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

[imdeadagain]

I am thinking of creating a lizard folk life cleric/fighter grappler and was wondering about the sanctuary spell, if you already have an opponent grappled could you then cast sanctuary to stop the opponent attacking you, allowing your esteemed colleagues to lay waste to your victim at range while he can't move away or attack you?

 

[doomedpaladin]

I am thinking of creating a lizard folk life cleric/fighter grappler and was wondering about the sanctuary spell, if you already have an opponent grappled could you then cast sanctuary to stop the opponent attacking you, allowing your esteemed colleagues to lay waste to your victim at range while he can't move away or attack you?

Awesome! Probably depends on your DMs interpretation of maintaining a grapple. RAW says the initial establishment of the grapple is a special attack action, but maintaining it reads as opposed skill checks. You could argue strongly that RAW allows you to do this combo, but RAI... probably not.

I think I'd personally allow it as a DM, since you can't attack either and you're still just acting as an anchor, which is the point of this edition's grappling rules (on the surface) anyway. Its not like it stops the grappled creature from continuing to make opposed checks to get free either. Its a zero-sum game.

 

[imdeadagain]

You are right, I think the sanctuary spell is a non-starter, I'm more inclined to combo spiritual weapon. I'm thinking the following...

Round 1 - Bonus action shove prone from shield master - main action grapple
Round 2 - bonus action spiritual weapon - main action bite from lizard folk feature
rinse and repeat round 2.

Add in healing word instead of spiritual weapon when needed. I think holding an opponent prone to allow the rest of the party advantage while also giving damage from the bite is a pretty effective combo, particularly as when I hit lvl 8 life cleric I gain the divine strike d8 damage natural weapons are weapons after all...

 

[scarymike23]

Grizzlyman (Druid/Barbarian/Rogue)

Does anyone have the Grizzlyman build? I really want to explore a moon druid grappler, but this multiclass sounds interesting.

Edit: I found it via waybackmachine (link if anyone wants to pull the other builds: http://web.archive.org/web/20151006071817/http://community.wizards.com/comment/51293186)

Pasted here with no edits.

Barbarians make scary wrestlers. You know what's even scarier? BEAR-barians. Raging, frothing, damage resistant Grizzly Bears. This grappling build is great for low to mid-level campaigns, for those players who want to tank a lot of damage and dish it all back. Although this is a Druid-based optimization, you aren't going to be casting too many spells. Concentration can be hard to maintain in a frontline situation, especially at higher levels, so this build limits magic in favor of good old bear-style bruising.

Before we get too excited about Bar-bear-ians, it is important to remember a limitation of Multiattack. RAW, this is not the Attack Action. It's a type of action that produces attacks, but not the attack action, so barring some dev clarification, you won't be able to replace individual attacks in a Multiattack with grapple/shove attempts. That's not a bad thing because you can still pick up Extra Attack from Barbarian. And that multiattack option will still give you great damage output on your grappled/shoved target.

With that rules clarification thrown in, here is how you bear wrestle. As early as level 2, you can Wild Shape into a Brown Bear, which instantly gives you access to multiattack for the best low-level damage of any other grappler. Add Rage to that for advantage on your initial grappl, Bear Totem durability while raging, and a bunch of non-concentration buffs (Longstrider, Jump, etc.), and you have yourself a very formiddable frontline wrestler. Extra Attack will come later to get those multiple grapples/shoves.

Starting Race: Human or Forest Gnome.

Human gives you a bonus feat at level 1, which you can use to snag Mobile, Lucky, Alert, or any of the other luxury feats. Forest Gnome gives you advantage on all Int/Wis/Cha saves against spells, which will help out your frontine tanking, and it helps fulfill your Rogue multiclass prereq.

Ability Scores: Here's your 27 point buy array assuming shameless optimization choices.
Str: 13 (Barbarian multiclass requirement)
Dex 12 (Human/Gnome +1 - Rogue multiclass requirement)
Con 10 (Wild Shape is all the HP you need, but if it cracks you need to survive a round)
Int 10 (+2 Gnome - Dumpable in this build; you have save advantage anyway)
Wis 15 (Human +1 - Druid requirement for multiclassing, main spellcasting ability, saves against fear, etc.)
Cha 13 (Governs a lot of other save-or-condition spells.)


Barbarian 1
Human Feat: Alert (Going first in battle is nuts as a grappler)
We start with Barbarian 1 for the proficiency bonus in Strength and Constitution saves; if we are grappling on the front lines, those need to be high. We already have advantage on Int/Wis/Cha saves as a Rock Gnome anyway.

Druid 1 / Barbarian 1
Start your druid progression but don't grapple until you can Wild Shape; remember that you have 8 strength in non-bear form. From this point onwards, you will always Longstrider yourself before a fight.

Druid 2 / Barbarian 1
Get Wild Shape. Get Circle of the Moon. You can now turn into CR 1 monsters, which for the next 4 levels will almost always be a Brown Bear. The Brown Bear will be your friend for many levels. There are many like it, but this one will be yours. As a raging Brown Bear, you will have two attacks per round which deal an average of about 24 damage per turn (don't forget your Rage bonus damage!) Or you can replace those attacks with grapples, which will be made at a +6 bonus with advantage. You are also size large so you can grapple almost anything your DM throws at you. At level 3 alone, this is miles better than any other grappler on the battlefield. Our goal is to keep it relevant as long as possible.

Druid 2 / Barbarian 2
We switch back to Barbarian progression here to increase your tankiness. This is an early-mid level build, so we want to keep you relevant for as long as possible before the build falls off a bit. Danger Sense gives you a targeted boost to your survivability as you make your way to the ultimate in tanky class features.

Druid 2 / Barbarian 3
BEAR WARRIORS NEED BEAR TOTEM! Pick this feature up and enjoy resistance to every damage type under the sun (save Psychic) while raging. This should give you the best ratio of tankability to grappling skills to damage of almost any 5th level character you could make.

Druid 2 / Barbarian 4
Level 4 feat: Mobile
Continue Barbarian progression to get to Extra Attack for multiple grapple/shove attempts. Also, Mobile + Bear + Longstrider + Barbarian Move Speed = 70 move speed per turn, which gives you lots of battlefield control.

Druid 2 / Barbarian 5
Now that you can make multiple attacks as part of the Attack action, you will be able to shove/grapple in one round, and then claw/bite in the next. Tasty.

Druid 2 / Barbarian 5/ Rogue 1
Switch over to Rogue to get a small boost to damage in Sneak Attack, and to get Expertise to make sure your grapple check is outscaling the opposed checks of enemies.

Druid 3 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 1

Druid 4 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 1
Swim speed grapplers just aren't very strong because of how long it takes to drown enemies in 5.0. A monster with 16 constitution can stay alive underwater for about 3 minutes, which is a marathon 30 rounds of combat. If time isn't of the essence, then it's a great way to guarantee kills against monsters that you otherwise might not be able to beat; just drag them to the bottom of a river and hold them there. But it's just not very time efficient.

Druid 5 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 1

Druid 6 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 1
Enter the Polar Bear. Polar Bears aren't THAT much better than Brown Bears, which is why we hold off on it for so long. You get a little extra of everything as a Polar Bear (strength, damage, HP, AC, saves, etc.), which is just enough to keep your power level on pace in a campaign.

Druid 7 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 1

Druid 8 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 2

Level 8 Feat: Lucky/Mage Slayer/etc.
GIANT EAGLE TIME! Starting at Druid level 8, you can now take on a Giant Eagle form and soar the the greatest heights with your newfound pals (one in beak, one in talon). Then teach them how to fly as you drop them from those heights. In one round, you will grab two enemies as an action and then ascend 50 feet (80 base speed + 10 longstrider + 10 mobile, all halved for grappling). Next round, just take a dash action and then move straight up another 100 feet, dropping them from 150 feet for 15d6 damage. This isn't the MOST optimized damage you could achieve, but it's still better than a Fireball cast as a level 12 spell, so it's not as if you are too far behind.

