Talk to Ashiel About Anything Mark II

[Ashiel]

Speaking of the Elder Scrolls, I recently restarted the game after using some mods to do something a little bit weird. I haven't heard of or seen anything quite like this before, so I thought I'd share. Essentially, I've set my game up so that I cannot gain levels. None of the skills progress your actual level, which means you do not improve health, mana, and stamina at all, nor do you gain perk points. You're basically Level 1 forever.

Because of the Deadly Dragons mod, there's an option to attain perk points by trading dragon souls from slain dragons for perk points. This is the only way to attain perk points and that's by absorbing dragon essence. So go hunt dragons.

Attaining strength is done through a combination of your trade skills, such as using poisons on your weapons, crafting and refining your equipment, and of course enchanting your gear.

Part of the idea being that aside from being the Dragonborn, you're just Someguy McPerson. There's still enemies in the game with a minimum level, but thanks to mod options and leveled lists, the upper potential for PC power is there, and you might need to enlist the aid of various followers (which with mods you can comfortably have 3+ followers and customize them).

One of the kind of nice things about it so far is that TES level lists stay pretty stable. You won't suddenly find the plains of Whiterun suddenly home to hundreds of sabercats because you're now level 20+, nor will you stumble across a group of bandits wearing ebony or daedra mail. In some ways this makes it a lot like Morrowind where such things were really quite rare, no matter what "level" you had attained, and keeps the world pretty consistent.

My only concern about the level list effect is that it might get too easy late game (it usually does anyway) but I think it'd be slower. If it does become a problem, I might install the mod that makes enemies spawn irreverent of level lists and turn it into a big sandbox style adventure.

Time will tell.

[Zilrax]

Trades and souls huh. So you need your power pill to devour souls and get stronger.

[Ashiel]

Trades and souls huh. So you need your power pill to devour souls and get stronger.

Pretty much. It takes a few mods to make work. The community uncapper (which I used to adjust the XP rate to 0), deadly dragons (for trading souls for perks), and SkyTweak (allows you to customize most of the game's mechanics from in-game, including changing things like scaling for abilities, and even how many enchantments you can have), and Timing Is Everything is recommended since you won't be able to do some things without it (a number of events in Skyrim are keyed to your level, so you can make them trigger with this).

At the moment the setup I've got has the following major changes to core gameplay.

• You're Level 1 forever (so no gaining perks / HP / MP / ST by level)
• It costs 2 Dragon Souls / Perk (variable, can be more if you find it too easy)
• Skills advance more or less indefinitely (effective cap is 199).
• Max Pickpocket chance = 100% (up from 90%)
• Weapon / Armor stats scale more as associated skill rises.
• Spell magnitude and duration increase as associated skill rises.
• Spell cost decreases as associated skill rises.
• Sneak attack damage for weapons AND spells increases with Sneak skill.
• You can put 2 different enchantments on a single item (3 with perk).
• Merchants have x4 gold for trading.
• RNG payouts at 100% (essentially if you open a special chest, it always has some special loot)
• Can have up to 3 companions (thanks Amazing Follower Tweaks).

End result is the world doesn't change as much as you progress through the game, advancement is less linear, power is gained primarily through looting, crafting, improving, and enchanting. Your companions don't level either so you have to advance them in much the same way (you can teach them new spells and stuff with Amazing Follower Tweaks, or they might learn them automatically if you give them magic items that raise their skills past certain benchmarks). Most stuff remains consistent in the world since the level lists don't start spawning high level animals (like sabercats and bears) everywhere (so they remain mostly in locations that always spawn them rather than just anywhere an animal spawn occurs), bandits and such tend to use basic gear (so you won't be looting lots of advanced loot off of them due to your level), and stuff like that.

