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I had this come up during a game recently. One of the mini-bosses of the adventure is an undead with spellcaster levels (huceuva cleric), and my party grappled him down at one point. I expect this tactic to be attempted again, at least against obvious spellcasters.
While I don't want to nerf this approach, and I like it to work sometimes, what ways do people have to counter this at low to mid level. At high levels it's simple enough to put on a contingency and gaseous form if grappled, or some other form of 'escape' magic.
What ways have others come up with to keep the party from going 'A litch? Quick, grab it!'
Well, for your example what about the lich's paralyzing touch? Yay, you grappled it; now you're paralyzed, happy? Furthermore, smply have spells such as dimension door (no somatic component if I remember correctly) or stilled spells to deter them. Spellcasters are, in my opinion the only ones that you need truly worry about. "Toughs" often have very high grapple modifyers on their own, and if all else fails simply give them spiked armor.
Grappling a lich is one step from retarded. That paralytic attack can be done just fine in a grapple, and its a touch attack (Oh, noes, teh -4 in grapple on a touch attack, ha ha, gg noob! End result, paralyzed fighter or monk.)
Grappling is an awesome tactic to use against equal sized spellcasters. Try it against an ogre mage and you might find it problematic. Any decent spellcaster will have enough ranks of concentration to make the relatively easy DC 20 to cast in a grapple. As long as the spell in question has only verbal or XP (and material if its already in hand) components, touch spells can be used just fine in the grapple, again at the -4. A recent issue of Dragon had a list of non-somatic grapple freindly spells.
There are plenty of anti-grapple spells as well, such as spike body, poison quills, fire shield, balor nimbus, etc.
Any caster who depends on casting that fights PCs by his lonesome is either A: retarded, B: overconfident, or C: retarded AND overconfident. Bring a mook, even if it's a summon or an augmented familiar, anything that can help out if you are grappled. Big things that hit hard or sneaky things that stab in the squishies are good for this, because the enemy grappling you is denied dexterity against those outside the grapple. Stay away from grapple-looking types with expeditious retreat, levitate, and fly.
Levitate + entropic shield + shield equals an almost untouchable (relative to party level) threat against low level PCs (3rd level wizard can do this, then spam a wand of Magic Missle for giggles. Magic missle back at him is out, ranged attacks have miss chance, and those that get through still have the shield to contend with, and the melee types sit on their thumbs.
At higher levels (7th) freedom of movement becomes an option, which basically takes any plan revolving around grappling and kicks it square in the junk before giving it a swirly in the locker room toilet. Any character even assuming a grapple is in the future should cast this or have it cast, because it last for 10 minutes per caster level. Just consider it a devoted slot, like mindblank or hero's feast, because if you don't use this when you have access to it, you're letting your lobotomy scar show.
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I appreciate the feedback, and I did think of the lich's paralyzing touch. In the case where this recently occurred, the huecuva got in a slam attack (yay natural weapons!) and connected, infecting the grappler with heucuva blight, making the player realize that 'no, this wasn't a brilliant plan, I'm not gonna hold him long enough to get the pin'.
Part of my issue is that I'm just getting back into the game after a fairly long drought - working and school and all the rest. (Also players who prefer other systems, grr). That said, I appreciate the pointers and the feedback. And some of this does still allow grapple to be a viable tactic in certain situations - a monk with grapple is often speedy enough to do an end-run around the mook, particularly if the fighter steps up to pin down the mook.
Part of the problem I have is that I'm running off of published adventures - thankfully I don't see very many spellcasting BBEGs in the future. Instead there's a lot of sneaky or burly sorts who you -really- don't want to grab ahold of. Still, I'll keep the advice in mind for the future when I have more time and can actually homebrew once more.
My experience is that its a pretty good tactic until Freedom of Movement arrives on the scene and then grappling never works again against individuals that are both intelligent and vulnerable to grapples.