Celebrim
Legend
Grappling is a controversial topic in RPGs. People are always lobbying for simpler rules for grappling, rather than it having its own subsystem. The simpler the system though, the more it's disassociated. Personally, I feel that grappling is sufficiently different than "standard" striking combat that you can't abstract it too much nor rely too closely on the abstractions you use for other types of combat without it just not feeling like a grapple, so I prefer the page or two of crunch to just ignoring the idea.
What shouldn't be controversial though is that 1e AD&D grappling sucked, The system is the worst of both worlds, with a page long subsystem full of very fiddly modifiers that manages to not be remotely compatible or balanced with the main subsystem of the game. It feels like it could be a very decent system for adjudicating a barroom brawl provided their was an agreement in place to not use weapons of any sort, but beyond that, if you tried to use it you quickly realized one of the big problems with it is that it was generally much more effective for low level characters than armed combat. A 1st level guy was a lot more dangerous with his fists than a spear, which doesn't really match real world experience. And also, just like the "weapon vs. AC" table, it focus entirely on PC's vs. NPC's - monsters are not considered or even mentioned and it's not remotely clear how it apples. So I imagine, just like the "weapons vs. AC" table, it got ignored at most tables. I tried to use it for a while, but realized it was just way too problematic.
Revised Grappling for 1e AD&D
Grappling attacks are those which attempt to use one’s mass and strength, and apply leverage and secure grips to constrain an opponent’s action in a combat situation, with the goal of rendering them helpless to initiate attacks of their own or unable to resist your own attacks. As such, special rules are required to simulate the effects in abstract of having constrained actions.
Initiating a Grapple
To initiate a grapple, normally you must have won the initiative this round, and you must deliberately forgo it, dropping to lower in the initiative order than the target of the grapple. You must have at least one hand free. The target cannot weight more than 16 times your own body weight. Such attacks are clinches are covered by their own rules. Note that the reverse is not true, and a larger creature may always attempt to initiate a grapple with you.
You then may attempt an attack against AC 10, ignoring the targets shield and armor bonus and the effects of items such as bracers of defense. However, defensive dexterity adjustment or the effects of such protective magic as bless or a ring of protection do increase the difficulty of the attack. If this attack hits, a grapple has been initiated but is not yet successful.
Any initiated grapple is immediately contested (per the rules below). The attacker may take any of the following actions as their first action – ‘do grappling damage’, ‘move the grapple’, or ‘take opponent to ground’. The defender generally takes the ‘Escape Grapple’ action and if is successful in performing that action in the contest, they are not considered to have been grappled for any significant duration (less than one segment). Otherwise, both parties are now considered to be part of the grapple. In a grapple, both parties then lose the ability to take actions other than those allowable in a grapple, and neither party has the advantage of dexterity on their AC with respect to attacks not originating with their opponent in the grapple. The defender optionally, if they are willing to enter a grapple, and if they are not surprised on the round the grapple begins, may take the ‘retrieve a ready object’, ‘defend self’, ‘move the grapple’, or ‘take opponent to ground’ action (but no other action).
You may initiate a grapple with any creature whose movement is hindered even if you did not win initiative, including any creature which is not using a natural mode of movement, creatures entangled or on difficult terrain that causes them to move at half or less their normal movement. You may also join an existing grapple.
Certain weapons such as nets, whips, and lassos allow you to initiate grapples without winning initiative, provided you successfully attack with such weapons. Likewise, certain natural weapons such as the jaws of an ant lion, the coils of a giant constrictor snake, or the tentacles of a giant octopus allow monsters to initiate grapples when they successfully attack.
Contesting a grapple
Roll a D20 and subtract the unmodified number you need to hit AC10. Subtract 2 if your opponent is heavier that you, or 4 if your opponent is twice as heavy, 6 if your opponent is four times as heavy, 8 if eight times as heavy, and -10 as a penalty if the opponent is 16 times as heavy. Subtract 3 if your opponent is stronger than you. Add your strength bonus to melee damage. Creatures with body plans that favor grabbling such as constrictor snakes and those with tentacles or suckers add 4. If a creature is too large to use its entire body against its foe, such as a kraken grappling an M size creature, it subtracts 6.
