D&D 5E The Grappler's Manual (2.0) - Grappling in 5th Edition

[Goken100]

Anyone in this thread care to assist in optimizing a battlerager/fighter build? Main questions are, do we go for level 6 mindless rage or drop over to fighter earlier. my charcter is already level 3 barb so it's too late to do fighter first.

I'm of similar mind to Yunru, as you can see from my Barb/Rogue described in an earlier post. That said, I'm not expert in Battlerager. Why are you interested in a Battlerager/Fighter build? Is there a particular synergy or combo that you're looking to achieve?

Regardless, I'd probably recommend going straight Barb to level 5 before considering MCing. A pure Barb is almost certainly the best grappler at level 5 (though plenty of other interesting builds become possible at higher levels).

 

[Pablo Fontanilla]

I'm having a lot of fun using a Minotaur battle master fighter with Shield mastery. As of level 5, the horns are carrying me around with a shield for bonus advantaged shoves and +2 AC, as well as a 1d10 weapon and a free hand. Planning on getting 2 levels of artificer later on, to get non-concentration enlarge person , for when the huge targets start to appear! As of now, with advantage on shoves and the subsequent grapples, I don't feel like I need enlarge person yet.

 

[Rich Anthony]

Hey, is this ever going to get finished? I remember the first iteration had the example build and I really wanted to try the Grizzlyman build. Any chance you can post it or send it to me privately?

 

[Thateous]

Has anyone done the powerbomb/suplex maneuver mentioned with the athlete feat?

 

[mrgoodbytes87]

• Martial Archetype - Eldritch Knight: Surprisingly useful as a grappler. Knight is one of the best ways to pick up Enlarge Person, because you get it en route to Extra Attack (2) at level 11. You'll take Enlarge Person at level 8, which is a little later than most classes get it, but you'll be getting it as part of your valuable Extra Attack progression. You'll even have more feat pickup opportunities in Fighter, which synergizes nicely with the concentration-based Enlarge Person (you'll definitely need War Caster).

[/sblock]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but Eldritch Knight can only take abjuration/evocation, so Enlarge Person is out of the question.

For my part I'd rather go Fighter/Bard anyways, but I wanted to bring that up.

 

[mrgoodbytes87]

Hey, is this ever going to get finished? I remember the first iteration had the example build and I really wanted to try the Grizzlyman build. Any chance you can post it or send it to me privately?

There are some example builds on page 11, just not from OP.

 

[ktkenshinx]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already, but Eldritch Knight can only take abjuration/evocation, so Enlarge Person is out of the question.

For my part I'd rather go Fighter/Bard anyways, but I wanted to bring that up.

Don't have the PHB in front of me, but I'm 90% sure that EK lets you take spell secret or extra spell as some lvl8 feature. That spell is not restricted if I remember correctly.

Re: finishing guide
Lots of life stuff in the way, but I do hope to finish it before mid 2017.

 

[doomedpaladin]

Re: finishing guide
Lots of life stuff in the way, but I do hope to finish it before mid 2017.

Looking forward to any updates you make for it, especially anything for the new Volo races.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

Don't have the PHB in front of me, but I'm 90% sure that EK lets you take spell secret or extra spell as some lvl8 feature. That spell is not restricted if I remember correctly.

Yes, 8th level spell is unrestricted, and so is the 3rd level spell (and 14th and 20th). According to the PHB text, only the 8th/14th/20th level spells are allowed to be re-assigned as you level up, but IIRC Mearls and Crawford have said that that's an oversight (I can't find a tweet or Sage Advice for that though), and if so then you can technically get Enlarge Person as early as 7th level by re-assigning your one and only free pick (at that point) to Enlarge Person.

Edit: oh, here's a tweet. https://twitter.com/JeremyECrawford/status/790769412068380673

Like an Eldritch Knight, an Arcane Trickster can retrain their 1st-level spell from any school. (An unintended omission.)

 

[Xanthe]

Would anyone be willing to give me a few pointers on this build? I'm trying to create a silly grapple build that can do a bit of damage on his 1st or 2nd turn towards the mid game!

1st - Human Fighter 1 (Tavern Brawler)
2nd - Fighter 1, Rogue 1 (Expertise Athletics and Acrobatics)
3rd - Fighter 1, Rogue 1, Barbarian 1 (rage w/ +2 damage Advantage on STR checks[unarmored def. is pretty ok as well])
4th - Fighter 1, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (Cunning Action dash) - Hands on Boots of Springing and Striding
5th - Fighter 2, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (ACTION SURGE) - Hands on Ring of Jumping
6th - Fighter 3, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (Maneuvers: Trip, Disarm, Evasive) - Start getting access to potions of enlarge (maybe some potions of Haste and Longstrider, not sure if we have a dedicated Haste caster till 13th :/)
7th - Fighter 4, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (Athletic) - Hands on Belt of STR (21 STR now)
8th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 1 (EXTRA ATTACK)
9th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 2 (nothing really)
10th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 3 (rage powers - Elk, +15 movement!)
11th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 4 (Mage Slayer)
12th - Fighter 5, Rogue 2, Barbarian 5 (Extra Attack, Fast Movement)

I've found it difficult to get to the point of having my first Extra Attack while getting a few things under my belt. I feel like level 3, when I get the ability to rage, will be my first real spike in potency (advantage on all my STR checks while having a +10 on my Athletics check with proficiency, bonuses, and expertise). As well, getting feats seems fairly impractical for the most part (although I know that 5e is trying to move away from the more feats more power mentality).

The way I envision the build is; grabbing people, jumping into the air 5ft short of my maximum movement, and then using my actions to punch said targets (1D4+STR+Rage+misc bonuses), releasing them (they fall for Xd6 damage depending on height) landing, spending 5ft to stand up, Action surge grapple another target, bonus cunning action to take a free dash and drag my current grapple target 1/2 speed towards my party to finish the job. Alternatively, instead of spending actions in the air, just dropping the targets, landing, and then spend both actions to grab, Action surge movement, Cunning Action dash (all at 1/4 speed) back to the party to have them beat the tar out of said grappled targets.

thoughts and/or opinions?