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Thank you both. The Raise a Shield action requires you to be wielding a shield, which you have - a buckler. Raising a buckler requires your buckler hand to be free, or to be holding a light object. Using the hand to grab something doesn't seem to fit the criteria. But honestly, I am still not a 100% on this, because I still see merit in being able to let go of the grab, and thus have your hand free to raise your buckler. Which is why for me this was a matter of whether you can end your grab in this way. However, while option 1) still makes sense to me, I would have to agree with SuperBidi in some sense. I am not convinced by RAW, but I do feel the intend is not be able to use a buckler while grappling. I guess this is kind of an edge situation. In any case, thank you both!

Hey folks,

The following situation came up at our table. We have a fighter with the Reactive Shield feat. Said fighter is wielding a bastard sword in one hand and a buckler in the other. The fighter has not raised their shield, keeping their buckler hand free. The fighter also has a creature grabbed with that free hand.

In that situation, what happens if the fighter is hit by a melee attack - can they use their Reactive Shield reaction to raise the buckler (thus ending the grapple)?

I see several options in this case:

1) The fighter can use their reaction to raise their shield normally, which will also automatically end the grapple.

2) The fighter would have to take the Release action to end their grapple early. Although Release is a free action, it cannot be done outside of your turn unless you Ready it in advance. And if you Ready it, it will take up your reaction, therefore if grappling with your buckler hand, you cannot use Reactive Shield's reaction.

So, for me, it comes down to how ending a grapple early works. The Release action seems like a logical option, so I am leaning towards 2), but I am not a 100% convinced and would appreciate some input. Thank you!