Grappling actions
Once a grapple has begun, only certain actions are legal for the contestants.
Do Grappling Damage: You twist and bend the opponent in ways they weren’t really designed, gouge sensitive bits or otherwise try to do harm to them while holding onto them. For creatures without natural weapons this does 1d2 damage plus ½ of your strength bonus. If you are armored and your opponent isn’t, this does 1d3 damage plus your full strength bonus.
Creatures with natural weapons if they have a slam, claw, or bite attack may do grappling damage equal to one of these attacks of their choice.
Attack with a light weapon: You may attack with a readied weapon that is no more than 2’ in length and requires no more than 1’ space to wield effectively such as a fist, open hand, gauntlet, dagger, hand axe, hammer, spiked buckler, knife or even the smaller sorts of short sword. If you are grappled with a creature more than three times your size, you may treat weapons of up to 3’ in length and which require no more than 2’ of space to wield effectively such as some scimitars, horseman’s picks, jo sticks, horseman’s maces, some clubs, etc. If you are grappled with a creature more than four times your size, you can treat essentially any weapon as light.
You may not attack with weapons in both hands, as the necessities of the grapple – either your own hold or the opponent’s – will prevent it. However, you may attack with either hand, provided no other circumstance prevents it. (In some grapples, an individual limb may be explicitly pinned.)
A pinned creature is exceptionally vulnerable to this action, and can be attacked in its vital areas. Such attacks reduce the AC owed to the opponent’s armor by 4 (thus plate becomes no better than ring, while scale offers no protection at all), ignore the shield, and do not allow the opponent to take any AC bonus from dexterity, small size, speed or the like. Such attacks indicate attempts to attack the arm pit, groin, inner thigh, throat, eye slits, or other such vulnerable points in typical armor against a foe with limited ability to evade such attacks.
Retrieve a ready object: You can ready an object either from the environment within reach or which is immediately accessible on your person (such as sheathed). You may not attempt to search a large container on your person such as a backpack, sack, large pouch, scroll case, or the like. Normally this is done to obtain a dagger, knife, rock, bottle, or similar item to give you some advantage in the grapple. If you have the ability to flich objects via the pick pocket skill, you can attempt to retrieve a ready object from an opponent.
Defend Self: You focus on protecting yourself from attack. If you have taken this action successfully, an opposing throw opponent, move grapple, take opponent to ground, or grappling damage action fails that round, and other attacks by your opponent in the grapple are at a -5 penalty to hit, as you push away limbs or jaws and otherwise try to make yourself a difficult to harm. If this action is successful and the opponent’s action was not successful, you may force a monster that is doing automatic damage to you from a constrict attack or the like to reroll an attack in order to continue damage. However, you make no progress toward escaping the grapple, so in the long term this action merely delays and so is generally not taken if you can’t expect an ally or other aid to help you eventually or unless you yourself have a constrict attack of some sort.
Escape Pin: With this action you break a pin, freeing limbs or otherwise putting yourself on more equal terms in the grapple. If your opponent’s action was maintain pin, this action succeeds but only after any side effects (such as grappling damage) from the maintained pin are applied. If the victim goes unconscious or dies as a result of such damage, then the attempt to escape the pin fails. If a character (such as a thief) makes an Escape Artist check, they may automatically succeed at this action. A character can attempt an Escape Artist check or a normal grappling contest check, but not both. A ring of free action grants a 40% chance of success to either check (i.e. +8 to a grapple contest check when attempting to escape, but not to other grappling actions).
Escape Grapple: With this action you end a grapple. The opponent can of course attempt to reinitiate the grapple on the next round. If a character (such as a thief) makes an Escape Artist check, they may automatically succeed at this action. A character can attempt an Escape Artist check or a normal grappling contest check, but not both. A ring of free action grants a 40% chance of success to either check.
Maintain Pin: You can only take this action if you have your opponent pinned. With this action you attempt to do nothing but maintain a pin. Unless your opponent is taking continuous damage from a constrict attack such as a garrote, you only seek to prevent the opponent from escaping. When you reveal this action, you gain a +4 bonus on your grapple check.
