D&D 5E Grappled

[Stormonu]

So the real question is why don't bears have restrained.

I guess the devs just don't think that bears regular hold things down when they eat, but you are welcome to add that to them.

To my knowledge, bear hugs is more of myth, created for wrestling, than reality. It's more of a vicious mauling in the wild.

 

[ECMO3]

When I am playing a PC and I am grappling someone I usually do it by grabbing their hair (if they have hair).

This way it explains all the thematics you are talking about.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

To my knowledge, bear hugs is more of myth, created for wrestling, than reality. It's more of a vicious mauling in the wild.

Yeah, bear is more leaning over you and its massive size and weight makes it very hard to escape from. I don't think that their arms bend all that great for actually "hugging" anyone. Their pawing-action would be enough!

 

[aco175]

I grant advantage to the grappler to hit someone that it is grappling unless it does something automatically. I never have PCs that grapple, so I'm not sure if that would tip anything for me.

 

[doodlidoo]

While grappling has its limits, I can think of several fun ways to make the monsters use it.
a) A giant crocodile bites an opponent, grapples it and sinks back to the bottom of the river, biting the poor restrained character with advantage and trying to drown it while he holds its breath.
b) A vicious balhannoth grapples a target and teleports along with it a few times using legendary actions, each time farther from the group.
c) A flying creature grapples a adventurer close to a ledge, pivots and drops it down the abyss...

All of these situations happened at my table in the past few months, and now grapples are feared by my players. Granted, in the two 1st cases, the restrained condition was imposed along with the grapple, but in the third example, not.

I wish my players would come to think to use it more often themselves, but I think PCs have a little more to lose than mobs, in terms of action economy, in trading up a damaging attack for a grapple.

 

[Stalker0]

The second a fight contains dangerous terrain or the ability to isolate groups of creatures, grappling becomes extremely effective in 5e because its so easy to do. just grapple and drag them into the bad terrain, or use it to pull 1 PC away from the group and isolate them.