Hello wonderful people of EnWorld!
Can an enemy break a grapple using their multiattack to perform the shove attack option as one of their attacks?
Now I've read around and even saw Mike Mearls' opinion on this and I do agree the answer is No (though he does say there are some case to case situations). They cannot use a multiattack attack to make the shove attack.
BUT! Here's where I have a problem. Every example I come across, including the question Mike answer, people site things such as Frost Giants and other creatures that state in their multiattack "<so&so> makes three attacks, two greatsword attacks and a stomp." That's easy, no you can't trade one for shove, because it's specifically calling it out as a greatsword attack. Or they say they can't because it says it's an action in the escape a grapple section of that attack (which makes sense).
Then I get to this little diddy for a couple creatures such as the Gladiator, "The gladiator makes three melee attacks or two ranged attacks," or the Planatar, "the planetar makes two melee attacks." Now those aren't specific. Melee attacks include Melee weapon attacks, so their spear or greatsword falls in that category, but so does shove and grapple as per their entry in the Melee attack section.
So with that in mind, can these creatures that get to "make two melee attacks" make use of shove or grapple as part of their multiattack?
I'm waiting on a response hopefully from Mike Mearls as I tweeted at him, but I wanted to get the opinions of other DMs and players so I brought it here. Mind you before you respond this question is not targetting the general multiattack action performed by a lot of creatures, but the specific multiattack action used by creatures such as the gladiator or planatar that doesn't specify the attacks in the multiattack, but give them free reign with multiple "melee attacks."
Can an enemy break a grapple using their multiattack to perform the shove attack option as one of their attacks?
Now I've read around and even saw Mike Mearls' opinion on this and I do agree the answer is No (though he does say there are some case to case situations). They cannot use a multiattack attack to make the shove attack.
BUT! Here's where I have a problem. Every example I come across, including the question Mike answer, people site things such as Frost Giants and other creatures that state in their multiattack "<so&so> makes three attacks, two greatsword attacks and a stomp." That's easy, no you can't trade one for shove, because it's specifically calling it out as a greatsword attack. Or they say they can't because it says it's an action in the escape a grapple section of that attack (which makes sense).
Then I get to this little diddy for a couple creatures such as the Gladiator, "The gladiator makes three melee attacks or two ranged attacks," or the Planatar, "the planetar makes two melee attacks." Now those aren't specific. Melee attacks include Melee weapon attacks, so their spear or greatsword falls in that category, but so does shove and grapple as per their entry in the Melee attack section.
So with that in mind, can these creatures that get to "make two melee attacks" make use of shove or grapple as part of their multiattack?
I'm waiting on a response hopefully from Mike Mearls as I tweeted at him, but I wanted to get the opinions of other DMs and players so I brought it here. Mind you before you respond this question is not targetting the general multiattack action performed by a lot of creatures, but the specific multiattack action used by creatures such as the gladiator or planatar that doesn't specify the attacks in the multiattack, but give them free reign with multiple "melee attacks."
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