Pupsocket wrote:
Grappling with held charges is....unresolved. But the last time we had a go at it, the majority view was that one successful grapple roll discharged one charge.
I would personally agree with Pupsocket's interpretation, it seems fairly balanced.
As for holding the spell with charges/when they go off, I was just looking into this:
Grick wrote:
There's a big level of DM influence on this.
Touch spells in combat: "If you touch anything or anyone while holding a charge, even unintentionally, the spell discharges."
Some folks say that "anything" includes a weapon you're holding, or gloves, or magic rings, or raindrops, etc. Basically walking around with a live wire in your hands.
Other, more reasonable folks say that it's deciding to actually touch something. Either with an attack, or petting a dog, etc.
Some folks go so far as to say if you don't make a touch attack (or unarmed/natural attack) then it doesn't count, so you can pretty much hold a charge as long as you want without worry. (This one seems to go a bit too far, IMO)
(Here's where he was talking about it, though it's only peripherally related to your question)
I would weigh in on option 2, with actually preferring option 3 as both a player and a GM (it just seems so petty to punish people like that). Still, I find that few people would agree with the third option, as he said; I just find the idea that you now have no control over when this charge goes off a little silly: aren't mages all about having at least some level of control over their magic? (hypothetical) If it was a home game, I think I would allow option 3, but the person must make a concentration check (DC 15 + 2x spell level) once per round when touching anything (option 2) they don't want to hit with the spell or it will discharge. Just my feeling; I prefer to let the dice decide stuff, but the situation may apply negative modifiers to the roll.... off-topic.
Anyways, at this point it's all just opinions around here. You might be able to ask James Jacobs, though. He might fire off an answer and just quell this ongoing (and I mean ONGOING) debate for once and all! ... He might.
