Grappling with Grappling

Hello gamers, long time no post.  This blog isn’t dead, but it might be undead.

I’m grappling with the perennially unpopular grappling rules in D&D 5E.  They don’t seem to do what a character typically wants to accomplish when they tackle someone.

First, the rules as written.  This is from an email that I sent to some of my players who are new to 5E.  I will write a follow-up post about how I will house-rule grappling.

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Grappling seems weaker in 5E, but I’m still very interested in grappling as a tactic.  It makes sense!  If we’re fighting one or just a few foes, it makes sense for one of us to tackle the guy while the rest put an end to him.

The 5E authors made the grapple rules simple (a welcome relief from previous editions), but now it’s tricky to get grappling to really pay off.  I’ve done some reading and here’s what I’ve come up with.

First, the rules as written:

• To start a grapple is an attack.  If you get multiple attacks per round, this is just one of them.  You need one hand free.
• A grapple attempt is an opposed check.  The grappler rolls Athletics (STR), and the target rolls either Athletics (STR) or Acrobatics (DEX), their choice.
• If successful, grappling imposes the “grappled condition” on the target.  The target’s movement is reduced to zero.  That’s the only effect of being grappled.  Seems weak, but keep reading.  (See PHB Appendix-A for all conditions.)
• Escaping a grapple costs a full action.  The target makes an Athletics or Acrobatics check (their choice), vs. an Athletics check from the grappler.
• Moving a grappled creature: you can drag a creature that you have grappled, at half your movement rate.

Corollaries:

• Grappling someone only costs you one attack, but for them to escape the grapple costs them their whole action.  So grappling can be used as a method of turn denial, especially once you have more than one attack per round.
• A grappled target’s movement is zero, so if you have a highly mobile enemy, or an enemy that’s trying to stay at range (e.g. an archer or spellcaster), grappling is a good way to lock them down.
• The grappled creature is free to make all of their attacks and other actions as normal.  Grappling does not impose disadvantage, strangely.  Lots of groups have house-ruled this.
• The grappler is also free to take other actions besides grappling, in subsequent rounds!  So you can hold onto someone from round to round, while making attacks against them or someone else as normal, or even casting spells.  The only condition is that one of your hands/arms is occupied with the grapple.
• Just by being adjacent to the creature (you’re grappling them), you impose disadvantage on any ranged attacks they make, including ranged spell attacks.  You don’t have to be “in front of” them, just adjacent to them.  This doesn’t cost you an action.
• Doesn’t make much sense to grapple mooks.  Save grappling for the big solo enemies.

Things get really interesting when you add the Shove action to the mix.  Think of Shove as the part-two of the grapple manoeuvre.  With a successful shove, you can knock a target prone.  A prone creature has disadvantage on all attacks, and melee attacks on a prone creature have advantage.  Now we’re talking!

Note that it doesn’t have to be the grappling PC who shoves.  Anyone can attempt a shove attack.  This can be a team effort.

Combining Shove and Grapple is so effective because a grappled creature can’t stand up from prone (standing up takes half your normal movement rate; but when you’re grappled, your current movement is zero).  The creature has to break out of the grapple first, then stand up.  Breaking a grapple is a full action, and requires a roll which they might fail.  So, if you can shove a grappled creature to the ground, then it has all those disadvantages from being prone, and guaranteed loses its next turn, possibly several turns, and can’t move away.

Shoving is a combat action like grappling:

• To shove is an attack.  If you get multiple attacks per round, this is just one of them.  (So if you get two attacks per round, you can grapple and shove in the same round.)
• A shove attempt is an opposed check.  The shover rolls Athletics (STR), and the target rolls either Athletics (STR) or Acrobatics (DEX), their choice.
• If successful, the shove imposes the “prone condition” on the target, as described above.  (See PHB Appendix-A for all conditions.)

Note that:

• ranged attacks have disadvantage against a prone target, but melee attacks have advantage.
• when a grappled target is shoved prone, the grappler doesn’t go prone too.
• Both shoving and grappling attacks benefit from a high STR score, and proficiency in Acrobatics.

And lastly, the Grappler feat makes grappling way more effective.  From the PHB:

• You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature
  you are grappling.
• You can use your action to try to pin a creature grappled
  by you. To do so, make another grapple check.  If
  you succeed, you and the creature are both restrained
  until the grapple ends.
• Creatures that are one size larger than you don’t automatically
  succeed on checks to escape your grapple.