Beyond Athletics and action economy, what are the limitations to grappling?

Question

I remember reading somewhere how the grappling rules are easily abused with the right character.

Something like:

2 levels into Moon druid
1 level into barbarian
Transform into Brown Bear
Multiattack means you can grapple+attack
Two arms means you can grapple two people
Knock prone using unarmed strike (with legs)
Use bite attacks while grappling two people
Enemies knocked prone and can't get up (can't spend half their speed to get up since grappled makes speed=0), can't hurt you or beat your athletics check (barbarian rage+ disadvantage from prone) while each of your attacks (and allies' melee ones) have advantage.

While ridiculous, does that have any RAW reasons it wouldn't work?

This may be too broad as it seems like there are a number of questions that need answering here. What specific aspects of the process are you confused about it's validity? — David Coffron, Jul 06 '18 at 22:05
What are the requirements to a physical grapple? (Can a bear grab you with its "hands"?) Can a bear perform an unarmed strike using its legs? Getting up from prone requires half of your speed, but is that your current speed or your default speed that it requires? Is there any penalty to grappling two people? — Man_Over_Game, Jul 06 '18 at 22:08
Each of those questions should be asked separately (some already have answers on the site) — David Coffron, Jul 06 '18 at 22:37
Related: Can a Druid/Monk Make Unarmed Strikes while Wild Shaped? | Is the additional movement granted by the Mobile Feat also halved when a character 'stands from prone'? | This answer includes mention of grappling two targets. — David Coffron, Jul 06 '18 at 22:51

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 06 '18 at 21:57

3

Yes and No

This works, but not at the levels specified since the Multi-Attack from bear form is not the same as Extra Attack (such as from 5th level fighter).

The main reason is that the multi-attack block for the bear requires that the multi-attack be a claw and bite as listed in the stat block. Grapple is therefore not an option with multi-attack. In order to grapple or knock prone, you must give up multi-attack and instead use the Attack (big 'A') action (per this answer), which at the levels indicated only allows you to take one attack (little 'a').

Additionally, you need a step somewhere in there that is "Rage".

It is also arguable that a bear's claw is ineffective at grappling, but that would be a DM call - RAW the text specifies having a "hand" free, so it depends on how pedantic one is feeling. Other than that though this appears to work.

answered Jul 06 '18 at 21:57

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On the rage thing, I mean, it IS barbarian. It's kind of a given.
The bear claw thing is a mentionable argument, but IIRC there was an official statement that said that a "grapple" was nothing more than a grab on the wrist or cuff. The question then becomes "Can bears grab stuff??"
I might just hop onto youtube to find out later.
– Man_Over_Game Jul 06 '18 at 22:05
1

@DanielZastoupil the rules say you need a hand to grapple which a paw is arguably not – David Coffron Jul 06 '18 at 22:37
You should mention how many rounds it would take with ans without Extra Attack – András Jul 07 '18 at 07:12

Beyond Athletics and action economy, what are the limitations to grappling?

1 Answers1

Yes and No