D&D 5E Grappler Feat and Being Restrained Open Discussion

[TaranTheWanderer]

Well, the greatest advantage really is once he has them grappled he can weapon attack with advantage for SA. So, I don't have to rely on an ally in combat or find other ways to get advantage. It just sucks because moving to a restrained level won't allow my SA at that point.

I don't get what you are saying here. If you pin someone, you aren't at advantage to attack them since you are also restrained.

If you only grapple them, you aren't at advantage to attack but their movement is at 0.

Am I misunderstanding what you mean in regards to Sneak Attack?

It bothers me that a pinned target has no harder a time escaping than one who is just grappled, since the Restrained condition doesn't affect ability checks. If I were going to alter the Grappler feat, I'd give pinned targets disadvantage when attempting to escape using a Strength or Dexterity check.

Which is why I liked the 3.5 version. There were 'levels' of grapple. The equivalent in 5e would go as follows:

So you grapple someone and their movement is at 0. they have the "grappled" condition
Then you pin them and they have the "restrained" condition.
If they break the Pin, They are no longer 'Restrained' But are now 'Grappled.'

You can spend your round trying to re-pin them. They would need to succeed on two consecutive checks to be fully free. The same way that you'd need to succeed on two checks to pin them.

You end up with interesting wrestling. One person pins the other but the other one grapples the first. If the First chooses to let the second go, the first finds themselves unable to run away because they are also grappled. It leads to interesting situations where, if you wrestle the wrong person- someone bigger or better than you - , you can find yourself in a tricky situation.

 

[DND_Reborn]

f you only grapple them, you aren't at advantage to attack but their movement is at 0.

With the Grappler feat, you have advantage on attacks made against creatures you have grappled. Gaining that advantage is what gave me the idea for the build--a rogue who grapples in order to sneak attack.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

With the Grappler feat, you have advantage on attacks made against creatures you have grappled. Gaining that advantage is what gave me the idea for the build--a rogue who grapples in order to sneak attack.

Oh yes, neat! I missed that.

Side question: the feat says this:

"Creatures that are one size larger than you don’t automatically succeed on checks to escape your grapple."

I don't see anything in the Grapple rules that states larger targets auto-escape. I only see where it says "The target of your grapple must be no m ore than one size larger than you,"

I'm playing a halfling barbarian with high STR and I occasionally use grapples. I was thinking of taking Tavern Brawler (mostly as a martial arts fluff). Is there a misprint in the grapple Feat? Am I missing something?

 

[DND_Reborn]

"Creatures that are one size larger than you don’t automatically succeed on checks to escape your grapple."

This was removed in the errata I think since you can only grapple creatures within one size category larger of you.

Yep, here:

 

[DND_Reborn]

I was thinking of taking Tavern Brawler

I think for more fighter-oriented builds this is a good option. Once you get Extra Attack, you can make an unarmed attack, bonus action grapple, and then make your next attack with advantage. I debated about this with my current build, between fighter or rogue. Also since we give a feat at level 1 for everybody, our variant human starts with two! So, if I switch from dwarf to human, I could begin with both Grapple and Tavern Brawler... tempting from a flavor PoV if not mechanically.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I think for more fighter-oriented builds this is a good option. Once you get Extra Attack, you can make an unarmed attack, bonus action grapple, and then make your next attack with advantage. I debated about this with my current build, between fighter or rogue. Also since we give a feat at level 1 for everybody, our variant human starts with two! So, if I switch from dwarf to human, I could begin with both Grapple and Tavern Brawler... tempting from a flavor PoV if not mechanically.

Something about smacking a person, putting them into a grapple, moving them behind the tank at half-movement, Pinning them as your second attack and then having the rest of the party wail on them with advantage seems neat. I wonder how often you could isolate an enemy this way? Especially if the 'tank' has sentinel to keep other enemies from moving in.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Something about smacking a person, putting them into a grapple, moving them behind the tank at half-movement, Pinning them as your second attack and then having the rest of the party wail on them with advantage seems neat. I wonder how often you could isolate an enemy this way? Especially if the 'tank' has sentinel to keep other enemies from moving in.

LOL I don't know, but I see a lot of potential for fun. I know others have done threads on grappler builds, but I'm just poking around mostly on my own.