How often does the grapple mechanic come up in your game?

[Zappo]

Very, very often. Not in literally every combat, but it happens in more than half of our combats.

It is the standard procedure to prevent someone from escaping. Grapple him; in the following round, he'll try to escape. If he fails, he stays, if he succeeds, he'll move away, causing an attack of opportunity, which you'll use to start another grapple. Very effective. Though I still have to understand whether starting a grapple causes an AoO even if done as an AoO itself. If the characters have combat reflexes, it could turn weird quickly.

 

[griff_goodbeard]

Not to butt in to Bullgrit's thread, but just wondering --

For those who use the grapple mechanic frequently, do you have a BattleBox? Do you use the grapple info card from that?

(I never used grappling in my game until I had that card... just wondering if it's been useful for others).

Now back to your regularly scheduled postings.

- James

What's a BattleBox?

 

[kigmatzomat]

I won't say every time but quite often. Having a grappler-monk helps. The rogues of the party loves him for the damage he does by proxy (rogue/bard, rogue/ranger, rogue/DD), the fighter is glad someone else will volunteer to take a hit, and the casters are glad the monk is an obvious target for enemy rogues.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Yep, often -- another dwarven grapple fighter/monk IMC. I'm still not quite as swift on grapple as I should be, but we're getting a lot of practice.

Last session, the dwarf turned what would have been a really tough combat into a cakewalk by grappling the caster on the first round. The bad guys got their revenge on the next encounter, though, when he failed his second save to a poison (druid was out of neutralize poison spells) and died.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Probably every other session -- playing a druid in a party with 3 rogues or part-rogues, and Animal Growth just makes summoning a very good option. The super-ninja-monk BBEG took out our barbarian in one round and was beating on everyone else until the enlarged dire bear grappled her; at that point, her AC probably fell by 12 or so and the rogues finished the job. Monks may be the grapple-monkeys vs. casters, but they hate being on the receiving end of it.

 

[The Shaman]

We use the grapple mechanic any time a character wants to grapple.

Which would vary quite a bit from game to game.

Making the poll too difficult for me to answer with any precision.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I have a martial artist who likes to grapple in my Modern campaign. As the character with the highest BAB and (I think) highest Strength, he has an amazing grapple check. He can easily outgrapple opponents who have several levels over him.

The Combat Throw feat gives him +2 to grapple, as well.

However, grapples don't come up all that often, usually only when he catches someone by surprise.

 

[demiurge1138]

Grappling happens every once in a while. On my side of the screen, creatures with Improved Grapple are fun. On the player's side, it makes life very difficult for all those enemy halfling or gnome NPCs. Grapple 'em, beat on 'em, stuff 'em in a sack to be looted at your convenience. I almost feel sorry for those poor guys.

Demiurge out.

 

[devilbat]

We use grapple often, at least every third session or so. In tonight's game it was used to battle stirges.

 

[farscapesg1]

Hardly ever, but that's the same with any combat tactics in our group

It doesn't help that our DM wants to use the same 50/50 rule for ranged attacks against grappling opponents when someone attacks with a melee weapon :\ Kinda makes the whole grapple tactic worthless.