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<blockquote data-quote="Esker" data-source="post: 7852807" data-attributes="member: 6966824">Bard is the usual choice for this, since you can get expertise in athletics, and you have some other helpful abilities and spells. If you want to go all in on grappling, you could start with one level of fighter for heavy armor so that you don't need DEX for AC can can focus on STR and CHA; plus you get CON save proficiency, which will help you maintain concentration spells while you're in the thick of things. Enhance Ability is on the bard list, so you can give yourself advantage on grapple checks while you have that up. This doesn't really come online until level 4 though, since that's when you'd get expertise.. If you can get expertise from bard though, you could pick up a feat like Shield Master at 1st from human, for the grapple+shove prone combo (both of which benefit from athletics expertise once you have it).As for subclass, there are multiple options depending on your priorities (particularly if you already have armor proficiency from fighter). Valor or swords give you extra attack at Bard 6, so you can make multiple grapple attempts per turn; plus for valor, combat inspiration is a great &quot;support tank&quot; feature that mostly doesn't compete for resources with your grapples. Swords could work well with Tavern Brawler, since you can attack with your shield boosted by dueling style (or just use a fist), if you hit use defensive flourish to boost your AC, and grapple as a bonus action (once you have extra attack you could use your second attack to shove prone). Lore Bard can cutting words the target's check to oppose, and could use Magical Secrets to pick up something like Hex as an alternative to Enhance Ability (bonus action cast time and lower level slot, or upcast to increase the duration).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Esker, post: 7852807, member: 6966824"] Bard is the usual choice for this, since you can get expertise in athletics, and you have some other helpful abilities and spells. If you want to go all in on grappling, you could start with one level of fighter for heavy armor so that you don't need DEX for AC can can focus on STR and CHA; plus you get CON save proficiency, which will help you maintain concentration spells while you're in the thick of things. Enhance Ability is on the bard list, so you can give yourself advantage on grapple checks while you have that up. This doesn't really come online until level 4 though, since that's when you'd get expertise.. If you can get expertise from bard though, you could pick up a feat like Shield Master at 1st from human, for the grapple+shove prone combo (both of which benefit from athletics expertise once you have it). As for subclass, there are multiple options depending on your priorities (particularly if you already have armor proficiency from fighter). Valor or swords give you extra attack at Bard 6, so you can make multiple grapple attempts per turn; plus for valor, combat inspiration is a great "support tank" feature that mostly doesn't compete for resources with your grapples. Swords could work well with Tavern Brawler, since you can attack with your shield boosted by dueling style (or just use a fist), if you hit use defensive flourish to boost your AC, and grapple as a bonus action (once you have extra attack you could use your second attack to shove prone). Lore Bard can cutting words the target's check to oppose, and could use Magical Secrets to pick up something like Hex as an alternative to Enhance Ability (bonus action cast time and lower level slot, or upcast to increase the duration). [/QUOTE]

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