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In Tasha's Cauldron of Everything and the Artificer from Unearthed Arcana 2024: The Artificer, the Spellcasting feature has a section titled "Tools Required".

TCoE, p. 11:

Tools Required

You produce your artificer spell effects through your tools. You must have a spellcasting focus—specifically thieves’ tools or some kind of artisan’s tool—in hand when you cast any spell with this Spellcasting feature (meaning the spell has an “M” component when you cast it). You must be proficient with the tool to use it in this way. See the equipment chapter in the Player’s Handbook for descriptions of these tools.

UA 2024: The Artificer, pg. 2:

Tools Required

You produce your Artificer spells through tools. You can use Thieves’ Tools, Tinker’s Tools, or another kind of Artisan’s Tools with which you have proficiency as a Spellcasting Focus, and you must have one of those focuses in hand when you cast an Artificer spell (meaning the spell has an "M" component when you cast it).

The Sage Advice Compendium states that you can perform the Somatic components of a spell with the same hand that holds the Material component, assuming you use a Spellcasting Focus:

What’s the amount of interaction needed to use a Spellcasting Focus? Does it have to be included in the Somatic component?

If a spell requires Material components, the spellcaster must have a hand free to access or hold them, but it can be the same hand used to perform Somatic components, if any. This latter rule holds true for using a Spellcasting Focus, which a spellcaster must hold unless its description says otherwise.

For example, a Cleric uses an Emblem on a Shield as their Holy Symbol. When in combat, this Cleric likes to wield a Mace in one hand and the emblazoned Shield in the other. This Cleric must have the Shield in hand when casting a Cleric spell that requires a Material component. If the spell, such as Aid, also requires a Somatic component, the Cleric can perform the Somatic component with the hand holding the Shield, allowing the Cleric to keep wielding the Mace. However, if this same Cleric were to later cast Cure Wounds—which has Somatic components but no Material components—they would need to unequip either their Shield or Mace to free a hand for the Somatic components.

If my Artificer's hands are full, holding a Tool in one hand and a Shield in the other, would they still be able to cast Cure Wounds?

Like the SAC example given, the spell would have both a Somatic and Material component, and thus unlike the Cleric they wouldn’t need a free hand to deliver the spell’s touch.

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Yes, if they hold tools as a focus in hand

The Sage Advice entry you cite uses a cleric as an example, but its guidance us general:

  • If your spell has material and somatic components, the hand that is performing the somatic component can be the same hand that is accessing the material components or providing it via the focus it holds - thus you can cast such a spell when you hold a focus and have no free hand.
  • If your spell has only a somatic component but no material component, you need a free hand to cast it. You cannot cast it if you have no free hand, for whatever reason (including because one if your hands is holding a focus).

For artificers, any spell they cast, including ones that normally do not require a material component, requires tools, adding the requirement of a material ("M") component to the spell.

So for the artificer Cure Wounds is a spell wich requires both a somatic and a material component, and the first option applies: they can cast the spell holding tools in one hand and something else in the other.

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    \$\begingroup\$ This game gives me such a headache sometimes. No wonder people tend to just ignore these rules... \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 23 at 14:07
  • \$\begingroup\$ @order Yup. Doesn't make any sense to me that you can do somatic gestures with a hand that is holding a focus in one case but not in the other (unless you happen to be an artificer). \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 23 at 14:31
  • \$\begingroup\$ So this restriction on Artificers completely removed the need to consider whether a spell requires a somatic component? \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 23 at 14:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ @MichaelRichardson Different question but nah, you still need hands and still need to be able to perform the somatic component ... if you were paralysed, you couldn't cast a spell like counterspell or hypnotic pattern even though you are holding your focus \$\endgroup\$ Commented Sep 23 at 14:50

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