Hi there,
I thought I had grappling all figured out, but along comes a new character and suddenly I stumble about new questions. Hope you guys/gals can help me figure them out.
Two separate issues:
1) I stumbled about the difficulty to actually maintain a pin against someone. Now we all know that escaping a pin or a grapple goes against your CMD, not your grapple combat maneuver check, and that is often not very high and hard to boost. But that's not what tripped me up. It was when I noticed this:
Despite pinning your opponent, you still only have the grappled condition, but you lose your Dexterity bonus to AC.
Any penalties to a creature’s AC also apply to its CMD. A flat-footed creature does not add its Dexterity bonus to its CMD.
Any situation that denies you your Dexterity bonus also denies you dodge bonuses.
If you are grappled, you can attempt to break the grapple as a standard action by making a combat maneuver check (DC equal to your opponent’s CMD;
Let me get this straight: When I have someone pinned, to escape he only has to roll against my CMD WITHOUT MY DEXTERITY MODIFIER, without any dodge bonuses and with an additional -4 to my Dexterity from being grappled? (The latter only has an effect if my Dex is 12 or below). Is that supposed to be that way?
It makes sense to lose your dexterity modifier to attacks from outside the grapple, but why does pinning someone make it easier for them to escape?To make things worse, almost no effect seems to improve my chances of actually keeping someone pinned. All of the grapple feats, items etc only give a bonus to grapple checks, not to defense against escape. Even the Improved Grapple feat is worded vaguely enough that I am not sure it applies when someone wants to escape my pin.
Is the DC to escape my pin really practically only 10 + my BAB + Strength bonus? (A ring of protection won't make much of a difference there.)
That seems trivial after a few levels, when I look at the opponents CMBs.
2)
Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll.
Does this penalty also apply to the Combat Maneuver check to escape a grapple or a pin that an opponents has to do, if they e.g. don't want to drop their sword help in one hand?
Let me get this straight: When I have someone pinned, to escape he only has to roll against my CMD WITHOUT MY DEXTERITY MODIFIER, without any dodge bonuses and with an additional -4 to my Dexterity from being grappled? (The latter only has an effect if my Dex is 12 or below). Is that supposed to be that way?
Not exactly. It's fairly confusing, so let me walk you through it.
Examining the first quote, it simply says you lose any Dexterity Bonuses you have to your regular AC while you pin an opponent.
The second quote then says a flat-footed creature does not add Dexterity Bonuses to its CMD.
The first quote can be possible through several subjects without being flat-footed, Feinting being a common means to do so. The latter is an actual condition, which denies your Dexterity to all subjects, applying it then to CMD, since CMD is calculated with Dexterity.
By rights, the first 2 quotes are completely separate subjects, despite having similarities.
The third quote would apply to the second quote, however, since a condition (flat-footed) that makes you lose your Dexterity to AC also makes you lose the Dodge Feat bonus to AC as well, as is described in the Feat Description text.
For the second question, no. That only applies when someone tries to initiate a grapple and does not have two hands (or what constitutes as hands) free to make the grapple check. You otherwise use your normal bonuses. You actually suffer a -2 penalty to attack rolls not involved in breaking or overturning the grapple/pin.