Cursed two-handed weapons only weld to one hand at a time, allowing you to do things with the other hand. The only way to have no free hands at all is to wear a cursed shield and wield a cursed weapon.
The spell of protection, rather than giving you a golden haze, gives you a “spectral shield”. It weighs nothing, and automatically equips into your shield slot if your offhand is free. It provides around 3 or 4 AC, and this does not degrade over time. However, the shield is temporary and will dissipate in a hundred or so turns.
If the shield is unequipped but kept in your inventory, it hovers around you and tries to block things on its own, but it only provides about 1 or 2 AC in this form. If it leaves your inventory for any reason, it dissipates. Casting protection again while you are already carrying a spectral shield resets its dissipation timer; it doesn’t give you a second one.
The shield has a price of 0, so you can’t sell it.
Bows should be two-handed, as they require both hands to use properly. You’re already not allowed to twoweapon with them, but it shouldn’t really be possible to wear a shield and fire a bow at the same time either, except maybe a small shield. Possibly classify them as hand-and-a-half weapons, in variants that have those, or just disallow firing with a bow while wearing a shield.
If both of your hands are occupied, you cannot multishoot thrown ammo (e.g. darts, shuriken, daggers). You can still multishoot if you’re firing ammo from a launcher.
Multishot cap is halved if you are wielding something in your main hand other than the requisite launcher for what you’re trying to multishoot, regardless of if your other hand is free.
Wielding a one-handed weapon with nothing in the offhand will double the damage bonus from Strength (but not weapon damage or other bonuses).
You must have at least one free hand to zap a wand. Otherwise the game won’t let you.
The effectiveness of the protection spell depends on how your off-hand is being used (open is better than carrying a shield, which is better than using it to wield a weapon). If your off-hand is free, the spell gives you a “spectral shield”.
