How often does Grappling happen in your game?

[Aeric]

Hmm...it's sounding like the rules themselves have an awful lot to do with whether or not people attempt grappling. I wonder how often people grapple in games with different rules for it? Most of the (non-d20) rules I've seen for grappling usually only involve restricting someone's movement, not dealing damage to them.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

In my previous campaign one player used to grapple semi-regularly. Apart from that it depended on whether I had a monster with Improved Grab. Overall I would say grappling happened at least every couple of sessions, if not more often.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Victim]

Grappling happens fairly often - and our current groups use it far less than previous ones which had dedicated grapplers or multiple casters dropping Evard's.

Grappling is more of a problem when it's used infrequently, I think. The more often people use a mechanic, the more familiar it becomes. So when grappling takes place all the time, people get a good idea of how it works. If it hardly ever comes up, then people probably don't know the rules as well so grappling attacks are show stoppers while everyone tries to figure out the rules.

 

[blargney the second]

To make things a little more fair for PCs, I make grapples auto-fail on 1s and auto-succeed on 20s. It gives them a chance against the grabbers.

 

[Infiniti2000]

To make things a little more fair for PCs, I make grapples auto-fail on 1s and auto-succeed on 20s. It gives them a chance against the grabbers.

And it makes your universe shatter into an infinite number of pieces when both roll a 20, or a 1.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Monsters often use it, and players in my group know the "escape steps" (which is the easy part).

Characters rarely do. I hardly ever see monks use it. (While a monk can do a lot more damage in a grapple than any other character, the bonus from Improved Grab [or whatever the feat/ability is called] is just making up for their general lower BAB/Strength.) No one wants to give up actions like that.

 

[blargney the second]

And it makes your universe shatter into an infinite number of pieces when both roll a 20, or a 1.

*chuckle*

Nah, I just use the standard rule of whoever has the bigger modifier wins ties.

 

[the Jester]

Almost every game, someone initiates a grapple.

In my epic game, one of the pcs is a grapplin' monk. As long as that player is there, there is prolly going to be some grappling.

 

[coyote6]

Pretty much every game, thanks mainly to beasties with Improved Grab. Thus, I know the grapple rules fairly well.

The players have developed a great counter-tactic for fighting extra-sized beasts of grabbiness -- the cleric has a ring of freedom of movement, and the sorcerer knows benign transposition (and has a ring of wizardry, and thus can cast 13 or 14 first level spells per day). So if someone gets grabbed by the gigantic critter of the week & is in great danger, the sorcerer switches the victim with the cleric, and the cleric wanders away. One fight, they did that dance three or four times (there were a couple of Improved Grab critters).

I'm waiting for the time they get really cunning, and the cleric casts harm, and holds the charge. Ouch.

 

[JDJblatherings]

We had an epic battle involving a monk and a psychic warrior in a tug of war match with a dinosaur over a hapless enemy wizard. It would have been a little complicated if the DM was a hardcore rules freak.