D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Grapple

[sithramir]

There was no such thing as improved grapple in 3.0 right? I was just thinking that this feat is just insane. I no longer get an AoO to prevent the Grapple. That means that anything that grapples and has this ability is almost guaranteed to succeed. Touch AC is basically 10+dex+haste (now only +1) which in most cases isn't going to go above 15. Grapple feat gives +4 bringing this down to 11. Larger size gets bonus's which I won't even calculate, but anything with decent str and above lvl 5 almost can't miss, except on like a 1-2. Theres no AoO to stop it from happening so now anything near me with that feat is gonna grapple me no matter what I do with its touch attack.

Just thinking that anything above large just got a huge buff up. They are gonna grapple whether you like it or not and with their higher str and size are guaranteed to keep you grappled even with a decent escape artist. Scary or i'm missing something critical.

 

[Tellerve]

actually there was Improved grapple from OA for people with improved unarmed strike. You didn't need an initial touch attack, instead on an successful unarmed strike you got a free action to start the grapple if you wanted. They didn't have a +4 to grapple, but they seem to have done that with a lot of the "improved" feats, +4 to disarm, +4 to sunder, +4 to trip etc etc.

Tellerve

 

[Pielorinho]

Just thinking that anything above large just got a huge buff up. They are gonna grapple whether you like it or not and with their higher str and size are guaranteed to keep you grappled even with a decent escape artist. Scary or i'm missing something critical.

Grappling has always been pretty scary when done by large creatures. I wouldn't mind seeing it toned down. Especially in the hands of a clever druid player (who can, as a brown bear or a tiger, grapple just about any medium-sized creature), it can prevent fighters from using their normal (i.e., honking) weapons, casters from casting anything useful (i.e., anything with a somatic component), and rogues from sneak-attacking. It's very difficult to get out of a grapple, and unless you have more friends attacking the grappler than the grappler has friends attacking you, you're hosed.

Still, it's not been a game-breaker IMC; unless and until it does, I'll continue playing with the rules as written.

Daniel

 

[Destil]

Most monsters that this was good for did this already with Improved Grab.

This just opens the posibility to players. Fair enugh IMHO.

 

[LokiDR]

The only way monster will get the feat is by advancement, so for any group that uses basic monster, it shouldn't come up. The feat does seem really strong compared to OA feat. Does the new feat require improved unarmed strike?

 

[ForceUser]

Improved Grapple from OA merely allowed one to initate a grapple without provoking an AoO. It's surprising that they added the +4 to grapple checks in 3.5; I suppose they did it for consistency, but man o man. That is a powerful feat. If I ever play a 3.5 monk I'm going Improved Grapple/Earth's Embrace (another OA grapple feat, allowing you to do double damage to a pinned opponent).

 

[sithramir]

Don't recall and i'm at work for several more hours. Was just thinking that its a scary scary thing. Buy me some spiked armor and an item that gives me mirror image. This way i'm guaranteed a grapple and you are guaranteed some hurting