Pinning the opponent – This action can only be attempted if you one your last grapple contest. On success, the opponent gains the pinned condition as well as grappled. An opponent becomes largely helpless when pinned and can only take the actions ‘Defend Self’ and ‘Escape Pin’. Furthermore, they suffer a -4 penalty on contested grapple checks until they are no longer pinned. If both participants in a grapple succeed in the ‘pinning the opponent’ move in the same round, neither are pinned.
Move the grapple – You move the grapple half your height in your preferred direction. If you win the grapple contest outright (i.e. you won by more than 5), you may move your full height. If you win the grapple contest by 10 or more, you may move the grapple as far as you could if you were carrying your opponent. You can no longer move the grapple if you no longer have access to a natural mode of movement. For example, a typical PC can’t move the grapple once they are swimming, whereas a merfolk could, and a typical PC can’t move the grapple once air born, though a hippogriff could. If both sides succeed in moving the grapple, the net movement is the sum of their motion.
Throw opponent – You can only take this action if you are capable of lifting your opponent. You end the grapple and throw the opponent up to your arm’s length plus your bonus to damage in feet in the direction you prefer unless the opponent also succeeded in a defend self-action.
If the opponent weighs less than your normal weight allowance, double the distance of the throw. You deal grappling damage from the throw, and the thrown opponent additionally takes falling damage proportional to the distance of the throw if it is over 10’ and the landing is hard, as well as whatever damage is potentially associated with the location they were thrown to. Very exacting throws (such as onto an upright spike or on to campfire some distance away) require an attack roll against AC 7 with medium range being considered anything beyond 1” and long range being beyond 2”.
Take opponent to the ground – If successful, you and your opponent are both prone. If you were successful in this action and the opponent was not successful in their grapple action, you also deal grappling damage.
Disarm Opponent – You may attempt to disarm your foe as your action. See the rules on disarming foes.
Activate an item – You may active a magic item you are currently holding that is activated by a phrase or simple hand motion.
Joining a Grapple
You can join an existing grapple without giving up your initiative. Whenever you join a grapple you just choose a side you favor. The strongest grappler on that side becomes the principle grappler and contests the rolls. They gain a +1 benefit on the grappling contest rolls, and the weight of their side is computed as the combined weight of all their allies. For example, a Strength 13 fighter is in a grapple with a Strength 15 fighter that is ten pounds heavier than them. The smaller weaker fighter is at a -5 penalty on contested grapple rolls. However, a large ally with 17 strength now joins the fray, on behalf of the smaller grappler. As the strongest grappler on his side, he becomes the principle grappler. He gains a +1 bonus from his ally and a +1 bonus from his strength for a total of +2, and his opponent is now the weaker fighter and as well, is now out massed two to one. As such, he now suffers a -7 penalty on his roll.
For each ally in the grapple, they can attempt one action, however only one grappling contest check is made for the entire team – they all fail or succeed together.
There are limits to the number of allies that can grapple a single opponent, generally no more than three M class characters can wrestle another M class character effectively. Any further would not be able to use their full body and so not contribute fully. The GM has final say over how many creatures can join a grapple.
Note that under no circumstances can you join a grapple if the opponent outweighs you by a factor of sixteen or more, even if you would be adding your weight to a legal grapple. Thus, a dozen 4 pound rats even though they collectively weight 48 pounds cannot grapple a PC or assist as allies in a grapple. Adjudicate such attacks per the clinch rules.
Grappling Inherently Dangerous Foes
It’s generally a bad idea to grapple or be in a grapple with a creature that is deadly even to touch, such as a giant porcupine, wraith, barbed devil, fire elemental, or ochre jelly. Such a creature automatically gets a free hit on anyone grappled with it each round, in addition to any other actions it takes during the grapple.
Constrict Attacks
Certain attacks latch securely onto a foe and automatically initiate a grapple if they hit. These include certain jaw and claw attacks, and most tentacle and constriction attacks as well as attacks with a garrote. With such attacks, the attacker need not (and cannot) take the deal grappling damage, for it deals damage with each successful grapple action it takes except for escape pin and escape grapple, unless the defender also succeeds with a defend self action.
