Trouble understanding pinning in Pathfinder

[Smertios]

Hello everyone, First time poster long time lurker and I could really use some help. I've been been playing Pathfinder for two years now and for the first time I have a player who wants to focus on grappling and pinning, but for the life of me I can't find a concise enough description of applying the pinned condition in the books I have (core, apg, UC) nor do I have a good idea of what can be done during a pin. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

[karkus]

This has been copied and pasted from the D&D v3.5 SRD description, so I'm not sure how similar the rules are (with any luck, they're almost identical):

If You’re Pinning an Opponent

You can attempt to damage your opponent with an opposed grapple check, you can attempt to use your opponent’s weapon against him, or you can attempt to move the grapple (all described above). At your option, you can prevent a pinned opponent from speaking.

You can use a disarm action to remove or grab away a well secured object worn by a pinned opponent, but he gets a +4 bonus on his roll to resist your attempt (see Disarm).

You may voluntarily release a pinned character as a free action; if you do so, you are no longer considered to be grappling that character (and vice versa).
You can’t draw or use a weapon (against the pinned character or any other character), escape another’s grapple, retrieve a spell component, pin another character, or break another’s pin while you are pinning an opponent.

If You’re Pinned by an Opponent

When an opponent has pinned you, you are held immobile (but not helpless) for 1 round. While you’re pinned, you take a –4 penalty to your AC against opponents other than the one pinning you. At your opponent’s option, you may also be unable to speak. On your turn, you can try to escape the pin by making an opposed grapple check in place of an attack. You can make an Escape Artist check in place of your grapple check if you want, but this requires a standard action. If you win, you escape the pin, but you’re still grappling.

[TuggyNE]

In PF, basically, you succeed on an opposed grapple check (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Grapple) as a standard action to pin (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/conditions#TOC-Pinned) a grappled opponent, which makes you lose your Dex bonus to AC (and slaps a fair number of penalties on your opponent, of course).

[VeisuItaTyhjyys]

In Pathfinder, a pinned creature cannot:

Move
Cast any spells with verbal or material components


A pinned creature can:

Attempt a CMB check to free itself
Attempt an escape artist check to free itself
Make a concentration check to cast a spell without somatic components


A pinned creature:

Takes a -4 penalty to AC
Is denied its Dexterity bonus

[Smertios]

Thank you all so much, thats going to make explaining things to my player a lot easier.

[AttilaTheGeek]

I've always had experiences like this (http://darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0343.html) with the grapple rules, and treated them like this (http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0232.html).