RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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| 3 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
Scenario: Monk goes full defense, provokes AoO. Poor mook misses monk. Monk does an immediate action (note, this is not an AoO, since it is an immediate action) and inapropriately grabs mook.
Question: Is the monk still in full defense? Came up last night, and we really couldn't come to a consensus. Logically, he's now busy grabbing the mook, so he cant' fully defend, but rules wise, it appears he is in full defense until his next turn.
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Hmm. Very interesting question! Let's break it down a little, to find the RAW of it.
I'd say you and your GM have the RAI covered, as it would be silly for him to have full defense whilst grabbing someone. Though, theoretically he could be using them as a shield to defend the parts of his body that his other arm can't. It's a little complex, so I won't dig into that. That's best left between you two!
It really seems to me that RAW-wise, this is legal. Between the two, they seem to combine perfectly.
Nothing in here sticks out either. I guess this question is up for FAQ now too, being as it's unclear. To me, it seems Legal for the time being!
Edited, but Ninja'd before I could finish edit! -> When you start the next round, you do have to make a grapple check. Unless you get more than one standard in a turn, you won't be able to continue with Grapple and Total Defense that same round.
However, if you have Greater Grapple, then I believe it is possible to Total Defense whilst Grappling?
By full defense I assume you mean the total defense action, and by grab I assume you mean grapple.
As Snapping Turtle Clutch lets him perform the action as an Immediate action and not an AoO nothing in Total Defense Restricts it and there should be no further penalty to his defense. Next round if he wants to maintain the grapple he will spend his standard action to do so and this will prevent him from using Total Defense as it requires at least a standard action to use.
So, what happens on the round where he grapples? Nothing. On the next round he can maintain the grapple and no longer be fighting defensively or he can let go of the grapple and use total defense/fight defensively.
Also remember the monk still takes -4 to dex for being ina grapple, which reduces effective AC by 2.
Smart tactic! I like it. As to rules, nothing to add to the above posts :-)
Fighting Defensively as either a full or standard action would preclude the ability to grapple (barring some feats that let you maintain a grapple as something other than a standard).
This is because Fighting Defensively is itself an aciton that then allows you to make 1 atatck if performed as a standard or make a number attacks as you would be allowed on a full-attack, but with a penalty to attack and bonus to AC. However, these are independent actions and not the same as the standard attack action or full-round attack action. Again, because starting or maintaining a grapple is normally a full-round action you could not combine it with fighting defensively or total-defense.
So, with Snapping Turtle Clutch and Greater Grapple he could:
Round 1) Fight using total defense standard action. He is attacked and Snapping Turtle Clutch kicks in and allows him to grapple as an immediate.
Round 2) He uses the ability from greater grapple to maintain the grapple as a move action and can use his standard to fight defensively or even total defense (however these aren't useful against the creature being grappled since you can automatically deal damage in a grapple).
He also could have used this action to deal damage to the creature being grappled instead. Also if he had rapid grappler he could use that on round 3 (immeadiate actions use your swift action for the next turn).
Edit: It appears using an immediate on your turn counts as using that turns swift, and immediate only counts as the next turns swift if you use it not on your turn (as is the case here). Just wanted to correct that so it is clear that an immediate does not always necessarily use your swift for the next turn. This doesn't change the above, just wanted to clarify.
because starting or maintaining a grapple is normally a full-round action you could not combine it with fighting defensively or total-defense.I just wanted to point out that starting or maintaining a grapple is normally a standard action, not a full-round action.
You're totally correct and I think I had just been typing so much I just typed the wrong thing. However, otherwise I believe my statement is correct.