So far I'm enjoying this setup. We'll see if it remains consistent. AFAIK, I believe certain areas have minimum levels for things like certain enemies (for example, when I was going through Sarthaal in the 1st Mage's College quest, I encountered a draugr wight and scourge at a certain point in the dungeon, which are level 13 and 21 respectively, and I encounter plenty of restless draugr which are level 6, despite being "Level 1"), so there should definitely be enemies that I won't roflstomp all over even after building up my gear a bit. With a maximum of 3 enchants per item, that should be enough to raise Health/Magicka/Stamina, get appropriate resistances (magic resistance is super important, and elemental resistances are helpful), and still have wiggle room to play around with extra stuff like the Wintermyst Enchantments), which should be plenty to eventually take on anything that the game will throw at you. Especially if you gear up your companions as well.

[137beth]

I've never managed to get into the Elder Scrolls franchise. Maybe I should someday...

[Ashiel]

I've never managed to get into the Elder Scrolls franchise. Maybe I should someday...

I've never beaten one 'cause they're giant sandbox games and I have "re-roll syndrome", so it's very rare that I progress the main plot very far and get swept up exploring and doing side-quests instead.

If you want to get into the Elder Scrolls games, I'd definitely recommend doing so on PC. All of them are old enough now that they'll run on most PCs, even if those PCs aren't "gaming PCs". The advantages of PC is their ability to be modded. This is super important even if you just want to play the games "Vanilla", because of the community bug patches (such as the "Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Edition Patch"), which consoles don't have access to.

I can't say much about Oblivion (I've played it for virtually no time), but I used to play Morrowind as a kid on Xbox, and Skyrim on Xbox360, and I greatly enjoyed both, and they are only better on PC. In fact, Morrowind with some mods is a beautiful and wonderful experience, and on PC it's not plagued by terrible load times (which was a thing on Xbox). Skyrim is very much an Elder Scrolls game, but it's drastically simplified from the days of Morrowind (there are fair arguments for this being a good or bad thing, but no one will be able to convince me that the old method of leveling was better since it actively encouraged you do some really strange things to get the most out of your character), and thanks to mods has almost unlimited potential.

Once they complete the Skyrim Script Extender for Skyrim Enhanced Edition (a 64bit re-release) the sky will be the limit (no puns intended). The biggest problem with traditional Skyrim is it's not very stable, mostly because it's really bad at handling memory, and it cannot use more than a certain amount of memory (which can cause the game to crash when you have spikes in script activity). The new 64bit version doesn't have these issues to my knowledge, so once the Script Extender (required for the best mods) is ready, it will likely be the go-to Skyrim for modding.

You can usually get Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim pretty cheap on Steam during a sale, including all expansions.

[Cuthalion]

How's your day going?

[Ashiel]

How's your day going?

Pretty awesome, if a bit busy. Been out of the house most of the day, clearing overgrown limbs from the yard. Just got home from grocery shopping (and subsequent unloading). Now I'm going to play a little Skyrim and then do some more writing.

How's your day?

[Lemmy]

Pretty awesome, if a bit busy. Been out of the house most of the day, clearing overgrown limbs from the yard. Just got home from grocery shopping (and subsequent unloading). Now I'm going to play a little Skyrim and then do some more writing.

How's your day?

First the thousands of dead chickens, now this? Seriously, why do all your answers to "how was your day/week?" always make you sound like you're part of Leatherface's family?

[Klara Meison]

clearing overgrown limbs from the yard

I have so many questions.

[Ashiel]

First the thousands of dead chickens, now this? Seriously, why do all your answers to "how was your day/week?" always make you sound like you're part of Leatherface's family?

I have so many questions.

Hahaha, well Uncle Leatherface is pretty nice once you get to know him. He always gives the best Christmas presents!

Joking aside, there's a mundane answer to this one too. I was talking about tree limbs, as in big branches and such. We had a bunch of trees that had large branches that were growing through a path and making it difficult to traverse (and would scrape up your vehicle if you drove through), so we used a chainsaw and trimmed them up neatly. Then loaded all the limbs onto a truck and took them to a burn pile elsewhere in the yard. Took three trips.

