Bigby's Dragging Hand?

[AuraSeer]

Bigby's Grasping Hand can strike to grapple, or perform a bull rush. If the hand grappled a creature on a previous round, would you allow it to then push the creature while maintaining the hold? Or would you make the caster pick either grapple or bull rush (not both at the same time)?

 

[randomling]

Hm, that's a tough one, just from reading over the spell description. I guess it doesn't outright say it can't do both at the same time.

But I'm not sure what benefit you'd get from bull rushing a grappled creature anyway, since the spell can't deal damage -- do you get a bonus on your bull rush check against a grappled opponent?

So I guess my answer is I think you could do both, but I'm not exactly sure why you'd want to!

 

[Stalker0]

I believe I remember a Faq quote somewhere that said you could bull rush in a grapple, but not sure.

Bull rush normally requires you move into the opponent's space and then push them, but since your already in the space, I'd allow it.

 

[AuraSeer]

So I guess my answer is I think you could do both, but I'm not exactly sure why you'd want to!

If you're trying to bull rush someone off a cliff, or into some other hazard, it may take more than one round to push them far enough. If they weren't grappled, they could maneuver out of line, so they're no longer being pushed straight toward danger. (The Hand always pushes directly away from the caster.)

Also, grappled characters cannot attack your allies, and are severely hampered in spellcasting. If you want to push a Wiz20 around, it helps if he can't just Disintegrate the hand with his first action.

 

[randomling]

I think this may be why I don't post in the rules forum very often...