D&D 5E A Grappling Cleric?

Bardbarian · Dec 8, 2017

Oh I didnt know about the reverse grappling rules, do you know what page they are on? I want to check them out. Our group made some house rules for that but I would love to know the wotc version.

rgoodbb · Dec 9, 2017

CTurbo said:
Grappled seems mainly pointless. Am I wrong here?

On its own, might not be that impressive. But to prone or restrain makes it more powerful. Half speed to get up in essentially a slowed aura.

Unfortunately this may all take some setup time.

2 levels of fighter for action surge could improve this if you are willing.

Lightning Lure would have to be from arcana cleric (I think) and like nature, they do not get heavy armour. Tradeoffs.

Tempest for a Storm Minotaur (Stormataur?) sounds fun. That was a build I put together a while back. I might have to revisit that.

Have fun!

CTurbo · Dec 9, 2017

Sorry I meant to say "The Grappler feat seems mainly pointless."

I just noticed I messed that up.

imdeadagain · Dec 13, 2017

I made a lizardfolk life Cleric grappler, shield master feat. He grapples and knocks prone, then chews on em a bit. Enhance ability is a cool spell for a grappler too.

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Bardbarian · Dec 13, 2017

The grappler feat is pointless. It literally makes the character worse at grappling. It was left over from a different version of the rules that had different grappling rules and accidentally made the final cut. It has been erattad slightly but that just remved the part that has no effect. The part that makes you worse is still in the feat.

CTurbo · Dec 13, 2017

imdeadagain said:
I made a lizardfolk life Cleric grappler, shield master feat. He grapples and knocks prone, then chews on em a bit. Enhance ability is a cool spell for a grappler too.

Sent from my iPhone using EN World

Just out of curiosity, why did you choose Life domain for your grappler Cleric? Seems like an odd choice. I think Life is a strong domain, but nothing about it screams grappler to me really.

I've been thinking about this idea. I'm trying to figure out which domain would fit best. Tempest seems like the logical choice considering how strong it is overall and gives Heavy Armor Proficiency which almost seems like a must for this build. I do like the idea of the Light domain though. I like having fun things to do with my reaction. Death has the appeal of holding down the enemy and letting your undead minions beat on him. I don't care for Nature as a pure Wis build is not appealing for this. I am not familiar enough with the other domains. Well, forgot about War. Since I don't see this guy making many melee attacks, if any, I don't think War really fits what I want to do.

Again, I don't see this guy ever using a weapon. I think I would try to up the grapple ante by trying to restrain whenever possible. I also don't see myself using a shield. Would rather be able to grapple 2 guys at once.

For race, I was thinking vhuman and getting Res(Con), Heavy Armor Mastery, or Brawny at level 1. Don't want to have to rely on a lot of feats. Would rather get Str and Wis to 20 asap.
I like the idea of being a Goliath. Stone's Endurance is really good, and they get Athletics for free.
I REALLY like the idea of Lizardfolk. I love the idea of biting while restraining an enemy. Sounds awesome. They have great stats and even get a small temp hp boost. Would probably need rolled stats for this to work best or Str would suffer.

I think it would be extra awesome to have Vicious Mockery with this build. I can hold the enemy down, cause him pain with my preachings, and then add on the Spiritual Guardians/weapon goodies haha

corwyn77 · Dec 13, 2017

CTurbo said:
Sorry I meant to say "The Grappler feat seems mainly pointless."

I just noticed I messed that up.

*Ahem*

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202537/Dungeon-Grappling

That is all.

John Brebeuf · Dec 13, 2017

corwyn77 said:
*Ahem*

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/202537/Dungeon-Grappling

That is all.

One thing I don't like about the Dungeon Grappling system is the way control points are calculated for 5e:

Strength score + Dexterity modifier + [2 x proficiency bonus]

Since all classes increase in proficiency at exactly the same rate, this implies that no classes are inherently better at grappling than any other. One PC is a better grappler than another only because he's either stronger or more dexterous, not because he's a fighter instead of a wizard.

I still think it's the best system out there, but it could use some tweaking.

corwyn77 · Dec 13, 2017

I'm actually okay with that; if a wizard wants to spend precious stat points on Str and Dex, let him be as good a grappler as a fighter. I don't really see it as a class ability. Anyone can grapple.

If you want to emphasize those stats over proficiency, you could double dex mod and add the str mod to the roll.

John Brebeuf · Dec 13, 2017

That's assuming point-buy. I can easily imagine a situation where the player who wants to play a fighter has moderately bad luck in his rolls and ends up with all 9's, 10s' and 11's, while the one playing a wizard has the good fortune to have a 14 Strength along with his 17 Intelligence.

Yes, anyone can grapple, but years of combat training (1st level fighters are still "veterans") should give one an advantage. After all, anyone can shoot a gun too, but someone who served a few years in the military will be far better at it than someone with no such training in his background.