Improved Grab

[Albert_Fish]

The owlbear says it can use improved grab if A claw hits. So does only one claw have to hit? does it get penalties to the grapple check if only one claw hits?

How do you apply the Negative 20? does it apply if a dragon does not use its claws to keep a victim grappled in its mouth? How could an owlbear ever drag a person out of battle if it must use both its claws and mouth to drag people away whith sucah heinous penalty?

 

[kreynolds]

The owlbear says it can use improved grab if A claw hits. So does only one claw have to hit?

Yes.

does it get penalties to the grapple check if only one claw hits?

No. It only suffers the -20 penalty if it chooses to conduct the grapple with only the one claw.

How do you apply the Negative 20?

When the creature does not use its entire body to grapple.

does it apply if a dragon does not use its claws to keep a victim grappled in its mouth?

Yes.

How could an owlbear ever drag a person out of battle if it must use both its claws and mouth to drag people away whith sucah heinous penalty?

It would be hard pressed to do it with only the one claw. If you've ever been in a fight with a properly run dragon, believe me, from a player's perspective, you'll be thanking the gods that -20 penalty exhists.

 

[Murrdox]

I'm curious as to what you consider a "properly run dragon", kreynolds.

 

[kreynolds]

I'm curious as to what you consider a "properly run dragon", kreynolds.

First, let me just say that you should check out this site.

Now that that's out of the way, here's what I constitute a properly run Dragon, in summary. A dragon will never fight in a confined space if it can avoid it. A dragon will always use flight to its advantage, if possible. The strength of any party lies in its numbers, but a dragon can easily separate them by swooping in and snatching them out of the fray one at a time. If presented with a true challenge, a dragon is not likely to follow pride and wade into the fray. They are highly intelligent creatures that know everything there is to know about survival and longevity. Keeping this in mind, and I'm not joking about this at all, a properly run dragon will have a true CR much higher than normal; from as low as 5 to 8 points higher as a wyrmling and from 25 to 32 points higher as a great wyrm.

Dragons are ugly in a fight, and from my experience, they rarely, if ever, fall. However, put one in a confined space and its toast. In my group, I have only seen a dragon successfully played out (in actual PC to dragon combat, not a behind the scenes or cinematic type thing) twice; once by myself and once by a fellow DM. The fellow DM was running a game in which I was playing a Song Dragon, and let me tell you, even dragon versus dragon, they are frickin' ugly in a fight.