D&D 5E The Harmless Suplex?

[BigVanVader]

So, I haven't seen the PDF yet, I'm iffy about downloading things. But I need to find out once and for all, can you inflict any damage with a grapple? If I have a 20 strength Barbarian, and he hoists a Goblin up and drops it on its neck and skull, does the goblin take any damage?

If my Barbarian, wearing a red and black leather mask, grabs a town guard by the throat, lifts him up, then Chokeslams him all the way to Hell, does that do anything whatsoever? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[The Crimson Binome]

Falls from less than ten feet deal no damage. If you are tripped, or if a giant is tripped, it causes no damage and the victim ends up prone.

 

[ZombieRoboNinja]

Basically, when you "grapple" someone you just grab them. But since it replaces an attack rather than taking a whole action, once you get extra attacks you can do stuff like grab someone and then shove them to the ground, so they're prone and unable to get up until they break free from you. Or you can grab them and then punch them in the face. Or if you're an open-fist monk, you can grab them, punch them in the face twice, knock them to the ground, and then give them a good stomp. And if you take the Grappler feat, you get advantage on all those attacks, and you can do it to an ogre.

 

[BigVanVader]

Eh. Thanks for the info, although it saddens me.

 

[Bayonet]

Eh. Thanks for the info, although it saddens me.

I hear you, man.

As a grappling fanboy, and as someone who has personally snapped bones in judo tournaments, the fact that grappling does no damage in D&D really has me nerd-screaming internally most of the time. Not even one measly hp of damage for Ura Nage'ing a goblin headfirst into the cobblestones, DM? C'mon.

The only solution is just to live with it, or go to WoTC and start dropping O Soto Garis on everybody until we get our way.

Anyway, here's some entertainment/inspiration for grappling based PC's. Monks or Fighters?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lklXQCNvfdA (good stuff starts around 00:50)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rI-UXcva8wU

 

[jadrax]

The Grapple is only the grabbing part of what you describe. Nothing stops you following up the grab with further attacks to apply damage.

So you grab hold of someone with one attack, and then smash their head into the floor with your next attack(s).

 

[ExploderWizard]

If my Barbarian, wearing a red and black leather mask, grabs a town guard by the throat, lifts him up, then Chokeslams him all the way to Hell, does that do anything whatsoever? Inquiring minds want to know!

The grapple would be the grabbing by the throat. The chokeslam I would treat as a slam attack and do damage based on the STR and the surface the target was being slammed into. So this move could only be performed in a single round by a character capable of making two attacks. A feat might be available as well that would summon flames to erupt near the point of impact.

 

[Juriel]

It gets a bit tortured, but rules-wise you could Shove with your first attack, then do an Unarmed Attack with your second attack, and just fluff the whole exchange as 'a choke slam'... But it would be sub-optimal as hell.

Yes, I wish the game made grappling more useful. As is, you can create advantageous situations with shove+grapple pinning someone to the ground, but that takes two attacks from you (and only one shove from them to break loose) to set up, and causes no damage.

 

[Authweight]

As far as I'm aware, you can just attack normally while grappling in 5e. So if you succeed on the grab the target is "grappled," then you can attack them freely. So you can totally do the suplex or chokeslam thing, that's just a successful grapple followed by one or more attacks.

 

[Dausuul]

Either the monk class or the Tavern Brawler feat will let you do solid unarmed damage. Nobody says an unarmed attack has to mean a punch in the face; it can just as easily be a body slam.

It's not as good as what you can do with a weapon, but if grappling worked better than weapons, weapons would never have been invented in the first place.