Giant Chameleon Animal Companion: Grab vs. Pull

[Turey]

So I've been looking at the Giant Chameleon as an Animal Companion for our Heavy Metal-inspired run through Iron Gods (I'll probably be switching to Pteranodon at 7)

From the Bestiary:

PF Bestiary wrote:

Giant Chameleon CR 3

N Large animal

Offense
Speed 40 ft., climb 40 ft.
Melee bite +6 (2d6+4) or tongue +5 touch (grab)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft. (15 ft. with tongue)
Special Attacks tongue, pull (tongue, 5 ft.)

Special Abilities
Tongue (Ex) A giant chameleon can grab a foe with its tongue and draw the victim to its mouth. This tongue attack has a reach of 15 feet. The attack does no damage, but allows the creature to grab. A giant chameleon does not gain the grappled condition while using its tongue in this manner.

This seems pretty good at first glance, but I'm wondering why it has the Pull ability when I could just have it grapple instead, and by the Grapple Rules:

PF CRB wrote:

As a standard action, you can attempt to grapple a foe, hindering his combat options. If you do not have Improved Grapple, grab, or a similar ability, attempting to grapple a foe provokes an attack of opportunity from the target of your maneuver. Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll. If successful, both you and the target gain the grappled condition (see the Appendices). If you successfully grapple a creature that is not adjacent to you, move that creature to an adjacent open space (if no space is available, your grapple fails).

So I get to freely move the grappled target to anywhere adjacent to the Chameleon, something that would take me more than one pull action, and I get to grapple them as well. Why would I ever bother with the Pull?

[Nefreet]

One gives the chameleon the grappled condition, the other does not.

[Turey]

Nefreet wrote:

One gives the chameleon the grappled condition, the other does not.

If I don't want the grappled condition, it's a free action to release the grapple after moving them.

[Nefreet]

And neither would your opponent.

EDIT: Sorry, between my phone not loading the page three times and me typing something new each time that comment doesn't make sense.

If you "Tongue" your opponent, the Chameleon does not gain the grappled condition, but your opponent does.

If you "Grapple" your opponent, both gain the grappled condition. If you then release the grapple, neither have the grappled condition.

So there is a benefit to using "Tongue" over "Grapple".

Also, in order to command your Chameleon to "Grapple", you need a specific trick from the Animal Archive, and depending on the reach of your opponent, the Chameleon may also get an Attack of Opportunity against it since it does not have the Improved Grapple feat.

[Turey]

Nefreet wrote:

If you "Tongue" your opponent, the Chameleon does not gain the grappled condition, but your opponent does.

If you "Grapple" your opponent, both gain the grappled condition. If you then release the grapple, neither have the grappled condition.

So there is a benefit to using "Tongue" over "Grapple".

We seem to be on different pages. I'm not talking about having the Chameleon actually initiate a Grapple combat maneuver as a Standard Action. I'm talking about the difference between using the Tongue ability in two different ways.

First, the Chameleon can use the Tongue attack on an enemy within 15ft, which if it hits, gives the Chameleon a free Combat Maneuver check to start a grapple (with no AoO thanks to the Grab ability). If this succeeds, it moves the target to an adjacent space to the Chameleon. The Chameleon can then optionally use a free action to disengage the grapple.

VS.

Alternatively, the Chameleon can use the Tongue attack on an enemy within 15ft, which if it hits, gives the Chameleon a free Combat Maneuver check to Pull (which may have an AoO, the Pull ability isn't clear on this). If this succeeds, it moves the target 5ft. closer to the Chameleon.

In the first case, you could move a creature up to 30ft. since the Chameleon is large size and could theoretically move the grappled creature to the opposite side from which it started. The second example only moves 5ft. They're the same number of rolls, and the Grab roll is at an additional +5 vs. the Pull roll. It seems like there is very little or no reason to use the Pull ability.

[Mojorat]

Two things 1) th chamelion is an animal it isn't going to metagame th combat rules. Animals have no reasonto grab free action release.
2)grab ability has size restrictions. Though with it being large that's not much of an issue.

[Quandary]

Size restriction is identical for Grab/Pull.
The difference is Grab MUST move them adjacent to you, while Pull only moves them 5'.
Sometimes you prefer one, sometimes you prefer the other.
Some targets may have bonuses or immunity (e.g. Freedom of Movement) vs Grapple but not Pull.

[Turey]

Quandary wrote:

The difference is Grab MUST move them adjacent to you, while Pull only moves them 5'.

Sometimes you prefer one, sometimes you prefer the other.

Seems like a pretty small chance, but I guess it is there.

Quandary wrote:

Some targets may have bonuses or immunity (e.g. Freedom of Movement) vs Grapple but not Pull.

I didn't notice that Freedom of Movement only protects against Grapple and not other forced movement combat maneuvers. Thanks!

[Mathwei ap Niall]

Here's an easier answer.
You can't grapple an object but you can pull it. Pull lets the critter reach out and grab an object it wants and pull it closer. Grapple is what you use to do that against an opponent who fights back.