What shouldn't be controversial though is that 1e AD&D grappling sucked, The system is the worst of both worlds, with a page long subsystem full of very fiddly modifiers that manages to not be remotely compatible or balanced with the main subsystem of the game. It feels like it could be a very decent system for adjudicating a barroom brawl provided their was an agreement in place to not use weapons of any sort, but beyond that, if you tried to use it you quickly realized one of the big problems with it is that it was generally much more effective for low level characters than armed combat. A 1st level guy was a lot more dangerous with his fists than a spear, which doesn't really match real world experience. And also, just like the "weapon vs. AC" table, it focus entirely on PC's vs. NPC's - monsters are not considered or even mentioned and it's not remotely clear how it apples. So I imagine, just like the "weapons vs. AC" table, it got ignored at most tables. I tried to use it for a while, but realized it was just way too problematic.
Revised Grappling for 1e AD&D
Grappling attacks are those which attempt to use one’s mass and strength, and apply leverage and secure grips to constrain an opponent’s action in a combat situation, with the goal of rendering them helpless to initiate attacks of their own or unable to resist your own attacks. As such, special rules are required to simulate the effects in abstract of having constrained actions.
Initiating a Grapple
To initiate a grapple, normally you must have won the initiative this round, and you must deliberately forgo it, dropping to lower in the initiative order than the target of the grapple. You must have at least one hand free. The target cannot weight more than 16 times your own body weight. Such attacks are clinches are covered by their own rules. Note that the reverse is not true, and a larger creature may always attempt to initiate a grapple with you.
You then may attempt an attack against AC 10, ignoring the targets shield and armor bonus and the effects of items such as bracers of defense. However, defensive dexterity adjustment or the effects of such protective magic as bless or a ring of protection do increase the difficulty of the attack. If this attack hits, a grapple has been initiated but is not yet successful.
Any initiated grapple is immediately contested (per the rules below). The attacker may take any of the following actions as their first action – ‘do grappling damage’, ‘move the grapple’, or ‘take opponent to ground’. The defender generally takes the ‘Escape Grapple’ action and if is successful in performing that action in the contest, they are not considered to have been grappled for any significant duration (less than one segment). Otherwise, both parties are now considered to be part of the grapple. In a grapple, both parties then lose the ability to take actions other than those allowable in a grapple, and neither party has the advantage of dexterity on their AC with respect to attacks not originating with their opponent in the grapple. The defender optionally, if they are willing to enter a grapple, and if they are not surprised on the round the grapple begins, may take the ‘retrieve a ready object’, ‘defend self’, ‘move the grapple’, or ‘take opponent to ground’ action (but no other action).
You may initiate a grapple with any creature whose movement is hindered even if you did not win initiative, including any creature which is not using a natural mode of movement, creatures entangled or on difficult terrain that causes them to move at half or less their normal movement. You may also join an existing grapple.
Certain weapons such as nets, whips, and lassos allow you to initiate grapples without winning initiative, provided you successfully attack with such weapons. Likewise, certain natural weapons such as the jaws of an ant lion, the coils of a giant constrictor snake, or the tentacles of a giant octopus allow monsters to initiate grapples when they successfully attack.
Contesting a grapple
Roll a D20 and subtract the unmodified number you need to hit AC10. Subtract 2 if your opponent is heavier that you, or 4 if your opponent is twice as heavy, 6 if your opponent is four times as heavy, 8 if eight times as heavy, and -10 as a penalty if the opponent is 16 times as heavy. Subtract 3 if your opponent is stronger than you. Add your strength bonus to melee damage. Creatures with body plans that favor grabbling such as constrictor snakes and those with tentacles or suckers add 4. If a creature is too large to use its entire body against its foe, such as a kraken grappling an M size creature, it subtracts 6.
Grappling actions
Once a grapple has begun, only certain actions are legal for the contestants.
- Do grappling damage.
- Attack with a light weapon.
- Retrieve a ready object.
- Defend self.
- Pin opponent.
- Escape pin.
- Escape grapple.
- Maintain pin.
- Move the grapple.