Druid 8 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 2
Now that we can go Eagle, we return to Rogue and get Cunning Action. This lets us get up to 100 feet in one round (10d6 drop) or 200 feet in two rounds (20d6 drop).

Druid 9 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 2

Druid 10 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 2

Fare you well, Bear forms. You served us well. But now, it's time to ROCK AND ROLL. Earth Elementals don't make much better grapplers than Polar Bears (same strength, same number of attacks). But oh man, do they make tankier ones. With 17 AC and a whopping 126 HP with Rage-resistance to every form of damage, plus advantage on Dex-saves from Danger Sense and advantage on Wis/Int/Cha saves from Gnome, you just will not die in this form. Earth Glide also lets you gap close on any enemy who stands on solid ground, or is even standing near solid ground. Oh, and your reach goes up to 10 feet from 5 feet. Get ready to rumble; literally.
From level 18 onward, you have some flexibility in how you finish out the build. You can go straight up to Druid 15 for level 7 spells. You can go back to Rogue and get up to level 7, which would give you Evasion, Uncanny Dodge, another feat, and access to level 1 and level 2 Wizard spells from Enchantment/Illusion, courtesy of Arcane Trickster. Mirror Image makes a solid no-concentration-required buff you can use while Raging. You can also go Fighter 4 for a bonus feat, action surge, and some awesome combat maneuvers to use in Elemental form.

It is worth noting that this build is strongest at around levels 3-10. At levels 3 and 4, you are making a grapple/shove attempt at +6 with advantage and able to attack with a Greatsword and Longsword each turn even if you have two opponents held. You also effectively have 64 HP. At level 7, you have 70 move speed, you are making multiple grapples, and your average damage in a round is about 28, which is some of the highest for any grappler build. You fall off a bit after that, but then get a nice proficiency/expertise bump, and an across-the-board stat increase at level 12 due to Polar Bear.

At that point, the build loses relevance at every level. Giant Eagle drops are fun and definitely hurt, but a lot of monsters will be immune to them, and there are better damage optimizations at your disposal. Similarly, although Elemental form is powerful and sturdy, it's not as powerful/sturdy as other builds might have been at that level. This tradeoff in late game power comes in exchange for some serious battlefield dominance at levels 3-6, with continued high impact through level 10.

 

[Goken100]

Has anyone done the powerbomb/suplex maneuver mentioned with the athlete feat?

I have a character that is all about leaping into the air and dropping opponents. Pro tip: For an extra level of difficulty, maintain the grapple during the fall! Many will say that if you can jump a certain height, you can land safely as well. This could be bad if you maintain the grapple, as the DM might rule that you protect the target from falling damage by virtue of your strong jumping legs absorbing the impact. So instead, drop prone purposefully during the jump! You will both take falling damage, but if you are a raging barbarian you'll only take half. And if you're an athlete, you get back up with 5ft of movement. Good times!

 

[Goken100]

Would anyone be willing to give me a few pointers on this build? I'm trying to create a silly grapple build that can do a bit of damage on his 1st or 2nd turn towards the mid game!

1st - Human Fighter 1 (Tavern Brawler)
2nd - Fighter 1, Rogue 1 (Expertise Athletics and Acrobatics)
3rd - Fighter 1, Rogue 1, Barbarian 1 (rage w/ +2 damage Advantage on STR checks[unarmored def. is pretty ok as well])
4th - Fighter 1, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (Cunning Action dash) - Hands on Boots of Springing and Striding
5th - Fighter 2, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (ACTION SURGE) - Hands on Ring of Jumping
6th - Fighter 3, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (Maneuvers: Trip, Disarm, Evasive) - Start getting access to potions of enlarge (maybe some potions of Haste and Longstrider, not sure if we have a dedicated Haste caster till 13th :/)
7th - Fighter 4, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (Athletic) - Hands on Belt of STR (21 STR now)
8th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (EXTRA ATTACK)
9th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 2 (nothing really)
10th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 3 (rage powers - Elk, +15 movement!)
11th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 4 (Mage Slayer)
12th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 5 (Extra Attack, Fast Movement)

I've found it difficult to get to the point of having my first Extra Attack while getting a few things under my belt. I feel like level 3, when I get the ability to rage, will be my first real spike in potency (advantage on all my STR checks while having a +10 on my Athletics check with proficiency, bonuses, and expertise). As well, getting feats seems fairly impractical for the most part (although I know that 5e is trying to move away from the more feats more power mentality).