[Klara Meison]

Don't know in which thread to post this, but:

You (along with 3 other heretically powergaming munchkins of your choice) are teleported into the world of Pathfinder. You (all 4 of you) begin as lv 1 Human gestalt Fighter/Rogue-s, with everything else about your characters chosen by you. As you advance in levels, you can only take levels in gestalt Fighter/Rogue, so no fighter 1/wizard 19 shenanigans.

You are running an unknown AP (could be by Paizo, could be 3pp, point it anything can happen and you don't know the plot), with all combat encounters rebalanced and rebuilt by malicious evil twins of your party. How do you survive? Assume that if you try to stop following the plot of the AP you first get an extremely nasty encounter thrown your way (to show you the error of your ways), and if you still don't stop, you drop dead instantly.

Bonus round:same thing, but now Path of War is banned.

[Lemmy]

Don't know in which thread to post this, but:

You (along with 3 other heretically powergaming munchkins of your choice) are teleported into the world of Pathfinder. You (all 4 of you) begin as lv 1 Human gestalt Fighter/Rogue-s, with everything else about your characters chosen by you. As you advance in levels, you can only take levels in gestalt Fighter/Rogue, so no fighter 1/wizard 19 shenanigans.

You are running an unknown AP (could be by Paizo, could be 3pp, point it anything can happen and you don't know the plot), with all combat encounters rebalanced and rebuilt by malicious evil twins of your party. How do you survive? Assume that if you try to stop following the plot of the AP you first get an extremely nasty encounter thrown your way (to show you the error of your ways), and if you still don't stop, you drop dead instantly.

Bonus round:same thing, but now Path of War is banned.

I see you never said anything about banning homebrew...

[Klara Meison]

I see you never said anything about banning homebrew...

Be reasonable, else there is no fun in this. Yes, "I make up a feat that gives me the spellcasting of a 20lv wizard who knows all spells from all spell lists" is technically a solution, but bleh. I didn't want to put a limit on sources so as to not limit creativity, so let's say... Only published sources? That should work.

[Lemmy]

Be reasonable, else there is no fun in this. Yes, "I make up a feat that gives me the spellcasting of a 20lv wizard who knows all spells from all spell lists" is technically a solution, but bleh. I didn't want to put a limit on sources so as to not limit creativity, so let's say... Only published sources? That should work.

Does it count if I print a few copies and sell them to my friends for 1 cent each?

[Klara Meison]

Does it count if I print a few copies and sell them to my friends for 1 cent each?

Not unless you are a registered publisher.

[Lemmy]

Not unless you are a registered publisher.

Well... I have a driver's license. Two, actually.

[Ashiel]

Don't know in which thread to post this, but:

You (along with 3 other heretically powergaming munchkins of your choice) are teleported into the world of Pathfinder. You (all 4 of you) begin as lv 1 Human gestalt Fighter/Rogue-s, with everything else about your characters chosen by you. As you advance in levels, you can only take levels in gestalt Fighter/Rogue, so no fighter 1/wizard 19 shenanigans.

You are running an unknown AP (could be by Paizo, could be 3pp, point it anything can happen and you don't know the plot), with all combat encounters rebalanced and rebuilt by malicious evil twins of your party. How do you survive? Assume that if you try to stop following the plot of the AP you first get an extremely nasty encounter thrown your way (to show you the error of your ways), and if you still don't stop, you drop dead instantly.

Bonus round:same thing, but now Path of War is banned.

