A Couple Constrict Question

[thecrimsondawn]

So normal grapple rules are you attempt to grapple. If you succeed, your foe gets a chance to escape grapple on his turn, then on your turn, you must maintain the grapple. If you succeed in maintaining the grapple you can choose the do some kinda worthless damage to your foe.

With constrict, any time you successfully make a grapple check, you do your constrict damage automatically.

My first question is, after you succeed your grapple check to retain being the controlling grappler, if you choose to attack - most of all with a natural weapon that has grab or constrict. do you get another attempt at constrict damage, or would you only get that if you released the grapple?

My second question is if you had constrict from several sources, would the damage from each source stack for your constrict damage? I found no ruling one way or another on this.

My last question is, if you had lets say, 4 claw attacks, each with the grab special ability. and all 4 hit. That would be 4 grab attempts, BUT from my understanding, these rolls happen as soon as you make your attack. If this is true, what would happen to your other attacks? would you loose them?
Claws come in a pair, so I would assume you get both claw attacks before the grapple check, but I wanted to make sure this is how this works.


Ultimately I am trying to decided if its better to focus on the grapple feat line for extra grapple checks per round to really bring out the construct hurt, of if it would just be better to ignore that route, and just focus on the free grab attempts each turn from releasing the grapple and getting more free grapples from my full attack.

[Calthropstu]

Ok, a lot going on here, I can see why you made a thread instead of a raw thread post.
Grappling rules are actually fairly straightforward, but you seem to have 3 major questions regarding them.
1: No, you cannot constrict more than once. The constrict happens when the grapple is maintained. Apply damage, then you may perform a grapple manuever as normal (pin, reposition, etc)
2:When you attack with multiple limbs and multiple have grab, you make a grapple check at a -10 to initiate and maintain a grapple and not gain the grapple condition yourself. However, the limb used cannot be used in attacks. So, yes you may continue with attacks from other limbs after initiating the grapple by taking the requisite -10 and forgoing further attacks with that limb. It does theoretically allow you to grapple someone multiple times... which feels weird.
3: No, constrict from multiple sources do not stack unless you manage to grapple multiple times under the condition above upon which you may use different grapple sources because you maintain grapple multiple times.
It is upon maintaining a grapple, not each grapple check.

[thecrimsondawn]

Ok, a lot going on here, I can see why you made a thread instead of a raw thread post.
Grappling rules are actually fairly straightforward, but you seem to have 3 major questions regarding them.
1: No, you cannot constrict more than once. The constrict happens when the grapple is maintained. Apply damage, then you may perform a grapple manuever as normal (pin, reposition, etc)
2:When you attack with multiple limbs and multiple have grab, you make a grapple check at a -10 to initiate and maintain a grapple and not gain the grapple condition yourself. However, the limb used cannot be used in attacks. So, yes you may continue with attacks from other limbs after initiating the grapple by taking the requisite -10 and forgoing further attacks with that limb. It does theoretically allow you to grapple someone multiple times... which feels weird.
3: No, constrict from multiple sources do not stack unless you manage to grapple multiple times under the condition above upon which you may use different grapple sources because you maintain grapple multiple times.
It is upon maintaining a grapple, not each grapple check.


1: Ok going to quote a couple things here, just to make sure there are no errors.
"Once you have grappled a creature, maintaining the grapple is a move action. This feat allows you to make two grapple checks each round (to move, harm, or pin your opponent), but you are not required to make two checks. You only need to succeed at one of these checks to maintain the grapple."

and constrict says
"A creature with this special attack can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, when it makes a successful grapple check (in addition to any other effects caused by a successful check, including additional damage)"


So by wording alone, its really looking like you can get constrict damage more then once using said feat, but I guess since its really hard for a PC to acquire constrict, this does not come up too often or something. Do you happen to have any sources that say otherwise? I was unable to find anything.

2: That is good to know. I will not be having a lot of limbs, but one of the mutations in the class gives grab to ALL my natural attacks, so that would come up really quickly - most of all since one of them also has trip.

3: Are you sure about this? From looking around I find wording such as "if you already have constrict, increase its die damage by one step" or something akin to that, while others are worded in such a way that it sounds like they would stack. The ones I am looking at atm are as follows
While in this stance, the disciple may make grapple attempts without provoking attacks of opportunity, and if the disciple successfully grapples a foe, he may constrict his opponent to inflict 4d6 + his Strength modifier in damage.

Constrict (Ex):
Lashers crush as they hold, dealing 1d6 +
Strength modifier with a successful grapple check.

feat] You gain the constrict special attack, dealing
1d4+Strength modifier damage (the damage value given
is for Medium creatures). If you already have a constrict
special attack its damage increases by one die step.

and lastly
At 16th level, it gains a constrict attack that deals damage equal to its claws

Im also considering going Brawler ( Snakebite Striker + Strangler archetypes ) for added sneak attack damage while grappling too, but this obviously stacks as its a different type all together.


Still, there has to be something said somewhere about multiple sources of constrict. I have just been unable to find any threads saying one way or another :/



I did think of one other question while writing this tho! What if your size changes? Does your constrict damage also go up? Its not quite a natural attack on its own, but often has the damage of your natural attacks. If its a flat amount tho, would that change?