Anubis said:
Can someone explain to me in precise details exactly how grappling works? The book is so damn vague it drives me nuts. How does grappling work? What about improved grab? What about attacks like acid sting and the like? What about constrict? What all requires a grapple check? What all is automatic, if anything? Can those not in the grapple attack someone who is grappling without the risk of hitting the other grappler?
I don't understand ANYTHING about grappling even after four years of playing, and it's starting to wear on my nerves. I want all the specific rules, but not house rules. I only want the official stuff.
Help! Thorough examples would be appreciated, especially regarding anything with constrict, shambling mounds, and the soldier ant.
Grapple itself is simple
1. Provoke AoO. If it hits, stop, else proceed to 2.
2. Make touch attack. If it hits, proceed to 3, else stop.
3. Make opposed grapple check. If you win, proceed to 4, else stop
4. Deal unarmed damage
5. Either move into your opponents square and continue grappling, or don't, and stop the grapple. Provoke movement AoOs.
Once grappling
You have no dex bonus to AC versus opponents outside the grapple.
Ranged attacks strike a random target within a grapple. Melee attacks suffer no such chance.
You may not move normally
You do not threaten any squares
You may
Win a grapple check to:
a) Cause unarmed damage
b) draw a light weapon
c) escape the grapple
d) pin your opponent
d) move
e) draw a spell component
f) break someone else's pin
g) use your opponents weapon (requires an attack roll as well)
alternatively, you can (without a grapple check)
a) use a supernatural ability
b) activate a magical item as long as it doesn't require a spell trigger
c) attack your opponent with a light or natural weapon (at -4)
d) cast a spell that has no somatic component, and for which you have the materials ready (with a concentration check at DC 20)
Now. That's the basics. They're pretty simple.
Improved grab means the following:
1) You may automatically make a grapple check, without needing the touch attack or provoking an AoO, whenever you hit with one of your attacks. For a giant ant, this means that whenever it's bite attack hits, it causes bite damage, and then starts a grapple from step 3 onwards.
2) You may hold your opponent with the limb that made the attack, and continue to threaten an area, keep your dex bonus, and attack other opponents, if you accept a -20 to your grapple check.
3) Instead of entering your opponents square to continue a grapple, you may instead draw your opponent into your own square.
4) You DO NOT cause unarmed damage upon that first successful grapple check - skip step 4.
So.
I get hit by a soldier ant's bite.
It causes bite damage to me.
It makes a grapple check.
If it wins, I'm grappled.
On my turn, I can damage it, pin it, escape, move, use a magical item, etc. Everything I mentioned under "once grappling"
On it's turn, it can choose to do anything under "once grappling", like pinning me, causing unarmed damage to me, biting me at -4 etc. Or it can use it's sting to make an attack with a +3 bonus.
There, simple.
Constrict is the simplest thing of the lot. Every single time the monster wins a grapple, you take damage. Even if it was a grapple check that YOU triggered when you tried to escape, or move or whatever. Whenever the monster makes a grapple check to do damage, it causes it's normal damage, AND it causes it's constrict damage. If the monster makes a grapple check to move while carrying you, you take constrict damage. If the monster makes a grapple check to pin you, you take constrict damage.
Finally, a monster with constrict AND improved grab causes it's normal weapon damage in addition to the constrict upon the initial grab. Don't skip step 4.
There. Easy.
<edit> - or not
One final note - upon close reading of the 'improved grab' and 'constrict' entries, a possible reading of constrict is that you must expend an action to cause damage via a constrict. Personally I don't think this is the way to go, mainly because it turns constrict from being a dangerous ability to being a little bit of extra damage if the creature attempts to damage you.
Additionally, improved grab is a bit unclear, suggesting that it may also cause damage upon every single grapple check won by the creature:
"a successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack. If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature’s descriptive text)"
Of course in two adjacent sentences, it both says "holds don't cause damage" and "each grapple check causes damage" - since a hold IS a grapple check, this is more than a little bit confusing. I'd suggest leaving improved grab as applying only to deliberate "damage the opponent" attempts, and constrict being the "no matter what happens, take damage" ability.
