Improved Grab, and that Chuul

[Spectrum Rider]

So I ran a chuul against my players tonight. And I read Improved Grab in the MM. And still, I (and my players) were mightily confused.

The chuul hit some guy with a claw (as an AoO, specifically) and beat him on the grabble check. Now the guy is grabbed.

Unless the chuul takes a -20 on subsequent grapple checks (pretty stiff, if you ask me), what can it do? Use its other claw? Attack anything? Move? Or is it stuck just doing the grapple?

When does the extra squeeze damage kick on? As soon as the character is grappled? Or on the chuul's next turn?

If the character decides to attack the chuul (with a light weapon, of course) rather than break free of the grapple, is he automatically grappled for another round? Does the chuul have to make a roll?

When the chuul transfers the character to its tentacles, what changes? Is it now free to attack others with its claws? Or is it still too busy with the grapple?

We were unable to come to a firm conclusion. Fortunately they killed the chuul before too much more time had gone by.

Thanks in advance for any tips for the future.

The Spectrum Rider

 

[Brekki]

If the chuul wants to move, he has to win an opposed grapple check. The creature that is grappled takes d6 damage from the claw automatically each round it does not escape the grapple.

Remember that the Chuul can pull the victim into it's tentacles as a partial action. From then on, the Chuul can again use both claws for attacking others, and the tentacles have a chance to paralyse and also do damage automatically.

This creature is very good against one or two opponents, as soon as there are more, the partial action becomes "more expensive".

If the grappled character attacks with a light weapon he remains grappled, so the squeeze damage applies automatically on the chuul's initiative.

If you play the beast a bit smart, as you should with 10 Int:
- round 1, the chuul hits an opponent, wins grapple check, opponent is grappled
- round 2, automatic squeeze damage, move victim to tentacles with partial action, possibly move away from other opponents
- round 3, victim has to fortitude save vs paralysation and takes d8+2 damage, the chuul can attack others now, possibly dropping the paralyzed victim to repeat the actions with another victim.

I assumed in the above sequence that the victim does not escape the grapple. Since the chuul is concentrating on the grappled victim only it doesn't need to use a -20 for grapple checks, except when it wants to attack others in the third round.

If the victim saves for the paralysis and doesn't KO from the d8+2 damage, the Chuul should attack the same creature with one of his claws (like attacking with a light weapon), or use a grapple check to damage the victim. He can do either of these in the same third round if he doesn't attack other creatures.

If you want to play it real nasty, let the chuul attack near water and drag the victim under ... drowning him

 

[IceBear]

I don't know if you saw this, but Sean put a detailed Grappling Step by Step doc on his website. Here it is:

http://www.seankreynolds.com/rpgfiles/misc/grappling.html

Dunno if this will help with your questions.

IceBear