Grapple-tastic!

[Admiral Squish]

I want to make a grapple-based warrior of some sort. I've made some progress with the basics, but knowing the playground there is going to be a LOT of fun tricks for a grappler I've never even heard of. So, what have you got? Lay it on me!

The idea so far is a goliath fighter2/barbarian X with the Mountain Rage substitution level, armor spikes, the Grappling Vine graft from Magic of Eberron, Improved Grapple, all that. Am I missing anything?

[Craig1f]

I want to make a grapple-based warrior of some sort. I've made some progress with the basics, but knowing the playground there is going to be a LOT of fun tricks for a grappler I've never even heard of. So, what have you got? Lay it on me!

The idea so far is a goliath fighter2/barbarian X with the Mountain Rage substitution level, armor spikes, the Grappling Vine graft from Magic of Eberron, Improved Grapple, all that. Am I missing anything?

Bear Totem from, I believe, Unearthed Arcana, will give you a +4 to grapple while in rage at level 5. If you can convince your DM to JUST take that substitution level, without all the other bear totem substitution levels, that'd be great.

Pounce from Complete Champion allows you to Tackle opponents. IE, get them pinned off a charge (instead of just grappled) due to iterative attacks.

[bigbaddragon]

Psychic Warrior would be a good option too because it has powers that support grappling nicely and all of those are low level powers:
- Expansion, 1st level power, standard action, grow one size category (or two categories at level 7) for a total of +10 to grapple (+8 size, +2 str)
- Grip Of Iron, 1st level power, immediate action, +4 enhacement bonus to grapple checks + 2 for every additional 4 power points you spend

Also you can do the pounce combo Craig1f suggested using Psionic Lion's Charge power (2nd level power, swift action ...)

[Admiral Squish]

So it goes more like this, now: Goliath, psiwar2/ Barb X, with the Spirit Lion Totem sub level, and the bear-totem sub level (hopefully), tackle, armor spikes, improved grapple, grappling vine.

Is there anything that lets me grapple more than one guy at once? I remember there was something about strangling your respective baddie with successful grapple checks, too, but what it was escapes me.

With grappling vine, it says you can use it even if you're holding something in that hand, and it moves the grappled foe into your space. Could you ready an attack and impale a grappled foe onto a blade or spear of some kind?

[Wooter]

Wasn't there a wizard based grapple build? I remmber someone linking to it once...

It had an octopus familiar, I remember that much.

[Smiley_]

I was thinking of a musteval rogue with the giantbane tactical feat. The LA is something that one needs to bear, but a tiny outsider, +8 dex, invisibility as an SLA, and a feature that let's you act any time during your move phase is a nice twist.

Meh, just thinking.

[Admiral Squish]

Nothing more caster-like than the psiwar, please. He's fixated on physical perfection, and psiwar is already pushing the limits of his distaste for relying on magical effects.

[dman11235]

I made a bear warrior grappler a while back. It's nearly un-killable too.

I don't think you can take the Lion spirit totem and the bear totem at the same time. Can't give up Fast Movement more than once.

And the thing you remember about strangling, that's the Reaping Mauler. Do NOT take this PrC unless you want to get worse at grappling.

What I'd recommend is barbarian 5+ with the bear totem, Bear Warrior, and Fist of the Forest plus SUS. Also, Warshaper for an additional +4 con and str while raging, not to mention the other goodies. Eventually you can have, without any monk levels, unarmed damage of 8d6. That's with 5 bear warrior and 3 FotF and one Warshaper, and the highest damage of SUS, with your DM allowing FotF to increase damage dice instead of setting it (since SUS is similar to monks). Otherwise, you can get a Monk's Belt and have monk 9 damage increased 4 times, in other words 6d8. Now, if you had an arcanist in your party willing to cast Greater Mighty Whallop as well...And if not, take INA or buy (!) a Fanged Ring to increase no monk's belt damage to 12d6 and monk's belt damage to 8d8. Buy the ring if possible. I've got more, just ask. First you need a more concrete stub.

[Admiral Squish]

That would be a lot of great advice... If I had any of those books.:smallfrown:

[Callos_DeTerran]

And the thing you remember about strangling, that's the Reaping Mauler. Do NOT take this PrC unless you want to get worse at grappling.

He might mean the article on strangling from Dragon Magazine. I made a thread on that a while back too if you want to take the time to look it up.

[dman11235]

You can still take the gist of it, do you have ToB at least? Or a friend who has it? Or do you have CChamp? At least one of the books?

[Admiral Squish]

You can still take the gist of it, do you have ToB at least? Or a friend who has it? Or do you have CChamp? At least one of the books?

I keep trying to buy ToB, but I always seem to be three or four bucks short. I'm chronically broke, it seems. It's rather annoying, the way people keep talking about it and I have to metaphorically smile and nod, hoping they don't press the point...

[dman11235]

Hey, I only like SUS from it. Nothing else really. Now, CChamp, that has quite a few goodies in it. Let's see if I can get you an adequate grapple damage without either....well, Bear Warrior+Warmind works, if you have a couple monk levels. Do you at least have access to the Tashalatora feat?

[sonofzeal]

Scorpion's Claw, "Sandstorm". Exotic Light weapon that gives you a +4 to Grapple and lets you use it for grapple damage (including any enchantments you put on it). If your DM is lenient, dual-weild for a +8 bonus.

[sonofzeal]

(double post, sorry)

[dman11235]

You can delete double posts sonofzeal.

Also, if you have SS, the Necklace of Natural Attacks is superior to this weapon you speak of, as unarmed damage can be a lot higher than weapon damage. I've gotten 32d8, and as far as I know that's the highest possible.

[Eldariel]

Incarnum, more accurately Totemist, makes for great Grapplers. Girallon Arms and all those soulmelds that add to Strength-checks add to Grapple and you can even pick up Improved Grapple through a Meld. Also, many Monster special abilities are available through Incarnum.

Failing that, a mundane grappler would probably be a Barbarian-build of some sort (preferably Runescarred Berserker (Unapproachable East) for Anti-Magic Field) with a ton of stacking Str-boosting effects, preferably at the cost of AC which doesn't matter when grappled. And some Unarmed Damage-boosting effects.


Generally Grapplers don't fight fair though, with garrotte you can grapple creatures of any size as long as you can reach their head, there're those effects that allow you to skewer opponents with tail, thus grappling them while remaining unburdened by anything but their weight (giving you the option to full attack them to death), etc.

A good, old-fashioned wrestler really doesn't cut it in D&D due to size modifiers and that crap (even Runescarred Berserker probably wants Bear Warrior to be large, or just be of a Large race with high Str bonus). Mostly Magic that can make you Gargantuan or larger is in order to Grapple anything and to gain insane bonuses to the check against anything.

[Admiral Squish]

Hmm... Perhaps a mask or something that allows the wearer to change sizes to match his opponent? There'd be limiters, like only 1-3/day, 'opponent' must be within 100 feet and be visible to you, only lasts five minutes per use, or until the foe is defeated, something like that... Amulet of antimagic field, activate/deactivate at will... Ring of Spiked Flesh or something like that... This could be a very interesting fellow. I'm going to have to start writing up these things...