The way I envision the build is; grabbing people, jumping into the air 5ft short of my maximum movement, and then using my actions to punch said targets (1D4+STR+Rage+misc bonuses), releasing them (they fall for Xd6 damage depending on height) landing, spending 5ft to stand up, Action surge grapple another target, bonus cunning action to take a free dash and drag my current grapple target 1/2 speed towards my party to finish the job. Alternatively, instead of spending actions in the air, just dropping the targets, landing, and then spend both actions to grab, Action surge movement, Cunning Action dash (all at 1/4 speed) back to the party to have them beat the tar out of said grappled targets.

thoughts and/or opinions?

First of all, there's no point to taking 1 level of Fighter off the bat. Heavy armor is of no use, as you can't rage in heavy armor anyway. So either take two levels or just save Fighter for later. Secondly, extra attack is key. I'd recommend picking Fighter or Barb and just sprinting straight for level 5. But I understand the temptation to grab other neat toys rather than be patient, so do what seems fun to you.

 

[Thateous]

I have a character that is all about leaping into the air and dropping opponents. Pro tip: For an extra level of difficulty, maintain the grapple during the fall! Many will say that if you can jump a certain height, you can land safely as well. This could be bad if you maintain the grapple, as the DM might rule that you protect the target from falling damage by virtue of your strong jumping legs absorbing the impact. So instead, drop prone purposefully during the jump! You will both take falling damage, but if you are a raging barbarian you'll only take half. And if you're an athlete, you get back up with 5ft of movement. Good times!

Ty kind stranger.

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[Zene]

Checking in with a play report (AL). After messing around with the early levels of a few different grappling builds, I finally settled on an Orc Barbarian. And man, am I having fun! The massive hit point pool and Bear Totem's resistances mean I'm never worried about wading into the thick of things. The Orc's Aggressive feature is quite nice, both in getting to melee range with an enemy, and in "collecting" enemies; I like to grapple one, move to another, grapple that one, then move toward a third so I can tank all three. Then start shoving them prone.

On top of that, when I run into un-grapple-able enemies, I can still dish out the dpr. The only real sacrifice I'm making in that space is not having the GWM feat; but I'm still keeping up with almost all other builds.

I was worried that without Expertise (or some other help like Action Surge or Cutting Words), I'd be ineffective at grappling. But as-of Level 5, with an 18 strength, proficiency in Athletics, advantage via Rage, and making smart choices on who to target, I'm almost never missing anyway. I just got enough XP to hit level 6, and I'm planning on going Rogue 1 for expertise. Pretty sure I'll be unstoppable.

Now if only I can get some magic items to drop! I've got Boots of Springing and Striding, Weapon of Warning, and Belt of Dwarvenkind on other characters, so as soon as I get something to trade and enough downtime I'll have some decent options. Also got my fingers crossed that a Luckstone and/or Winged Boots will come his way.

 

[kalani]

Regarding the "Grizzlyman" Build
Since this thread has been recently necro'ed, I have found numerous problems with this build, that I would like to correct.

Does anyone have the Grizzlyman build? I really want to explore a moon druid grappler, but this multiclass sounds interesting.
Druid 1 / Barbarian 1
Start your druid progression but don't grapple until you can Wild Shape; remember that you have 8 strength in non-bear form. From this point onwards, you will always Longstrider yourself before a fight.

Multi-classing requires a minimum of 13 Strength and 13 Wisdom for this build.

While debatable, it is a fair interpretation that longstrider only affects your base humanoid speed, and not the speed of your character while in wildshape. This would be a DMs call as the rules aren't entirely clear one way or another.