Race: Dwarf
Ability Scores: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 5
1st Feat: Steel soul (or whatever it is that doubles dwarf save bonuses)
2nd Feat: Variant Multiclassing [Wizard{Diviner}] to gain a Familiar (either a valet familiar or combat familiar)
3rd Feat: Craft Wondrous Item (thanks to the minor magic rogue talent)
4th Feat: Gains Diviner 1st level abilities (including never being surprised and +1/2 level to Initiative)
5th Feat: Leadership*
6th Feat: Gains at-will cantrip [acid splash], retrains Minor Magic rogue talent to Bonus Combat Feat [Dazing Assault]
7th Feat: Craft staff (yes, I'm serious)
8th Feat: Gain a wizard discovery [staff-like wand]
9th Feat: Extra Discovery feat [creative destruction]
10th Feat: Scrying school power

Rogue Tricks: Assault Leader, Minor Magic [Acid splash], Trap Spotter, Distracting Attack, Skill Mastery, Opportunist, See in Darkness, Entanglement of Blades, Crippling Strike

Fighter Stuff: Grab some weapon mastery options (Armed Bravery, Fighter's Reflexes, and Weapon Sacrifice). Grab Armor Specialization [Full-plate]. Everything else is mostly to taste. I'd specialize in close-range weaponry so I cannot be disarmed of my weapons and subsequent weapon training features, which incidentally gives lots of potential weapon sacrifices (gauntlets, armor spikes, shields, etc), ensures I can fight in grapples, and by taking the Catch Off-Guard feat, will be comfortable improvising some weapons without penalty if I need to alter my damage type (such as using a spiked gauntlet as an improvised bludgeoning weapon).

Overall Concept: You and your thug buddies will brute force your way through stuff at low levels much like a bunch of fighters with extra skills and better than normal saves. You grab a familiar at some point (a combat familiar for everyone is cool, while a valet familiar might be more useful once you can use magic shwag). You get comfortable crafting wondrous items so you can enhance your utility and survivability. Making elixirs that give +10 to a chosen skill for 1 hour can help in some tough spots. You'll of course max out Use Magic Device (even with the bad Charisma this will be useful later).

Minor Magic gives you a scaling caster level (qualifying you for feats) and a SR: No ranged touch attack for sneak attacking with some DR-ignoring damage and is later replaced by the wizard thing. We opted for Diviner as a wizard multiclass 'cause of the +1/2 character level to initiative and never getting surprised (great for rogue/fighters). Leadership is to form our own rogue guild where our cohorts are tucked safely away to act as our personal black market for magic doodads (kind of like how James Bond gets cool gadgets from his buds).

It also gives us a spy network (lots of little low-level followers who can spec Diplomacy and Knowledge skills for gathering information and plot hooks). We take Craft staff and let our Valet Familiars craft staves with our mages in our base (we can use some ring gates to transport needed items from home base to our current location), and it qualifies us for Staff-Like Wand, which allows us to use our scaling Caster Level and our own ability scores for both wands as well as staves (we can send used staves back through the gates to be recharged by followers, and use cheap wands of things like dispel magic at great caster levels).

At 10th level, we can always take 10 on UMD checks so we never miss flubbing them and even if we never touched our Charisma we can casually hit the DC 20 needed to activate wands and staves. Our utility belt is real. We can also take 10 on a bunch of other stuff (if we never touched our Int past the beginning, we can expect something like 10 different skills that we can always take 10 on by 20th level).

In combat, pretty much whatever seems like it will work most of the time. In general, the object is gang up on some poor fool and tear him to pieces. With an assortment of disposable yet super-high CL wands, we have access to all the staples like spell immunity, freedom of movement, death ward, and greater magic weapon. If we can't beat it to death, we'll try to trick it, and if we can't trick it, we'll try to go around it, and if that doesn't work, we'll figure out some way to fight dirty. Sneak attack w/ 4 fighter/rogues and an assortment of low-level spells can spell for trouble (especially given a couple of the rogue tricks), which can push some series pain very quickly which is highly accurate and can be tailored to our foes (choosing elements and such).

We keep a lock of our hair in a private sanctum in our hidden base where we can have ourselves resurrected if something bad happens.

Suggested Magic Swhag: Gloves of Dueling, Resistance Cloaks w/ Minor Displacement, Ring of Evasion, Ring of Freedom of Movement, Stat Boosters, Boots of Speed, Quickrunner's Shirts (modded to have additional charges), Celestial Plate armor, a golfbag of +1 bane weapons, a fortification armored kilt, any utility toys that make you happy.

