Hello, going over character ideas with a friend we came across an interesting idea. If you were to build an unarmed fighter, IE Monk and a few archetypes, and had Parry and riposte in your toolbox of skills. With Parry rules stating that a parry is considered a miss, would you get a free grapple from this with the -2 of course.
Yup, I don't see why not. Pretty nifty combination.
Also, as a side question to the above, should you and your opponent then become grappled, what type of attacks are allowed during a grapple?
We're debating the idea of a Esoteric Magus / Snakebite Brawler with the Snapping Turtle style chain. So in the grappled condition, could you potentially unarmed strike/shocking grasp while grappling? Being a Magus for spell strike it states only one free hand is required, and the grappled condition states spells cant be cast as they require two hands. If only one hand is required to maintain a grapple, IE unarmed attacking, do you maintain your combat style while grappling as well? It states it requires a free hand as well.
You can absolutely unarmed strike while grappling.
You can cast shocking grasp, but you would need to eliminate the somatic component of the spell (and you still need to make a concentration check).
Everything about your character idea works except for casting spells. It is still possible, but you would need to take the silent still metamagic feat or have some other way to eliminate the somatic component of the spell.
So to be clear, snapping turtle style would remain in effect while grappling, giving the bonus to AC, cmd, etc.
That should help understand using hands in a grapple.