Knockdown in a Grapple

[thebitdnd]

A question:

In our campaign, we have a particularly pesky illusionist who keeps popping in on us to do his best to do us in, and he always teleports out when the fight gets ugly for him. Since we don't have dimensional anchor or any other binding magic, we have to figure out a way to keep him from casting spells.

We came up with sending our strongest guy in to grapple him to make casting much more difficult while the rest of the party hacks away at him. One of the fighters who will be hacking away while the wizard is grappled has the Knockdown feat, which grants a free trip attack anytime he deals more than 10 points of damage. Since his damage bonus is +13, it's a foregone conclusion when he hits.

The question is, how do you resolve a trip attack on a person who is involved in a grapple. Do you grant the +4 stability bonus for a creature who has 4 or more legs (since they're essentially bound together). Do you apply the str/dex modifier of both creatures? Do you say you can't trip someone involved in a grapple? Or is there another rule we're missing?

Last time we tried this, the guy still got away because he made an ungodly concentration check then cast dimension door since it is only a verbal component. Next time I plan to cast silence on our grappler to prevent that from happening again.

This may all soon be a moot point since soon I will have Dimensional Anchor available to me, but I don't know that this guy won't pop in again on us before then.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hypersmurf]

Interesting - I had a similar thought last night, only mine was "Can you trip your opponent while grappling?"

While grappling, you can either deal grapple damage with an OGC, or you can attack with a light weapon. In place of a melee attack, you may instead make a Trip attack. So, in place of "attack with a light weapon", can you Trip?

The result would be two people grappling, one prone and one not.

Would the prone opponent receive a -4 penalty on his OGCs? Would you standing attacker gain a +4 for attacking a prone opponent?

-Hyp.

 

[spunky_mutters]

Interesting - I had a similar thought last night, only mine was "Can you trip your opponent while grappling?"


-Hyp.

That's how you get the pin.

 

[MisterTwister]

OUr house rule is that 4 in 6 grapples go prone at the top of every round. If both creatures want to go prone, its auto, if one does it is 4 in 6, if neither does it is 1 in 6.

As far as tripping in grapple, I would say sure, they still get their AoO. I would just add that if you fail and they get to trip you back they can swap that for a free break or pin attempt.

As far as the KD feat, if you are willing to go down too.

For that matter you could bull rush to. This happens in movies alot.

 

[Hypersmurf]

As far as tripping in grapple, I would say sure, they still get their AoO.

1. Trip doesn't provoke an AoO.
2. A creature who is grappling does not threaten an area, and thus cannot make AoOs... even against the person they're grappling.

-Hyp.

 

[MisterTwister]

Ah. My bad. Then I guess it would just be a standard trip.