How often does Grappling happen in your game?

[blargney the second]

I saw a fellow PC die a gruesome death inside a remorhaz a long time ago... the sheer screwedness of the guy stuck with me ever since.

 

[Jhulae]

I saw a fellow PC die a gruesome death inside a remorhaz a long time ago... the sheer screwedness of the guy stuck with me ever since.

They're extra nasty because of all the fire damage their tummy does compared to 'normal' acid of most critters.

However, what's pretty funny is that we had a PC in our game this past Sunday get swallowed by one of them. He had about 85 hp and he lasted *three* rounds...

 

[Moggthegob]

Every Single Session. My monsters use it and my layers use it too. In fact its such a big thing that almost every fighter winds up with close quarters fighting and nearly every rogue/ranger/monk maxes out escape artist as a amtter of policy to escape the grapples.

The Druid's Tiger animal companion grapples everything and does it quite well.

The wizard and the cleric know better than to get into that situation but nearly always has Dimension door prepared or else scrolls/wands of it which can be retrieved and read with a concentration check( as i have rolled using a scroll is roughly equivalent to casting a spell.) or just automatically done with a wand.

I have always found it ironic, as my players absolutely love the Grapple rules and enjoy their complexities and all 7 of us can more or less recite them from memory.

BTW my group consists of a couple bureaucrats, a college admissions minion and a teacher, paperwork and weird regulations are kind of our thing

 

[HeavenShallBurn]

At least once a session. Often enough that I didn't have to look it up. But they were still kind of clunky so I rewrote it. Now the grappling system is a meshing of Exalted and D&D.

 

[Mighty Halfling]

As a player, I certainly wish Grapple was a more viable option in a fight. The rules are pretty difficult for my fellow players to get their heads around. A grapple also creates a lot of problems when you're part of a team -- you can't assist the allied grappler very well and you can't attack his opponent without a distinct possiblity of hurting your ally. I understand the reason for this, but it makes that combat option less useful.
As a DM, its used quite frequently. It often slows up the game a little, but not too much. Because Grapples are so difficult to achieve -- and to escape -- it makes for some tense moments.

 

[DragonLancer]

I rarely ever bother with grappling when DMing because usually I find standard attacks or magics are a lot more useful in combat. My players never bother with it really for the same reason, unless they have it in their heads to capture an NPC or low-level monster.

I did play in an Eberron game a couple years back where the DM had a weird fixation for grapples and almost every encounter involved some hugely powerful monster that was built around a grapple build. I remember the first time it being cool to see the mechanic get a work out but after the third and forth it was a little stale and not much fun to play against.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

And, there are enough of the big critters with Swallow, too. I don't think many people realize just *how screwed* the average PC is once they get swallowed.

Some PCs just see this as an opportunity to damage the monster's innards. For some reason, being swallowed doesn't suffocate you.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Almost every game.

Seconded.

 

[chriton227]

... you can't assist the allied grappler very well and you can't attack his opponent without a distinct possiblity of hurting your ally.

My group usually doesn't have any problem with this. You only have a chance to hit the wrong target with ranged attacks, there is no chance to hit the wrong target with melee, and the participants in the grapple are denied their dex, setting them up well for sneak attacks. The grappler in my group also likes to grab high dex opponents to set them up for power attacks from the party fighter. His other favorite tactic it to use his action to move the grapple through the threatened areas of the other members of the party, which provokes attacks of opportunity against the foe (and doesn't have the chance to hit the wrong target like bull rush does, although I'm thinking of correcting that through a house rule).

 

[Jhulae]

Some PCs just see this as an opportunity to damage the monster's innards. For some reason, being swallowed doesn't suffocate you.

Right. But, how many players or DMs that have PCs that get swallowed actually know the rules? Because, my guess is that a *lot* of PCs are getting off a lot better than they should be.