Little Guys

[Ridley's Cohort]

does suck. It's pretty campaign-specific, however. You might go 10+ battles without seeing one of these things. Plus, a lot of the monsters that have improved grab are, well, pretty horrendous in that regard (high strength, BAB, etc., big size, etc.).

Does it matter THAT much that you are small vs. medium? Yeah, it does not help! But what percentage of the time will it actually hurt?

Lately things seem to want to grapple me every other battle.

Most medium grunts can win a grapple against a Large grappler 25% of the time, and a Huge one 10% of the time. A small character has a -25% chance. That equals...zero.

Does it matter all that much? Maybe not to your PC -- he can eventually get a Cape of the Mountebank or a Ring of Gaseous Form to save his hide. But your teammates may not be so happy about you being knocked off the line so easily. Depends on the party; some parties expect their grunts to do the killing and others expect them to hold the line.

 

[Darklone]

Our gnome barbarian cleric with Travel domain does not need to worry about grapples ... trip attacks scare him though