D&D 3E/3.5 (3.5) Charge/Power Attack into a grapple attack?

[Thertock]

The two questions that have come up in the campaign I'm DMing are "can you charge into a grapple attack" and "can you apply the Power Attack feat to the damage done by initiating a successful grapple". The player in question is taking the Reaping Mauler prestige class from The Complete Warrior supplement and that class only attacks with grapples.

The 3.5 edition rules for charge say "After moving, you may make a single melee attack" and the Grapple rules say "A grapple check is a melee attack roll". Now a grapple is a full action but in the official D&D article "Rules of the Game: Actions part four" it states:

"Initially in a grapple, you grab your foe as an attack action; all the opposed grapple checks you make after that to resolve the grapple attempt are nonactions for you and for your opponent. Because you grapple as a melee attack, you can initiate a grapple as an attack of opportunity."

Since initiating the grapple is an attack action you should be able to do it after a charge. This article also links to an article called "All About Grappling" and it says

"If you win the opposed check, you deal unarmed strike damage to your foe"

This unarmed attack is still an attack so you should be able to apply the effects of the Power Attack feat. The Power Attack rules say "On your turn, before making attack rolls for a round, you may choose to subtract a number from all melee attack rolls and add the same number to all melee damage rolls." You grapple as a melee attack.

If anyone has run into this problem before or knows how this ruling should work I'd greatly appreciate you sharing your expertise here. Thanks.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Succinctly, yes to the first, no to the second.

Charge allows you to make a melee attack, and a grapple attempt may be substituted for a melee attack, so that's fine. You gain a +2 bonus on the melee touch attack to initiate the grapple.

Power Attack applies a penalty to melee attacks (including the attack to start a grapple) and applies a bonus to melee damage rolls (which the touch attack to start a grapple does not have; it does "N / A" damage, and one of the key tenets of 3.XE is that "N / A" is different than "0").

Afterwards, the damage from grappling is not a result of a melee attack; it is the result of a grapple check, and therefore does not benefit from any bonuses which apply specifically to melee damage rolls.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Patryn of Elvenshae has it exactly right.

 

[Herzog]

Even if the abovementioned weren't true: you cannot power attack with a light weapon.

 

[Thertock]

Thank you so much for for your explanations, I so happy I've got the proper ruling and I'll give it at the next session.