PF/3.5 Armor enhancements for grapple?

[Sheogoroth]

Are there any armor enhancements that improve grapple in Pathfinder or 3.5?

Thanks!

[Aldurin]

I haven't noticed any enhancements in 3.5 that improve grappling, the closest is slick, which helps you get out of grapples if you're using escape artist. The best thing available to improve your grappling is to throw armor spikes on so that you deal extra damage on grapple attacks.

If you're looking for magical means then you're best bet is size increases from spells like Enlarge Person, which provides you a good bonus to grapple checks.

edit: If you're going for a grapple-based build then definitely look at getting armor spikes, since you can enhance them like regular weapons (in effect enhancing your "grapple" weapon), and look at getting wands or magic items that temporarily increase your size.

[Vent Reynolt]

The only thing that I can think of is the Bearskin armor in the Magic Item Compendium. It's a +1 breastplate that gives you a +2 competence bonus on grapple checks along with a bunch of other goodies.

It isn't much, but I'm sure that someone could reverse engineer roughly how much that grapple bonus by itself is worth, though. (And no, that someone is not me. :smalltongue:)

[The Random NPC]

It's a weapon enhancement rather than armor, but Last Resort from Complete Warrior is a grapple enhancement.

[Darrin]

It's a weapon enhancement rather than armor, but Last Resort from Complete Warrior is a grapple enhancement.

That would work well on armor spikes or netcutter spikes.

Armor/enhancements that can improve grappling, at least from a damage standpoint:

Acidic
Price: +1 enhancement
(MIC p. 6)
This enhancement originally appeared in the Arms & Equipment Guide as a +4, and then was thankfully knocked down to a much more reasonable +1. Acidic provides an unlimited supply of acid damage, which has a few practical applications: it discourages opponents from grappling you, adds extra damage if you want to grapple and maintain a hold/pin for a round, and outside of combat you can use it to burn through furniture, doors, walls, etc. But if you're looking for something that does damage every time you get hit with a melee attack, consider adding Hamatula Barbs (+2 enhancement, Planar Handbook p. 78).

Gnashing
Price: +1 enhancement
(Champions of Ruin p. 40)
This enhancement auto-hits with a 1d6 bite attack whenever you're grappling an opponent. While the Acidic enhancement does something similar for a little bit more damage (2d4 acid damage while grappling), it only triggers with a full-round of contact, while Gnashing looks like it triggers even if the grapple only started that turn or your opponent manages to wiggle out of it before a full round has occurred. It's also not clear when exactly the bite happens... if an opponent grapples you outside of your turn, do they get bit immediately when the grapple starts, or does the bite happen on your turn? If it does bite immediately, then this enhancement makes a nice grapple deterrent, and is more useful than Acidic to a "casual grappler" that wants to grapple occasionally but doesn't want to waste several full-round actions on just grappling. If you're more of a full-time grappler, then Acidic may do more damage in the long run.

Moon Ivy (A&EG p. 16)
Price: 16000 GP
For 500 GP, you can add a "Poison Ivy" upgrade that can poison an opponent in a grapple (Fort save DC 14, primary/secondary 1d3 Con damage), but rules-wise this armor is a messy headache.

Living Coral (Stormwrack p. 106)
Price: 16000 GP
Sort of an attempt to update the Moon Ivy armor, although instead of clarifying the rules they just made more confusing headaches. The grapple upgrade on this one is called "Stinging Polyps", which gives you a chance to paralyze an opponent for 1d4 rounds when grappling (Fort save DC 14), but whenever I hear "Stinging Polyps", all I can think about is this gives an opponent a colonoscopy.

Razor Armor
Price: 5600 GP
(Book of Vile Darkness p. 111)
+2 scale mail with razor-sharp scales that do 2d6 damage whenever you make a grapple check, similar to constrict damage. This is better than the Acidic property (+1 enhancement, MIC p. 6), which does 2d4 acid damage for a full round of contact while grappling. While the razors don't let you burn through furniture/walls/etc., they do have a ranged attack: 1/day launch up to 6 razors (treated as +1 shurikens).