Pinning with a weapon

[Onryou]

At last night's game we were looking for more diverse tactics for our spear weilding dragon-shaman, and it hit me. Why can't he use his spear to pin an opponent to a wall so he can maintain a safe distance and allow his allies to waylay the opponent?

I know the ranged pin rules (my archer uses it often), but there are no melee pin rules, only unarmed.

Our DM suggested the character needing a special feat to perform such an action, but I don't agree with him since such binding techniques would be relatively elementary in most warrior training.

What do you think? Or have I missed a RAW ruling somewhere?

[Matthew]

There are potential problems with Pinning with a Melee weapon, such as explaining how it was achieved without injury. Anyway, though, your DM can make whatever ruling he likes, I wouldn't have based it on a Feat myself, I would have just imposed a penalty. In the final analysis, though, yes your DM is right and you are wrong, since it is his role to arbitrate.

[horseboy]

Or you could take an exotic feat in Man-Catcher. Do they still have man-catchers in D&D?

[Kel_Arath]

Or you could take an exotic feat in Man-Catcher. Do they still have man-catchers in D&D?
Ya, Complete Warrior I believe. Awesome weapons.

[Seffbasilisk]

I'd say a feat would make sense, aiming for a straight pin instead of working through grapple AND dealing weapon damage? Sounds special training to me. There's one thing with poking a dude, but driving your spear THROUGH him, and NAILING him to something with it, WITHOUT provoking an Attack of Opportunity? Feat.

[Exarch]

Unless you're using the spear to just stab through armor/cloth and pin them to something.

Make it like normal Grapple...provokes an AOO without a Feat, with a feat you get +4. If you get it, you automatically Disarm yourself. Opponent makes his grapple checks against whatever it was you originally rolled?

I think it sounds good. Maybe the opponent could still attack (though there are ways to prevent with...), but couldn't move?

[AslanCross]

There's a feat in Player's Handbook II that accomplishes something similar. It's a full-round action to bull rush an opponent with a piercing weapon and knock him prone. The name of the feat is Driving Attack.

[Miraqariftsky]

At last night's game we were looking for more diverse tactics for our spear weilding dragon-shaman, and it hit me. Why can't he use his spear to pin an opponent to a wall so he can maintain a safe distance and allow his allies to waylay the opponent?



What if you used a reach weapon such as a longspear to pin the blighter to the wall? Surely there wouldn't be any AoOs there?

[Onryou]

Thanks Aslan, I hadn't looked in the PHB2 yet. Although, it close to what I was looking for, its not quite in the spirit. I'm not even sure I agree with the way the feat works in a real-life context, shouldn't a peircing weapon impale before it knocks you prone? A two-handed sword turned on its side, cricket style, would certainly send you sprawling but the kind of force the feat seems to be talking about would more likely have you oppenent stuck to your piercing weapon.

Maybe something more along the lines of a tactical feat is what I'm looking for.

[Matthew]

That's a problem with the Abstract notion of Hit Points and the D&D Combat System, it has problems when interacting with specific Combat Moves. Conceptually, it would be possible to pin a person to a wall who was wearing Body Armour without actually wounding them, same goes for knock downs or other effects. Unfortunately, the same does not apply with regard to Unarmoured Foes, but you could 'assume' that this was accomplished with the 'blunt end' or something. It would be subjective, I suspect.