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Alice and Bob are standing in adjacent squares, fighting each other. Alice acts before Bob in initiative order.
Round 1: Alice successfully grapples Bob. Bob attempts to break the grapple, but fails.
Round 2: Alice successfully maintains the grapple, attempts to pin Bob, and fails. Bob successfully breaks the grapple as a standard action. As a move action, Bob tries to move away from Alice. Alice can now make an attack of opportunity.
Can Alice use her AoO to try to re-establish the grapple?
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Bruno congratulate Alice on being a beautiful and handsome grappler! Bruno fan of female grapplers since he was but a teeny tiny tetori and Bruno mother would Pinning Knockout Bruno every night.
Round 1: Alice successfully grapples Bob...
Congratulations, Alice!
Bob attempts to break the grapple, but fails.
Haha, stupid Bob!
Round 2: Alice successfully maintains the grapple, attempts to pin Bob, and fails.
Oh no, looks like Alice made rookie grappler mistake. If she successfully maintains grapple, she can choose to progress grapple to pin (no second roll is necessary). So, either she succeeds, maintains grapple and can choose to pin dumbdumb Bob or she fails and stupidface Bob is no longer grappled. Let us say Alice fails grapple check and ugly Bob is no longer grappled. OH NO!
As a move action, Bob tries to move away from Alice. Alice can now make an attack of opportunity. Can Alice use her AoO to try to re-establish the grapple?
No. You can make a single attack or use a manuever that can be used in place of an attack (trip, disarm, sunder). A grapple is a standard action and cannot be done on an AOO.
IT'S OK THEORETICAL ALICE! BRUNO STILL RESPECT YOU!
Theoretical Alice sends many thanks, Bruno.
James, apparently you can't.
If you could grapple as an AoO, it would be nearly impossible to escape some characters and monsters, once you got within their reach.
I think (though someone can tell me i am wrong and point to an official text snippet) that it is possible to get a grab with an AoO if you have the creature power Grab tied to a natural attack which is used for the AoO.
Well, binding throw would work...
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Actually, that's one of the issues that prompted this thread. Right now it benefits my 4th level players if I, as the GM, rule that they can re-grapple a fleeing orc as an AoO.
One of my players is worried, though, that this sets a bad precedent for later on, when terrible beasties with lots of limbs, 10 foot reach, Grab and Combat Reflexes might become virtually impossible to escape.
His argument, which I'm probably not representing accurately, was that if Bob breaks Alice's grapple, then Alice should retain the Grappled condition until the beginning of her next turn. This was supposed to prevent a super-otyugh Alice from being inescapable several levels from now.
I haven't found anything to suggest that Alice should retain the Grappled condition for the rest of the round, but I thought that the inability to make a grapple attempt as an AoO would keep super-octopi from being inescapable. Now it seems that with Grab, Combat Reflexes and lots of natural attacks, super-octopi (and super-otyughs) really might be darned hard to disengage from.
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By the time you would face lots-of-limbs-with-reach-and-grab monster, your PCs should have several options, both magical and mundane, to avoid being grappled (spells, items and tactics). Also, it would typically be a "multiple PCs vs one monster" situation, so while there may be a scary round or two, action economy and DPS is on the party's side.