Grab and Grapple

[Lacyon]

I don't think 4E's got great wrestling rules right now. I imagine they'd be pretty hard to do well.

What we do have are good rules for preventing opponents from running away. Which is (IMO) a lot more important.

 

[darkwing]

I may start with an "Improved Grab" feat that allows the grabber to deal Strength damage to the grabbed target, including subsequent rounds if he sustains it.

You only need one free hand to grab. So you could attack with the other hand. You can drag the target if you make a str vs fort roll (or bullrush/push I believe). This would be especially useful if the environment caused "bad things" to happen to creatures standing on a particular square... like fire.

 

[Palladion]

I'm sure you could create a plethora of fan-made powers that all have the criteria "when target is grabbed." They could include a variety of effects like strangulation, using the enemy as cover, making the enemy prone, and so on. The sky's the limit.

Bugbear strangler (MM 136) has some interesting interpretation on the strangulation rules. Combat advantage and garroting. I would not necessarily make it available to PCs as is, but it can be used as an idea (especially the sustaining).

 

[ryryguy]

My suggestion for a feat allowing the grabber to deal Strength damage is to allow him to deal the damage as part of the grab action. Sort of similar to how in 3e grappling you can deal damage as if an unarmed strike when you successfully grapple, or by winning subsequent grapple checks in later actions. So my feat would just give you a little bonus damage in addition to whatever you could do with your regular attacks using your regular actions in later rounds.

(A successful grapple required two checks in 3e - a touch attack plus a grapple check - while with what I'm proposing you'd just need to succeed at the initial grab. So I wouldn't want to give as much damage as you'd get in 3e, thus Strength modifier damage rather than unarmed attack plus Strength modifier. Also adding just the straight modifier as bonus damage seems to be the "4e way", a la Cleave.)

Palladion, thanks for the tip about the monster power, I'll definitely take a look at it!

 

[IanB]

The rogue Garrotte Grip power, pg. 123 in the PH, gives an example of the way 4e would handle this sort of thing, like the 'use as a shield' thing. Grabbing, that anyone can do, is sort of a generic maneuver. To do anything fancy, that's a power.

 

[Boarstorm]

Also, here's another idea. Can you use a grabbed opponent as an improvised weapon? The rules state that it is 1d4 for smaller objects and 1d8 for larger objects. Was wondering if I could get a ruling on the range increment for a goblin?

Interestingly, a dead kobold made quite the ranged weapon in my last game. I decided to rule it as a stunt as opposed to an improvised weapon, though.