- Throw opponent.
- Take opponent to ground.
- Activate an item.
Do Grappling Damage: You twist and bend the opponent in ways they weren’t really designed, gouge sensitive bits or otherwise try to do harm to them while holding onto them. For creatures without natural weapons this does 1d2 damage plus ½ of your strength bonus. If you are armored and your opponent isn’t, this does 1d3 damage plus your full strength bonus.
Creatures with natural weapons if they have a slam, claw, or bite attack may do grappling damage equal to one of these attacks of their choice.
Attack with a light weapon: You may attack with a readied weapon that is no more than 2’ in length and requires no more than 1’ space to wield effectively such as a fist, open hand, gauntlet, dagger, hand axe, hammer, spiked buckler, knife or even the smaller sorts of short sword. If you are grappled with a creature more than three times your size, you may treat weapons of up to 3’ in length and which require no more than 2’ of space to wield effectively such as some scimitars, horseman’s picks, jo sticks, horseman’s maces, some clubs, etc. If you are grappled with a creature more than four times your size, you can treat essentially any weapon as light.
You may not attack with weapons in both hands, as the necessities of the grapple – either your own hold or the opponent’s – will prevent it. However, you may attack with either hand, provided no other circumstance prevents it. (In some grapples, an individual limb may be explicitly pinned.)
A pinned creature is exceptionally vulnerable to this action, and can be attacked in its vital areas. Such attacks reduce the AC owed to the opponent’s armor by 4 (thus plate becomes no better than ring, while scale offers no protection at all), ignore the shield, and do not allow the opponent to take any AC bonus from dexterity, small size, speed or the like. Such attacks indicate attempts to attack the arm pit, groin, inner thigh, throat, eye slits, or other such vulnerable points in typical armor against a foe with limited ability to evade such attacks.
Retrieve a ready object: You can ready an object either from the environment within reach or which is immediately accessible on your person (such as sheathed). You may not attempt to search a large container on your person such as a backpack, sack, large pouch, scroll case, or the like. Normally this is done to obtain a dagger, knife, rock, bottle, or similar item to give you some advantage in the grapple. If you have the ability to flich objects via the pick pocket skill, you can attempt to retrieve a ready object from an opponent.
Defend Self: You focus on protecting yourself from attack. If you have taken this action successfully, an opposing throw opponent, move grapple, take opponent to ground, or grappling damage action fails that round, and other attacks by your opponent in the grapple are at a -5 penalty to hit, as you push away limbs or jaws and otherwise try to make yourself a difficult to harm. If this action is successful and the opponent’s action was not successful, you may force a monster that is doing automatic damage to you from a constrict attack or the like to reroll an attack in order to continue damage. However, you make no progress toward escaping the grapple, so in the long term this action merely delays and so is generally not taken if you can’t expect an ally or other aid to help you eventually or unless you yourself have a constrict attack of some sort.
Escape Pin: With this action you break a pin, freeing limbs or otherwise putting yourself on more equal terms in the grapple. If your opponent’s action was maintain pin, this action succeeds but only after any side effects (such as grappling damage) from the maintained pin are applied. If the victim goes unconscious or dies as a result of such damage, then the attempt to escape the pin fails. If a character (such as a thief) makes an Escape Artist check, they may automatically succeed at this action. A character can attempt an Escape Artist check or a normal grappling contest check, but not both. A ring of free action grants a 40% chance of success to either check (i.e. +8 to a grapple contest check when attempting to escape, but not to other grappling actions).
Escape Grapple: With this action you end a grapple. The opponent can of course attempt to reinitiate the grapple on the next round. If a character (such as a thief) makes an Escape Artist check, they may automatically succeed at this action. A character can attempt an Escape Artist check or a normal grappling contest check, but not both. A ring of free action grants a 40% chance of success to either check.
Maintain Pin: You can only take this action if you have your opponent pinned. With this action you attempt to do nothing but maintain a pin. Unless your opponent is taking continuous damage from a constrict attack such as a garrote, you only seek to prevent the opponent from escaping. When you reveal this action, you gain a +4 bonus on your grapple check.
