3.5 So... How does Constrict work anyway?

[HighWater]

Hello everyone.

I am going to inflict the worst thing possible upon my innocent party of 5 level 6 adventurers sometime soon: a grapple session with SNAKES.
Yes, yes, calm down...

Wait, why did you start screaming at 'grapple'?

Joking aside, the party, their ranger animal companion, familiar and an NPC (powerlevel comparable to the animal companion) will find themselves in point-blank combat with a bunch of Constrictors (1 on 1 ratio). I expect that some will find themselves engaged in a grapple before they have time to scream "Oh no, a grapple!", but the Monster Manual is a little too brief for my taste on describing how the Constrict ability of the Constrictor (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/snake.htm) works precisely.

So, on a turn basis does it work like this:


Snake attacks & hits,
Roll an opposed grapple to see if it gets a hold,
Free Constrict (thanks to won opposed grapple).

or does it not start constricting until the next round (when it must first make a grapple check)?

Also, does the grapple check to constrict on the next round replace the bite attack against the constricted creature, or come in addition to biting...?
There's also this thing about unarmed strike damage when someone establishes a hold in a grapple, is the Constrict replacing that or is the snake also doing unarmed (in more ways that one) strike damage?...

I'd love to hear the Playground's take on this... :smallconfused:

[Eldariel]

Rules Compendium redefines Constrict as follows:
"A creature that has this extraordinary special attack can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, after making a successful grapple check to deal damage. The amount of damage is given in the creature’s entry. If the creature also has the improved grab ability, it deals damage from the constrict attack in addition to damage dealt by the weapon used to grab."

So. Improved Grab + Constrict, then subsequent turns Improved Grab + Constrict damage as per the appropriate abilities. That is, each round it does a grapple-check to deal damage with the natural weapon that initiated Improved Grab (Bite) and if successful, adds Constrict-damage on top of it.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Constrict special ability: "A creature with this special attack can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, after making a successful grapple check."

Improved Grab special ability: "A successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack".

The snake bites, and, if it hits, deals bite damage and grapples with Improved Grab. If it wins the opposed grapple check, it deals the indicated Constrict damage on top of that. On subsequent rounds, it will continue to make opposed grapple checks to deal unarmed damage (as per PHB 156 "Damage Your Opponent" action in combat), which, if successful, deal Constrict damage as well. Unarmed damage for the snake is 1d3+3 nonlethal, so it's not a huge attack, but with 1d3+4 lethal constrict damage in there, it's a respectable total averaging 11 damage at CR 2, and better than the snake's bite.

Note that the snake takes a -4 penalty on attacks with its bite while grappling; it also takes a -4 penalty on grapple checks to deal lethal damage through grappling. If you do need to deal lethal damage, grappling is probably still better than biting, because of the higher base damage.

[Eldariel]

Constrict special ability: "A creature with this special attack can crush an opponent, dealing bludgeoning damage, after making a successful grapple check."

Improved Grab special ability: "A successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack".

The snake bites, and, if it hits, deals bite damage and grapples with Improved Grab. If it wins the opposed grapple check, it deals the indicated Constrict damage on top of that. On subsequent rounds, it will continue to make opposed grapple checks to deal unarmed damage (as per PHB 156 "Damage Your Opponent" action in combat), which, if successful, deal Constrict damage on top of that. Unarmed damage for the snake is 1d3+3 nonlethal, so it's not a huge attack, but with 1d3+4 lethal constrict damage in there, it's a respectable total averaging 11 damage at CR 2, and better than the snake's bite.

Improved Grab (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#improvedGrab) has this clause as well:
"If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature’s descriptive text). "

So normal unarmed damage for grapples started with Improved Grab is replaced by the damage of the natural weapon that started the grapple.

[ExLibrisMortis]

So normal unarmed damage for grapples started with Improved Grab is replaced by the damage of the natural weapon that started the grapple.
Hmm, interesting. That makes sense usually, but not for snakes (which do not grapple with their jaws). Still, it's 1d3+4 lethal instead of 1d3+3 nonlethal, which is better!

[Eldariel]

Hmm, interesting. That makes sense usually, but not for snakes (which do not grapple with their jaws). Still, it's 1d3+4 lethal instead of 1d3+3 nonlethal, which is better!

Many constrictor snakes (for example my pet corn snake) do keep their jaws locked after grabbing their prey so it kinda does.

[Falontani]

Snakes are some of the best pets, especially if your younger brother has pet mice (evil laughter)

[HighWater]

Thanks for the responses! :smallsmile: