Does being pinned give you the -5 Dex score?

[Stalker0]

When your pinned, it mentions you are immobile, but not helpless. Does this mean you have the -5 dex normally associated with being unable to move?

 

[KarinsDad]

You lose your Dex bonus for the grappling, but you are not helpless, so your Dex does not effectively go down to zero.

 

[the Jester]

When your pinned, it mentions you are immobile, but not helpless. Does this mean you have the -5 dex normally associated with being unable to move?

iirc your dex goes down to 0 only if you are helpless.

Being pinned and thereby 'immobilized' just means you can't move from your square. You can still squirm around and try to break the pin.

 

[Sirea]

Being pinned does mean your Dex is treated as being 0. So yes, an extra -5 Dex penalty to AC.

Source: PHB p151 table 8-6

 

[Hypersmurf]

Being pinned does mean your Dex is treated as being 0. So yes, an extra -5 Dex penalty to AC.

Source: PHB p151 table 8-6

Yup - what Sirea said.

It's in the footnote.

When you're pinned, your Dex modifier to AC is -5. In addition, you take a -4 penalty to AC vs melee attacks.

So for a pinned commoner, his effective AC against a melee attack is 1.

-Hyp.

-Hyp.

 

[Taloras]

Yea. This actually came up in our last game....try grappling a medium sized dragon...and pinning it with the mouth shut so it cant breathe(shadow dragon with its negative level breath...ick)

 

[Legildur]

Being pinned does mean your Dex is treated as being 0. So yes, an extra -5 Dex penalty to AC.

Source: PHB p151 table 8-6

Good opening post Sirea. Welcome to the boards.

 

[glass]

Yea. This actually came up in our last game....try grappling a medium sized dragon...and pinning it with the mouth shut so it cant breathe(shadow dragon with its negative level breath...ick)

It came up in our last game too, and I think we got it horribly wrong. Never mind, we all survived!


glass.

 

[KarinsDad]

Yup - what Sirea said.

It's in the footnote.

When you're pinned, your Dex modifier to AC is -5. In addition, you take a -4 penalty to AC vs melee attacks.

So for a pinned commoner, his effective AC against a melee attack is 1.

I find it amazing that with an entire section on pinned, that such an important piece of information is hidden as a footnote on a table.

 

[Caliban]

I find it amazing that with an entire section on pinned, that such an important piece of information is hidden as a footnote on a table.

So do I. I suspect that it was changed from "Dex reduced to 0 when pinned" to "-4 on AC when pinned" at some point during development, and they missed the footnote when they updated the rules. Or not, since both modifiers are mentioned on the table.

However, I'll certainly keep it in mind now. I'd missed that little tidbit and I play a character who frequently grapples.