How to stop a Grappling Monk?

[Darklone]

Thats why you have spiked gauntlets, clawed bracers, armor spikes, and more of the same stuff ... you already were those.

These don't help you... piercing weapons don't get you cut out of a swallowing creatures stomach.

 

[James McMurray]

What Brekki said. At higher levels a Glove of Storing also works well.

 

[Viktyr Gehrig]

These don't help you... piercing weapons don't get you cut out of a swallowing creatures stomach.

Damage stops when you kill the critter, though.

 

[Darklone]

Yeah, but usually you have to rely on your buddies to kill it.

 

[uzagi_akimbo]

Some more or less exotic or spell defences

Touch of the Eel (Relics and Rituals)
Fire Shield (wimpy)
Polymorph (from a 'phylactery of change' if need be...) - go for oozes, hehe
Wild shape (Porcupine ? Hedgehog ? Giant constrictor ? Skunk ? Fire Elemental ? )


Displacement (Cloak of this is useful )
Blur (weak but cheap )
Gaseous Form
Ghostform

Shadowdancers pet shadows (goes for many other necromantic types, too ), more of a deterrent, cause they will munch/drain him promptly if he is busy grappling

Oozemasters
Clerics with Travel domain power
Scarred Land Dwarven Runecaster with some wicked runes charged
Lycanthropes
Succubus (hehe)
Nymphs

 

[Brekki]

Yeah, but usually you have to rely on your buddies to kill it.

Most creatures don't have that much of an AC from the inside ... powerattacking (in 3.0 possible with a light weapon) while swallowed was quite a good tactic ... killed several dragons that way

Nope. They are both denied their Dex bonus-but not against each other.

Now, a rogue ally of the monk's target can sneak attack the monk. Or, a rogue ally of the monk can ... sneak attack ... Erk! There's an ugly combo. "You hold him while I finish him off."

Yep, it's a great combo ... I play in a campaign that had a druid with animal companion, both in bearform with improved grab, and two rogues ... lots of sneak damage there.

 

[Darklone]

Most creatures don't have that much of an AC from the inside ... powerattacking (in 3.0 possible with a light weapon) while swallowed was quite a good tactic ... killed several dragons that way

Well, 3.5 killed that... but at least it's still possible to attack from the inside without winning a grapple check first...

 

[jessemock]

How do you stop a monk with Improved Grapple from grappling and neutralizing every man-sized opponent. From spellcasters to platemail fighters. The touch attack always hits, and he has a huge advantage in grapple checks.

I play a grapple monkey myself, and she's always doing what you're trying to counter here.

Sadly, it's all too easy to foil a grappler. Yes; it's true that, one-on-one, the grappler can effectively remove one opponent from melee. My experience has been that this often requires significant sacrifice on the part of the grappler: multiple opponents, touch attacks, and, well, fighters spell trouble here.

Typically, the grappler has to go after the single greatest humanoid threat to the party and hang on until the the rest of the team has a moment to come over and finish the job. This amounts usually to a race: will the grappler run out of HP (or Str. or Con. or levels!) before his buddies back him up?

So, if you want to screw over a grappler, just give him what he wants: send a relatively tough mook with a light weapon over to the guy and grapple him.

 

[Caliban]

Nope. They are both denied their Dex bonus-but not against each other.

Now, a rogue ally of the monk's target can sneak attack the monk. Or, a rogue ally of the monk can ... sneak attack ... Erk! There's an ugly combo. "You hold him while I finish him off."

That's basically the tactic my 13th level melee character has adopted. The halfling rogue11/ftr1 in our party uses a +1 Holy Greatsword (small), so against evil opponents he does 1d10+3+2d6 (holy)+5d6(sneak attack).

Against opponents with uncanny dodge or a high armor class, I drink a potion of Enlarge Self and then grapple them. If possible I will trip them first, and then grapple them, and then Pin them. No Dex bonus (grappled), -4 AC (Prone), and -4 AC (Pinned) usually put's their AC into a range he can hit.

My character also uses +1 Silvered Armor spikes and has 3 monk levels. I actually did Grapple a vampire at one point, and he couldn't beat me on a grapple check to level drain me. By the time he figured it out and went gaseous to escape, the Cleric had powered up and killed him.

 

[Norfleet]

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