Druid 2 / Barbarian 1
Get Wild Shape. Get Circle of the Moon. You can now turn into CR 1 monsters, which for the next 4 levels will almost always be a Brown Bear. The Brown Bear will be your friend for many levels. There are many like it, but this one will be yours. As a raging Brown Bear, you will have two attacks per round which deal an average of about 24 damage per turn (don't forget your Rage bonus damage!) Or you can replace those attacks with grapples, which will be made at a +6 bonus with advantage. You are also size large so you can grapple almost anything your DM throws at you. At level 3 alone, this is miles better than any other grappler on the battlefield. Our goal is to keep it relevant as long as possible.

You cannot substitute the bears attacks with grapples when using the Multiattack action. Unlike the Attack action, monsters cannot substitute the specified attacks with any other attack. A bears Multiattack is always a Claw + Bite. If the bear wants to use a grapple, they have to resort to the Attack action instead. One perk of the Multiattack action however, is the ability to Ready a multiattack. This cannot be done with Extra Attacks as you can only make additional attacks with this ability on your turn (limiting you to a single attack should you Ready the Attack action).

Druid 2 / Barbarian 5/ Rogue 1
Switch over to Rogue to get a small boost to damage in Sneak Attack, and to get Expertise to make sure your grapple check is outscaling the opposed checks of enemies.

Neither the Claw nor Bite are finesse weapons. In fact, according to the Monster Manual and PHB errata, they aren't weapons at all. You cannot sneak attack with a Claw/Bite. Expertise, and other Rogue abilities more than make up for the lack of Sneak Attack however, although personally I would substitute levels in Bard instead (Cutting Words, bonus skills, and spell slot scaling); although the jumping abilities of the Thief Rogue does have a certain appeal if you want to combine the Wildshape with the Suplex build (jumping Earth Elementals anyone?)

Level 8 Feat: Lucky/Mage Slayer/etc.
GIANT EAGLE TIME! Starting at Druid level 8, you can now take on a Giant Eagle form and soar the the greatest heights with your newfound pals (one in beak, one in talon). Then teach them how to fly as you drop them from those heights. In one round, you will grab two enemies as an action and then ascend 50 feet (80 base speed + 10 longstrider + 10 mobile, all halved for grappling). Next round, just take a dash action and then move straight up another 100 feet, dropping them from 150 feet for 15d6 damage. This isn't the MOST optimized damage you could achieve, but it's still better than a Fireball cast as a level 12 spell, so it's not as if you are too far behind.

While not erroneous, point of note is that like the Suplex Build, your viability in this form is limited by your Carrying Capacity which is only 480lbs in Giant Eagle form (16 x 30 = 480). If you were a goliath orc, or bugbear, this would double to 960lbs (Powerful Build FTW).

Druid 10 / Barbarian 5 / Rogue 2

Fare you well, Bear forms. You served us well. But now, it's time to ROCK AND ROLL. Earth Elementals don't make much better grapplers than Polar Bears (same strength, same number of attacks). But oh man, do they make tankier ones. With 17 AC and a whopping 126 HP with Rage-resistance to every form of damage, plus advantage on Dex-saves from Danger Sense and advantage on Wis/Int/Cha saves from Gnome, you just will not die in this form. Earth Glide also lets you gap close on any enemy who stands on solid ground, or is even standing near solid ground. Oh, and your reach goes up to 10 feet from 5 feet. Get ready to rumble; literally.

Minor error - Resist all except psychic.

It is worth noting that this build is strongest at around levels 3-10. At levels 3 and 4, you are making a grapple/shove attempt at +6 with advantage and able to attack with a Greatsword and Longsword each turn even if you have two opponents held.

While you can always bite while grappling an opponent, logic would dictate that you cannot make a claw attack while you have two enemies grappled in your paws (since you have grabbed an enemy with each claw). This is analogous to a humanoid being unable to make unarmed strikes with their fists while grappling two enemies (although they can still make unarmed strikes with other body parts as normal).

 

[zaratan]

And the max fall damage is 10d6

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