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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mattdm" data-source="post: 4470348" data-attributes="member: 15382">So, it came up in my game on Monday that the party wanted to restrain an opponent. When they asked me what the rules for grapple in this new game were (with several comments about how they better be improved), I said, well, there's really just grab, which immobilizes your target.Cool, said the player whose action it was.But wait, said someone else... just immobilized? You mean they can still attack and stuff? It's a goblin; he's twice its size. Can't he restrain it in some way? And I don't mean just the "restrained" condition — I mean like pinning someone.It's a reasonable request, really, because it's something one might really want to do. And crucially, to make the game feel real, there need to be options other than "I beat on the guy".I ended up saying, well, there's not really a way to do it in the new rules. They didn't want to end up with the grapple fiasco all over again. This was a bad DM move, really, because it left everyone feeling frustrated — and for the first time, really disappointed in 4E.So what's the "say yes" solution here? I want to be able to deal with situations like this in the future.My after-the-session thought was that what's wanted is really basically wrestling, and I should have allowed something like: you can attempt to prevent an immobilized player from taking any physical actions by making an athletics check vs. their fortitude defense. This'd be a standard action and would last until the beginning of your next turn. If you take any actions after this one, the effect ends automatically.Maybe not the best possible mechanic, but it's simple and I could have come up with it on the fly. However, at this point, I really want something to give to my players next time the situation comes up. It needs to a) be within the basic spirit of the rules b) not complicated and c) reasonable, but not something you'd do except in special cases.Suggestions?</blockquote>

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