Quick rules question to throw out there, as I'd love to get other's impressions of this. We are playing with PF rules, so that could be where the disconnect is coming from.
Last Friday, The Uncalled Four took on Drakthar for the 3rd time. I (GM) decided to go with the wolf tactic, where in the book it states that Drakthar attempts to trip them, and then use pin to do his blood drain. He charged a member, had a successful bite attack, and then confirmed the trip with the CM.
I realized that next, since a trip doesn't give them the grappled condition, there was nothing stopping her from standing up during her turn (other than the AoO it would prompt). If she did, then he could attack/trip again, but that would need another 2 successful attacks. Then on his turn he could initiate a grapple, and on the turn following (assuming she didn't break the grapple) he could attempt to pin/drain her.
Am I missing something? This would seem like he would need 6 successful attack or CM rolls over the course of 3 rounds in order to do his Blood Drain! Best case, if she didn't attept to stand, it would be 4 rolls over 3 rounds.
Is there anything in RAW stating that tripping gives you the grappled condition, or that you can attept a pin without grappling first if a foe is prone? I was going to house rule that his trip initiated a grapple, thus making it just 3 checks over 2 rounds, but I'm always hesitant to make new rules just because it doesn't seem right...
It ended up becoming a moot point, as the group trashed him before he got back to his turn. However, I was curious what other people thought of this.
If you have improved trip, you get to make an attack if you succeed.
Not sure if they gave him that though.