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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 7107819" data-attributes="member: 63">Yeah, in normal combat grab just holds you in place or lets them drag you 15 feet or so. But when you cheese it out with expertise and buff spells, it becomes a bit too easy and makes fights start to all turn out the same. The bard rushes in, hits them, and with Tavern Brawler grabs them. Next turn she knocks them prone and they cannot get up, and the whole party dogpiles. It was amusing the first few times, but it's a little less than cinematic. You start to worry that your cool villains will fall like chumps.  I like combat to have some back and forth, to have more to it than 'I pick that guy and hope I roll high.' It's hard to have attacks that apply conditions without them being too weak, or too strong, or too fiddly. 4e honestly had a good balance for its nifty combat tricks, but the gameplay was too slow. Something like a charm spell that limits your options but gives you a chance to fight back has some inherent narrative. More narrative, perhaps, than just two guys swinging swords at each other and chopping through 'hit points' with no physical effect until one falls down. Maybe I need to adapt the Exhaustion rules to normal combat.Now I've got lots of ideas bouncing around, but it's midnight. Thanks for the brainstorming help.</blockquote>