Grappling: One more try....

[Boric Glanduum]

I came across this explanation today and immediately thought: This guy should work for Wizards of the Coast THIS is how we should have rules explained. At least, I understood it.....

[quote] [color=darkblue]Grappling for Dummies

Of all the combat rules, grappling is easily the main villain of complexity. It’s a rule that you know must have worked for the game’s designers at the time, but in retrospect it’s perhaps needlessly complicated. When you add in the Attack of Opportunity cost, players rarely ever use grapple, trip or disarm unless they’ve deliberately built a fighter around special combat manoevers. It’s an extra challenge on Dungeon Masters who have to run monsters that grapple.

Since it’s complex, I’m going to try and simplify it. Let me know if this helps you any.

First up is the grab. It’s just a regular attack roll, except that you use the opponent’s touch AC (ignores armour, natural armour and shields). If you haven’t taken the Improved Grapple feat, however, your opponent gets an Attack Of Opportunity first, and if he hits and deals damage, your grapple attempt fails. Remember that starting a grapple takes only one attack, if you have multiple attacks you can make multiple grapple attempts - your opponent, meanwhile, probably only has one Attack of Opportunity per round.

Did you manage to grab? Good! (If not, better luck next round.) To secure the grapple, you must beat your opponent in an opposed grapple check - essentially, these are Strength checks (1d20 plus your Strength modifier). If you succeed, you’re now grappling, and you automatically deal damage as an unarmed strike. If you fail, you’re back to square one. There are other modifiers to grapple checks: +4 or -4 for every size class above or below Medium, and +4 for having the Improved Grapple feat. At the end of the round you can either automatically move into the opponent’s square, or end the grapple.

While grappling, you and your opponent have a limited range of actions - that’s kinda the point of grappling. The following actions can be performed by defeating your opponent in an opposed grapple check:

Escape from the grapple (attack action): your opponent will probably want to do this
Damage your opponent (attack action): Deal damage as an unarmed strike - pretty good if you’re a monk
“Pinâ€