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Message: <blockquote data-quote="FormerlyHemlock" data-source="post: 6519225" data-attributes="member: 6787650">P.P.S. Grappling was mentioned recently in the other thread, and I wanted to call out two specifically monk-relevant uses for grappling. I've never needed any of these in practice so if "theorycrafting" makes a difference to you you can take it with a grain of salt, but in any case they both work:1.) Open Hand Monk. Because your Flurry of Blows also knocks prone, it's more valuable than Flurry from regular monks. You can Grapple someone with your regular attack, then Flurry to knock them prone, then punch them again (with advantage). They are unable to stand up until they spend an action breaking your grapple first (opposed Athletics or Acrobatics check), so they have disadvantage on attacks and everyone within 5' has advantage to attack them. Win-win, and you can do this three times per short rest starting at level 3.2.) This one is a little more specialized and requires access to both a Spike Stones caster (almost certainly a Druid) and a source of flight (either Winged Boots or a Fly spell). But the payoff is huge. First you Grapple somebody of size Large or less, while the druid casts Spike Stones somewhere nearby. Then you fly back and forth across the spiked area, dragging the victim behind you on the grind... for 2d4 damage per 5' travelled. Grappling halves your movement rate, so use Step of the Wind to boost it back up to your normal 70' or whatever it is (varies by race/Longstrider/monk level/Mobile feat/etc.)... which means that the guy you've grappled will be taking 70 points of damage from you every round, or 105 if you double-Dash that round. If somebody tosses a Haste on on top of that you'd have double movement and quadruple-Dash, so 280 points of damage per round. If you grapple one guy in each hand you'd be doing 560 points of damage per round. I'm not a DPR-oriented guy and this tactic honestly sounds pretty boring and finicky to me, but the magnitude of the damage produced demands respect and thought.TLDR; Spike Stones lets you convert movement directly into DPR to anyone you have grappled.</blockquote>

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