Is the NPC Syu Tak-Nwa supposed to be able to grapple, disarm, and trip? I can't seem to figure out if I'm missing anything or not. She has 3 variants, level 14, 16 and 20, and none of them have athletics to grapple, disarm or trip with.
So without Athletics, the level 14 version, has a STR of +0. Meaning that on an athletics roll of a natural 20, she would get a 20 total. Since all of my PCs are 14 and have fortitude saves at minimum 30, she would still have a normal failure, or a crit failure on 19 and below. Meaning she would fall prone or be grabbed herself.
Here are all of the instances I found of the rules implying she is supposed to be able to disarm/grapple:
Syu shows up on page 67, chapter 3: The Empress at the top of the world with the rest of the lightkeepers. She has the equivalent of the following 4 witch feats rolled into 1 called 'Empowered Hair':
1. Living Hair Feat 2
2. Syu Tak-Nwa's Skillful Tresses Feat 4
3. Syu Tak-Nwa's Deadly Hair Feat 6
4. Syu Tak-Nwa's Hexed Locks Feat 8
But in addition to those 3 feats, she has the following ability baked into Empowered Hair that is not available to players:
"...and she can automatically Grab with her hair, as the creature ability"
Though, she loses this ability in the level 16 version, and the level 20 version.
The Grab ability for monsters reads:
If used after a Strike, the monster attempts to Grapple the creature using the body part it attacked with.
And Grapple checks always use athletics (as far as I know, as there is nothing in the character block that would denote otherwise)
The 3rd feat listed above "Syu Tak-Nwa's Deadly Hair Feat 6" specifically gives a witch the ability to grapple with their hair
On page 58, the art used shows Syu Tak-Nwa's using her hair to disarm a characters weapon, and grabbing her arm.
On page 106 of the Part Two: Ready? Fight! Chapter 2: The Tournament, the level 16 version shows up and she has the ability 'Choking Hair'. This allows her to choke a character that she has grabbed. Additionally she has the 'Grab' feature as part of here weapon profile. Which probably explains why its missing from the Empowered Hair feature.
On page 182 of the Parth Three: King of the Mountain, Chapter 3: Unmaking the Sculptor, the level 20 version shows up and she has the ability 'Dragline Trip'. This allows her to attempt to trip a creature that moves within 20ft of her as a reaction. She also has lost the ability to Grab and disarm for a reason I am unaware of. Lastly she does have her sword in her art that she has had in the last 2 versions, but it is not listed in here stat block, instead she has a new ability called 'braid' which has the shove trait.
Was this an oversight, or am I missing something major with these athletics based abilities?
