not entirely certain there are any powers specifically requiring an implement beyond the keyword... my advice is probably irrelevant, in that case.