I've playtested these new grapple rules. My party (all 13th level; paladin10/divine-champ3, druid13, Wizard6/EldrichtKnight7, Rogue8/Assasin5, Bard13) faced a band of frostgiants (with a shadow template). The palladin is an insane damage dealer. He has a 2handed flaming greatsword and hefty strenght bonus..., well, you do the math, he can chop some of the nastiest monsters in pieces within seconds. Most of the time he just stands still on the playing field to roll all his damage dice... If I, as a DM want to grapple somebody, he will always be my first choice!
In the past we never used the 3.5 or 3.0 grapple rules (way to complicated... especially when some of your players love pit fights, but non of them want to look up the rules, including me as a DM)... So the old combat manoeuvre rules (including trip, sunder and disarm) were all banned... With the new pathfinder rules I decided to give the grapple thing another try. I was quite eager to do so because these rules could vastly increase my creative possibilities as a DM.
These are my findings (only the paly got grappled):
PALY CMB (BA 13, +5 STR, +2 Bull's Strenght) = +17
SHADY FROST GIANT CMB
(BA +10, +9 STR, +1 Large, +2 shadow template, it was dark) = +22
because it was the frost giant who initiated the grapple he had only to roll a 10 (DC 32) to succeed, which he did he rolled a 16
according to these new rules the paly was now pinned. Which was nice... alas... that is what you would think. My Shady frost giant was now flat-footed which made him an easy target for the rest of the part!
now this is what i like and don't like
1) i like the fact that a good roll matters (cascading DC)
2) i would like to see some damage done in the grapple maybe auto crush damage in the pin?
3) i don't now if i like the fact that the frost giant with CR 11 has always the overhand in a grapple situation even against a maxed out paly CR 13. (frost giants are not known for their grappling skills, are they?)
4) i do like the fact that it is possible for the paly to escape the pin (in this case DC was 32) wich gave the paly 25% chance of escaping
(not that he did, he tried, but the assasin finished the shady frost giant first, with a succesfull death attack, which was a quite remarkable feat on its own)
5) has somebody thought of an opposed combat manoeuvre check... which seems more dynamic and underlines the luck factor a bit more.
I now that this is almost 3.0 or 3.5 but can't we mix both systems and use only the cascading system of the pathfinder rules???
