D&D 5E A Grappling Cleric?

[Zene]

Now that Prodigy is a thing, I'm considering a grappling cleric as well.

My thoughts:

-Only three races can pick up Prodigy: Human, Half-Elf, and Half-Orc. They each bring some great benefits. Grapplers typically need to be very tanky, and Half-Orcs are very nice for tanking. Variant human can get that 16 starting score in both wisdom and con, which is great; and the extra feat is cool because you can pick up Prodigy and then still have all your normal ASIs/Feats go to Clericky stuff; and you'll probably want Resilient Con and/or Warcaster too, since you'll be taking lots of hits. Half-elf, though, is reeaaally tempting for me, due to Elven Accuracy. Superadvantage on wisdom attacks (Spiritual Weapon, Thorn Whip, Inflict Wounds) can be awesome. Not directly grapple related, but can really synergize with grappling, as you will often be able to shove enemies prone with your awesome athletics score. The only problem is, needing to pick up Prodigy, Warcaster, and Elven Accuracy, it's not til L12 I'll really get to have fun with it. So it'd probably be vHuman for me.

-Two domains are particularly good for a grapler IMO.
--The first is Nature. Heavy Armor and Dampen Elements are great for defense; Thorn Whip and Plant Growth are great for keeping enemies close / battlefield control. Plant Growth in particular combos amazingly well with Spirit Guardians, as the movement reduction effects stack for a total 1/8th of normal movement speed. For a creature with 30' movement, that means they can't even move one square on their turn, which is effectively a lockdown. AOE grappling!
--The other is Life. Just because it's so dang survivable.

 

[Douglas Cole]

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.

Note that while the control maximum is differentiated as above, the control points inflicted or removed by a grappling attack are based on the hit dice for the class. So Barbarians are the best out-and-out grapplers; Monks may well come close second, since the martial arts damage gets added to their hit dice (at high levels, they're probably the best grapplers out there).

You could also tweak the "proficiency" bit by house-ruling that some to all of the proficiency is "are you proficient in Athletics?" So you might say it's 1x proficiency bonus (because high level is just more skilled), doubled if you have Athletics proficiency.

But the Control Maximum as designed is indeed flat. Class-based differentiation is provided by:

1) Fighters, Paladins, Rangers, Barbarians, and Monks all have either high hit dice or (for the monk), a d8 but you get a second die to roll as part of Martial Arts ability
2) Combatant classes are more likely to get athletics proficiency, which increases your chance of exceeding the Grapple DC
3) Combatant classes are more likely to have high STR and DEX, which increase your Control Maximum, Grapple DC, and control point roll on a successful hit
4) Fighters in particular get a lot of Feats, and Dungeon Grappling includes several that will make you a better grappler
5) Grappling is an attack, and Fighters in particular, and combatants in general, get a LOT of attacks; you may absolutely attack many times to stack up control points.

So there's more to differentiation than Control Maximum, though that extra boost based on proficiency would be a good lever for house-ruling. In general, though, combatants should be more effective when grappled, but be more effective counter-grappling (removing control points on them) because their control point damage rolls are higher.

 

[imdeadagain]

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

I chose life cleric simply for the extra healing, my character was going to be the only healer in the party so it made sense at the time.


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