D&D 5E The Grappler's Manual (2.0) - Grappling in 5th Edition

Does there happen to be a continuance of this guide anywhere other than here? Thread states it's from early 2015....

Any word on when the builds will be back up?!? I’m dying to see the section on Wild Shape grapplers!

Action Economy is important when Grappling in DnD 5e, so I created this handy albeit complicated flowchart to outline the optimal strategy to employ standard Grappling Mechanics (without Feats, etc.)

Note: "PASS" and "FAIL" is always from the perspective of the player, e.g. an opponent FAIL is good for the player.

I made it with draw.io, here is the file you can download and edit if you want: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r6err_k3Vh_hIgAv-7YVAHj7HsF1HmQl/view

I believe that the way the Stacking Rule errata to the DMG works, that Shadows/Wraiths etc are all effectively nerfed to uselessness. Only the largest penalty applies to an ability score, they do not add together.

Casey Evan Lee said:

Any word on when the builds will be back up?!? I’m dying to see the section on Wild Shape grapplers!

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This guide has been cross-posted with the build section included in the general 5E discussion. It may be an older version, but at least you can see that content.

Yeah... was going to say that that post was probably a backup of the old post on the WotC forum before it closed down.

For Reference via archive: https://web.archive.org/web/2015091...wizards.com/comment/51293186#comment-51293186

I really appreciated this guide... still waiting to do some actual grappling (only been fighting groups of velociraptors thus far), I didn't build completely optimally, and I expect to die (Tomb of Annihilation), but so far I'm building Bear Totem Barbarian(3 levels)/Shadow Monk (Everything Else). I was going to go Open Hand, but stats were MAD enough already, and unfortunately Open Hand saves are 8 + Prof Mod + WIS mod, and my WIS is pretty lackluster. Shadow Monk though gives me some good spells (including silence) while progressing Monk, and then that Shadow Step is just awesome. Ended up I was going to be the party tank also, so taking Bear Totem Barbarian was a serious consideration. It's also neat that Shadow Step does give you advantage on grapples, and if you're already in Rage Mode, you're free to use Shadow Step since it's not a spell. I thought it over and lore wise this sounded like some sort of Malarite hunter kind of person... that just enjoyed the slow beating and strangling prey to death in all the visceral glory that grappling provides. As he levels the shadow stuff let him be sneaky also, and can better sneak up on prey (by appearing out of a damn shadow).

I'm on the fence on taking a dip into Rogue. I could see it past level 10, but I'm not sure if I would before level 10.

Probably someone could do this better and call it the Boogeyman Build, though in this game I think I'll have a good bit of fun.

smallypants said:

Spiffy Flowchart

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Shouldn't the shove question be "is your target more than one size larger than you?" Looking at the PHB the Shove action seems to be limited to a creature one size larger than the shover.

The new Mark of Passage seems like it could have some value on a grappling build, specifically the BJJ Master build's Spikedragging. You get the "ignore difficult terrain on a dash" and +10 ft speed of Mobile (somewhat making up for the loss of the variant human feat), and you get +1d4 to your Athletics checks, stacking with Guidance and advantage. What would otherwise be the highlight of the mark, a bonus action teleport, is honestly just gravy for a grappler.

Darthnazrael said:

The new Mark of Passage seems like it could have some value on a grappling build, specifically the BJJ Master build's Spikedragging. You get the "ignore difficult terrain on a dash" and +10 ft speed of Mobile (somewhat making up for the loss of the variant human feat), and you get +1d4 to your Athletics checks, stacking with Guidance and advantage. What would otherwise be the highlight of the mark, a bonus action teleport, is honestly just gravy for a grappler.

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Oh definitely, that dragonmark is awesome. And the bonus action teleport can mean that you get right to your main target in round 1, even if they’re behind enemy lines; and still have your action to spare. Pretty nifty.

Also, in WGtE, warforged can make pretty amazing grapplers. The ability to have the benefit of heavy armor, without actually wearing heavy armor; or even better, the equivalent of light armor that scales with level *and* dex bonus, opens up grapple builds that would otherwise be far too squishy.

On another topic, the recently released errata include an update that grappling and shoving now auto-succeed on incapacitated targets. Again, that should open up a lot of new grapple builds; most notably, a monk grappler that (for example) doesn’t need str, or even athletics proficiency; but can stun a target, grab them, run up a wall, and drop them. Pretty crazy.

The Guide to Ravnica introduces a huge game changer in the Loxodon. Looking forward to it being added here.