[Klara Meison]

Race: Dwarf
Ability Scores: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 5
1st Feat: Steel soul (or whatever it is that doubles dwarf save bonuses)
2nd Feat: Variant Multiclassing [Wizard{Diviner}] to gain a Familiar (either a valet familiar or combat familiar)
3rd Feat: Craft Wondrous Item (thanks to the minor magic rogue talent)
4th Feat: Gains Diviner 1st level abilities (including never being surprised and +1/2 level to Initiative)
5th Feat: Leadership*
6th Feat: Gains at-will cantrip [acid splash], retrains Minor Magic rogue talent to Bonus Combat Feat [Dazing Assault]
7th Feat: Craft staff (yes, I'm serious)
8th Feat: Gain a wizard discovery [staff-like wand]
9th Feat: Extra Discovery feat [creative destruction]
10th Feat: Scrying school power

Rogue Tricks: Assault Leader, Minor Magic [Acid splash], Trap Spotter, Distracting Attack, Skill Mastery, Opportunist, See in Darkness, Entanglement of Blades, Crippling Strike

Fighter Stuff: Grab some weapon mastery options (Armed Bravery, Fighter's Reflexes, and Weapon Sacrifice). Grab Armor Specialization [Full-plate]. Everything else is mostly to taste. I'd specialize in close-range weaponry so I cannot be disarmed of my weapons and subsequent weapon training features, which incidentally gives lots of potential weapon sacrifices (gauntlets, armor spikes, shields, etc), ensures I can fight in grapples, and by taking the Catch Off-Guard feat, will be comfortable improvising some weapons without penalty if I need to alter my damage type (such as using a spiked gauntlet as an improvised bludgeoning weapon).

Overall Concept: You and your thug buddies will brute force your way through stuff at low levels much like a bunch of fighters with extra skills and better than normal saves. You grab a familiar at some point (a combat familiar for everyone is cool, while a valet familiar might be more useful once you can use magic shwag). You get comfortable crafting wondrous items so you can enhance your utility and survivability. Making elixirs that give +10 to a chosen skill for 1 hour can help in some tough spots. You'll of course max out Use Magic Device (even with the bad Charisma this will be useful later).

Minor Magic gives you a scaling caster level (qualifying you for feats) and a SR: No ranged touch attack for sneak attacking with some DR-ignoring damage and is later replaced by the wizard thing. We opted for Diviner as a wizard multiclass 'cause of the +1/2 character level to initiative and never getting surprised (great for rogue/fighters). Leadership is to form our own rogue guild where our cohorts are tucked safely away to act as our personal black market for magic doodads (kind of like how James Bond gets cool gadgets from his buds).

It also gives us a spy network (lots of little low-level followers who can spec Diplomacy and Knowledge skills for gathering information and plot hooks). We take Craft staff and let our Valet Familiars craft staves with our mages in our base (we can use some ring gates to transport needed items from home base to our current location), and it qualifies us for Staff-Like Wand, which allows us to use our scaling Caster Level and our own ability scores for both wands as well as staves (we can send used staves back through the gates to be recharged by followers, and use cheap wands of things like dispel magic at great caster levels).

At 10th level, we can always take 10 on UMD checks so we never miss flubbing them and even if we never touched our Charisma we can casually hit the DC 20 needed to activate wands and staves. Our utility belt is real. We can also take 10 on a bunch of other stuff (if we never touched our Int past the beginning, we can expect something like 10 different skills that we can always take 10 on by 20th level).

