Hands in front of a character can get tricky, that's why I try to avoid it unless the character has some sort of armour on their hands*.

And now when you mentioned it I see the similarity to Belkar - hadn't done that before. Hehe.

Keeping characters somewhat in character might be a good idea too, be a bit free about it though and don't let it restrain your ideas too much.

*Which they never have, and brings its own set of delicious troubles when they do. -.-