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<blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 5300375" data-attributes="member: 57112">But they don't say &quot;can only&quot;, do they? We're arguing over what is essentially an off-handed, poorly used term (&quot;hold&quot;) in what essentially amounts to fluff text; and WotC has already proven that its fluff writers never really pay attention to the actual game terminology. Hell, even if one takes the fluff phrasing as Word of God, it very clearly states it only applies in combat, which means outside of combat your Thri-Kreen can tote along what it damn well pleases in its lower arms. What sense does it make that your Thri-Kreen is mystically forced to sheathe/drop what it's holding as soon as the announcer shouts &quot;ROUND ONE: FIGHT!&quot;? None, obviously. Now, since one could easily define &quot;wield&quot; as &quot;gain benefits from and the ability to use items held in combat&quot; (in fact, wield is pretty much a combat-only term), one can easily infer that had the writing staff been paying more attention or care to the terminology that has already been established, they would have just gone with &quot;wield.&quot;Or it could just not even matter that much since it's fluff text.Meanwhile, the Racial Traits block (all crunch, mind you) clearly implies that it can draw a weapon with its lower arms, and if your hand is good enough to draw a weapon it's good enough to hold it; this is just common sense. That the art also completely backs this interpretation up gives me confidence to assume that this is probably what WotC intended all along, but that's just gravy. Of course, since none of this matters one iota in terms of actual gameplay balance, any DM worth their salt (IMHO), would let his or her player just say they're carrying their spare weapons in their lower arms instead of sheathed because, let's face, it just looks cool. And it's flavor, and no DM should be denying their players a chance for flavor unless it seriously messes with their narrative. Which this is no way could possibly ever do.So you see, we're tilting at windmills.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Gradine, post: 5300375, member: 57112"] But they don't say "can only", do they? We're arguing over what is essentially an off-handed, poorly used term ("hold") in what essentially amounts to fluff text; and WotC has already proven that its fluff writers never really pay attention to the actual game terminology. Hell, even if one takes the fluff phrasing as Word of God, it very clearly states it only applies [I]in combat[/I], which means outside of combat your Thri-Kreen can tote along what it damn well pleases in its lower arms. What sense does it make that your Thri-Kreen is mystically forced to sheathe/drop what it's holding as soon as the announcer shouts "[B]ROUND ONE: FIGHT![/B]"? None, obviously. Now, since one could easily define "wield" as "gain benefits from and the ability to use items held [I]in combat[/I]" (in fact, wield is pretty much a combat-only term), one can easily infer that had the writing staff been paying more attention or care to the terminology that has already been established, they would have just gone with "wield." Or it could just not even matter that much since it's fluff text. Meanwhile, the Racial Traits block (all crunch, mind you) clearly implies that it can draw a weapon with its lower arms, and if your hand is good enough to draw a weapon it's good enough to hold it; this is just common sense. That the art [I]also [/I]completely backs this interpretation up gives me confidence to assume that this is probably what WotC intended all along, but that's just gravy. Of course, since none of this matters [I]one iota[/I] in terms of actual gameplay balance, any DM worth their salt (IMHO), would let his or her player just [I]say [/I]they're carrying their spare weapons in their lower arms instead of sheathed because, let's face, it just looks cool. And it's [I]flavor[/I], and no DM should be denying their players a chance for [I]flavor [/I]unless it seriously messes with their narrative. Which this is no way could possibly ever do. So you see, we're tilting at windmills. [/QUOTE]

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