Pinning the opponent – This action can only be attempted if you one your last grapple contest. On success, the opponent gains the pinned condition as well as grappled. An opponent becomes largely helpless when pinned and can only take the actions ‘Defend Self’ and ‘Escape Pin’. Furthermore, they suffer a -4 penalty on contested grapple checks until they are no longer pinned. If both participants in a grapple succeed in the ‘pinning the opponent’ move in the same round, neither are pinned.
Move the grapple – You move the grapple half your height in your preferred direction. If you win the grapple contest outright (i.e. you won by more than 5), you may move your full height. If you win the grapple contest by 10 or more, you may move the grapple as far as you could if you were carrying your opponent. You can no longer move the grapple if you no longer have access to a natural mode of movement. For example, a typical PC can’t move the grapple once they are swimming, whereas a merfolk could, and a typical PC can’t move the grapple once air born, though a hippogriff could. If both sides succeed in moving the grapple, the net movement is the sum of their motion.
Throw opponent – You can only take this action if you are capable of lifting your opponent. You end the grapple and throw the opponent up to your arm’s length plus your bonus to damage in feet in the direction you prefer unless the opponent also succeeded in a defend self-action.
If the opponent weighs less than your normal weight allowance, double the distance of the throw. You deal grappling damage from the throw, and the thrown opponent additionally takes falling damage proportional to the distance of the throw if it is over 10’ and the landing is hard, as well as whatever damage is potentially associated with the location they were thrown to. Very exacting throws (such as onto an upright spike or on to campfire some distance away) require an attack roll against AC 7 with medium range being considered anything beyond 1” and long range being beyond 2”.
Take opponent to the ground – If successful, you and your opponent are both prone. If you were successful in this action and the opponent was not successful in their grapple action, you also deal grappling damage.
Disarm Opponent – You may attempt to disarm your foe as your action. See the rules on disarming foes.
Activate an item – You may active a magic item you are currently holding that is activated by a phrase or simple hand motion.
Joining a Grapple
You can join an existing grapple without giving up your initiative. Whenever you join a grapple you just choose a side you favor. The strongest grappler on that side becomes the principle grappler and contests the rolls. They gain a +1 benefit on the grappling contest rolls, and the weight of their side is computed as the combined weight of all their allies. For example, a Strength 13 fighter is in a grapple with a Strength 15 fighter that is ten pounds heavier than them. The smaller weaker fighter is at a -5 penalty on contested grapple rolls. However, a large ally with 17 strength now joins the fray, on behalf of the smaller grappler. As the strongest grappler on his side, he becomes the principle grappler. He gains a +1 bonus from his ally and a +1 bonus from his strength for a total of +2, and his opponent is now the weaker fighter and as well, is now out massed two to one. As such, he now suffers a -7 penalty on his roll.
For each ally in the grapple, they can attempt one action, however only one grappling contest check is made for the entire team – they all fail or succeed together.
There are limits to the number of allies that can grapple a single opponent, generally no more than three M class characters can wrestle another M class character effectively. Any further would not be able to use their full body and so not contribute fully. The GM has final say over how many creatures can join a grapple.
Note that under no circumstances can you join a grapple if the opponent outweighs you by a factor of sixteen or more, even if you would be adding your weight to a legal grapple. Thus, a dozen 4 pound rats even though they collectively weight 48 pounds cannot grapple a PC or assist as allies in a grapple. Adjudicate such attacks per the clinch rules.
Grappling Inherently Dangerous Foes
It’s generally a bad idea to grapple or be in a grapple with a creature that is deadly even to touch, such as a giant porcupine, wraith, barbed devil, fire elemental, or ochre jelly. Such a creature automatically gets a free hit on anyone grappled with it each round, in addition to any other actions it takes during the grapple.
Constrict Attacks
Certain attacks latch securely onto a foe and automatically initiate a grapple if they hit. These include certain jaw and claw attacks, and most tentacle and constriction attacks as well as attacks with a garrote. With such attacks, the attacker need not (and cannot) take the deal grappling damage, for it deals damage with each successful grapple action it takes except for escape pin and escape grapple, unless the defender also succeeds with a defend self action.
