Grappling with a weapon?

[Yack]

Hello GITP!

Man_Over_Game was recently generous enough with his time and effort to help me create a weapon: A harpoon that allows me to grapple enemies from a distance.

However, I'm a little confused. I know it could be homebrewed, but I was wondering if there were official rules on grappling with a weapon. Not grappling with a weapon in hand, no... I mean grappling WITH a weapon.

Could I impale an enemy at point-blank melee range with a harpoon-type weapon and grapple them with it? It seems fairly reasonable: Gore the enemy, hold the harpoon in there, and use your free hand to fend them off or pin them. This could allow for some brutal grappling or even extended damage.

(Note: I'm playing Captain Ahab from Moby ****, and harpoons are sort of my primary weapon)

[Dudewithknives]

Hello GITP!

Man_Over_Game was recently generous enough with his time and effort to help me create a weapon: A harpoon that allows me to grapple enemies from a distance.

However, I'm a little confused. I know it could be homebrewed, but I was wondering if there were official rules on grappling with a weapon. Not grappling with a weapon in hand, no... I mean grappling WITH a weapon.

Could I impale an enemy at point-blank melee range with a harpoon-type weapon and grapple them with it? It seems fairly reasonable: Gore the enemy, hold the harpoon in there, and use your free hand to fend them off or pin them. This could allow for some brutal grappling or even extended damage.

(Note: I'm playing Captain Ahab from Moby ****, and harpoons are sort of my primary weapon)

With a very lenient dm I could see it working.

Thematically working like you said.
Mechanically I could see it being a feat:

Harpooneer
+1 strength
Once per round when you successfully hit with a spear or pike(harpoon as just refluffed spear) you may make an athletics check to grapple with the weapon as a bonus action.
If you successfully pin the opponent in this manner you are not considered restrained.

I have played a grappler a good bit.

Huge things:

Get advantage and or expertise asap
Do not delay extra attack
Find a way to get enlarge person at some point bigger than large enemies shut you down
Barbarian is amazing, so is fighter and rogue.

Barbarian battlerager 5 rogue for the rest

[JackPhoenix]

Check Kuo-toa whip:


Pincer Staff. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is grappled (escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the kuo-toa can’t use its pincer staff on another target.

[GlenSmash!]

specific monster weapons do this, but no player weapon that I know of allows grappling without a free hand.

[No brains]

The Merrow in the Monster Manual has a harpoon.

Also Tavern Brawler doesn't specify that you need to hit an enemy with an improvised weapon in melee to grapple them. A lenient DM could let you lasso/ harpoon/ grappling hook people.

[iTreeby]

I'd probably base it on the tentacle rod from the DMG rather than actually grappling. I remember there being a lot of head aches in 3.5 from ranged grappling and I'd avoid it at all costs.

[Man_Over_Game]

Hey, guys! For some reference, here's some information regarding this kind of stuff from RPG Stack Exchange:

If I am grappled by an enemy with 10' + reach, how does our movement work? (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/129581/if-i-am-grappled-by-an-enemy-with-10-reach-how-does-our-movement-work)

Can a Grappler move freely without moving the grappled creature and breaking the grapple condition? (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/94494/can-a-grappler-move-freely-without-moving-the-grappled-creature-and-breaking-the)

Is a Bugbear's Long Limbed reach also applied to shoves and grapples? (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/111660/is-a-bugbears-long-limbed-reach-also-applied-to-shoves-and-grapples)

Or summarized: Moving towards/strafing someone you have grappled at range requires no additional movement, and they stay in place. Moving away from someone you have grappled causes you to drag them, costing you double movement, and they move with you.

[Vogie]

What I would do is combine the net and Spear categories into a single weapon, and use a reverse-reckless attack rider to indicate how difficult that it is. Once it's restrained, I'd use a slight variation in the shove rules:

Harpoon
1d6 piercing
5 lb. Thrown (range 20/60), versatile (1d8), Special

Whenever you throw a harpoon, you can attempt to pin and restrain your target. Doing so gives you disadvantage on attack rolls with your harpoon during this turn.

A large or smaller creature hit by a Harpoon in this manner is restrained until it is freed. A restrained creature can use its action to make a Strength check, freeing itself. The DC on this check is equal to 8 + Your Athletics score. You may also attempt to drag a the restrained creature towards you, with your Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Wisdom (Survival) check. If you win the contest, you either knock the target Prone or pull it a number of feet towards you. 10 feet for Medium or smaller sized creatures, 5 feet for large creatures.

A Harpoon has no effect on creatures that are formless, and creatures that are Huge or larger cannot be restrained by a single harpoon. Dealing 5 slashing damage to the rope (AC 10) also frees the creature from the restraint.

When you use an action, bonus action, or reaction to attack with a harpoon in this way, you can make only one attack regardless of the number of attacks you can normally make.