In combat, pretty much whatever seems like it will work most of the time. In general, the object is gang up on some poor fool and tear him to pieces. With an assortment of disposable yet super-high CL wands, we have access to all the staples like spell immunity, freedom of movement, death ward, and greater magic weapon. If we can't beat it to death, we'll try to trick it, and if we can't trick it, we'll try to go around it, and if that doesn't work, we'll figure out some way to fight dirty. Sneak attack w/ 4 fighter/rogues and an assortment of low-level spells can spell for trouble (especially given a couple of the rogue tricks), which can push some series pain very quickly which is highly accurate and can be tailored to our foes (choosing elements and such).

We keep a lock of our hair in a private sanctum in our hidden base where we can have ourselves resurrected if something bad happens.

Suggested Magic Swhag: Gloves of Dueling, Resistance Cloaks w/ Minor Displacement, Ring of Evasion, Ring of Freedom of Movement, Stat Boosters, Boots of Speed, Quickrunner's Shirts (modded to have additional charges), Celestial Plate armor, a golfbag of +1 bane weapons, a fortification armored kilt, any utility toys that make you happy.

Tsk tsk tsk. I did specify that race had to be Human) That being said, it doesn't seem to be core to the build.

My own suggestions for magic stuff include a Padma Blossom, assortment of energy resistances using Ranger pricing, a wayfinder with clear spindle ioun stone, necklace of adaptation, clockwork key (these 5 for immunities), an item letting you use Detect Magic at-will, something granting Featherfall, and an item combining the effects of Heavyload belt with Muleback cords (so as to never worry about carry weight ever again).

[Tels]

Tsk tsk tsk. I did specify that race had to be Human) That being said, it doesn't seem to be core to the build.

My own suggestions for magic stuff include a Padma Blossom, assortment of energy resistances using Ranger pricing, a wayfinder with clear spindle ioun stone, necklace of adaptation, clockwork key (these 5 for immunities), an item letting you use Detect Magic at-will, something granting Featherfall, and an item combining the effects of Heavyload belt with Muleback cords (so as to never worry about carry weight ever again).

Padma Blossom is a really neat item... but it's kind of useless unless you walk around with it permanently grasped in your hand. The dazed and stunned conditions don't allow you to take an action to grasp it, and confused can stop you from taking an action 75% of the time.

[Edit] Is there a different clockwork key? I'm not seeing any immunities.

[Ashiel]

Tsk tsk tsk. I did specify that race had to be Human) That being said, it doesn't seem to be core to the build.

Sorry, missed the human part. In that case I'd trade out Steel Soul for something else. Probably Iron Will + Blind Fight.

[Klara Meison]

Padma Blossom is a really neat item... but it's kind of useless unless you walk around with it permanently grasped in your hand. The dazed and stunned conditions don't allow you to take an action to grasp it, and confused can stop you from taking an action 75% of the time.

[Edit] Is there a different clockwork key? I'm not seeing any immunities.

Constructs won't attack you if there is any other target on the field, like a summon, or they have been directly ordered by their creator to attack you specifically. A pretty neat immunity-like I think.

As for grasping, what does it actually mean? Mechanically it doesn't prevent you from using either of your hands, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to put it inside a glove on the hand that holds your sword (and thus always be grasping it), or hold it in your teeth, or whatever else.

[Klara Meison]

Hey Ash, I think you would enjoy this video in terms of how it relates to dnd allignment.

[Tels]

Constructs won't attack you if there is any other target on the field, like a summon, or they have been directly ordered by their creator to attack you specifically. A pretty neat immunity-like I think.

As for grasping, what does it actually mean? Mechanically it doesn't prevent you from using either of your hands, so I don't see why you wouldn't be able to put it inside a glove on the hand that holds your sword (and thus always be grasping it), or hold it in your teeth, or whatever else.

The key probably isn't going to be all that useful for your Fighter/Rogue gestalt challenge, summons aren't very prevalent for them unless they follow Ash's build for Staff-like Wand, which doesn't come online until very high levels anyway.

As for the blossom... the very fact that you brought up "well what does X even mean?" as an argument means I will comment no further on it as it's pointless to continue doing so if you take that stance. You know what it means, I don't need to define it for you.

[Tels]

On a completely unrelated note:

Top 5 Christmas songs?

[Klara Meison]

The key probably isn't going to be all that useful for your Fighter/Rogue gestalt challenge, summons aren't very prevalent for them unless they follow Ash's build for Staff-like Wand, which doesn't come online until very high levels anyway.

They could also do nifty things like positioning two people at the opposite ends of the room, then dropping and taking the key, causing some guardian construct to wobble between these two people, while a third does something productive(e.g. picks a lock into the next room)

Overall it's just so cheap there is hardly any reason not to get it.

As for the blossom... the very fact that you brought up "well what does X even mean?" as an argument means I will comment no further on it as it's pointless to continue doing so if you take that stance. You know what it means, I don't need to define it for you.

It's my view of it. I'd like to hear if you have a different one.

[Ashiel]

The key probably isn't going to be all that useful for your Fighter/Rogue gestalt challenge, summons aren't very prevalent for them unless they follow Ash's build for Staff-like Wand, which doesn't come online until very high levels anyway.

Well, one thing that the Fighter/Rogue has in their arsenal is UMD. Now not until later does it become a good combat tactic, but activating a wand/staff is always a flat DC 20 check. You can reach decent odds of succeeding on that check fairly early (albeit not early enough to make it combat tactic I'd consider "safe"). This does have the benefit of out of combat spells being a decently safe bet though.

For example, if you buy a wand of animate dead with a few charges left, you could create some undead minions even in the early to mid-game. I'm fond of bloody skeletons, and such minions can make for fine mounts as well (since they're at least recyclable if they get destroyed mid-adventure). Other potentially useful downtime spells include things like alarm, endure elements, and resist energy (not technically "down time" but it has a duration long enough that you can usually cast it before immediate danger).

Something else that's often overlooked is the UMD ability to fake being specific classes of specific levels. Having the ability to wield a holy avenger as if you were a Paladin can be pretty cool, especially since it's a pretty decent means of acquiring scaling magic resistance and useful at-will AoE dispel.

As for the blossom... the very fact that you brought up "well what does X even mean?" as an argument means I will comment no further on it as it's pointless to continue doing so if you take that stance. You know what it means, I don't need to define it for you.

This is the reason I really like Dictionary.com, since it usually helps weed out any misunderstandings. Seizing or holding by clasping with fingers or arms is a pretty good start, and when compared to how the mechanics are presented, helps to paint a clearer picture as to exactly what the rules are saying. I for example would be obligated to rule that merely wearing something on your palm (inside a glove) is not enough to qualify for "grasping" since it's merely stuck to you and you're not actually grasping it in the active sense.

And sometimes you just have to accept it's a game and roll with it.

Top 5 Christmas songs?

Not sure about the exact order but...

1. Carol of the Drum (The Little Drummer boy)
2. Carol of the Bells
3. Silent Night
4. Do you hear what I hear
5. My Favorite Things

Honorable mentions include...

1. Wizards in Winter
2. Someday at Christmas
3. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
4. Frosty the Snowman
5. Santa Clause is Coming to Town
6. Mr. Grinch
7. Silver and gold
8. Blue Christmas

Dishonorable mentions (I'd rather someone take a dump in my CD player)

• Santa baby
• Baby it's cold outside

[Zilrax]

On a completely unrelated note:

Top 5 Christmas songs?

Good King Wenceslas (I like serbian mythology)
Carol of the Bells
Do you Hear what I Hear
Mr. Grinch
(And because schadenfreude) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUHcoAYJWx0

[Klara Meison]

Don't know about cristmas songs, but here are some of the songs I enjoy, in no particular order:

Extermination

Behemoth

Ms. Bonesaw

The Nine(Good for any group of murderhobos, really)

Caravan Palace

Swing

At Jazz's Gate

Metallica-"One"

Trooper Overture on cellos

[Lemmy]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

[Ashiel]

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Ditto! And a happy New Year, and happy everydays after that.