I am running a AP and last night was a epic battle. MY house rules are this I make the final call as the dm and if after the game you have a different interpretation of the rules feel free to approach me and we can discuss.
so a few things I had to rule on the fly.
1. healing potions? if a character is at -10 HP and has a con of 14.
he is fed a healing potion the roll is 5 I ruled he stabilized and was at now at 0.
what happens when he is fed a potion he does stabilize? and then do we have to subtract from the neg HP so is he now at -5?
grappling:
those flow charts are amazing we have those.
a gargoyle is grappled by the monk.
round 1 th emonk grapples he rolls super high the gargolyle is now grappled.
round 2 the gargoyle ignored the monk and full attacks the PC in front of him. Claw x2 bit x1 and Gore x1. In the heat of the battle I forgot about the monk and wanted to know if he could ignore the puny human and attack?
the next round the gargoyle is put into the pin condition.
now what? he can only try to escape right? can he fly?
1. Stable at -5 hp.
2. While pinned you cannot move, so no flight. Available options are escape or use magic with serious penalties anc concentration checks, so likely just escape for a gargoyle.
can he choose to ignore the grapple and Still Attack?before he is pinned?
can he choose to ignore the grapple and Still Attack?before he is pinned?
Yup. He'd have the penalties as laid out under the grappled condition but he could still attack.
Normally creatures with natural attacks turn and shred creatures that grapple them, but he could attack anyone he could have reached.
Until he was pinned, then he's VERY limited.
Basically, when grappled your opponent has a hold of you but not complete control. You can't move but you can still attack.
When pinned your opponent has control over you and all you can try to do is break that control.
Under Pinned, it never says you CANNOT Attack. Given the Gargoyle has both a Bite and a Gore attack, I would think he still has some attack tools to use while pinned - Especially if you use those attacks for the express purpose of escaping the pin.
If the Gargoyle readied an action to Bite the Monk as soon as the Monk attempted to maintain the grapple, then (assuming the attack succeeds) any damage he inflicts on the Monk also gets subtracted from the Monk's Grapple check to maintain the grapple.
Normally you only see this type of thing if the person performing the combat maneuver doesn't have the correlating feat, and soaks up an Attack of Opportunity. But the rules for treating damage taken while performing the maneuver as a penalty are not limited to damage from AoOs.
If you are hit by the target, you take the damage normally and apply that amount as a penalty to the attack roll to perform the maneuver.
Assuming the Gargoyle is worried that he won;t be able to hit the Monk's CMD with his own Grapple or Escape Artist check, this might be his best bet - simply causing the Monk to fail at maintaining his grip.
a pinned creature can try to escape or cast a non-somatic spell and verbal or mental actions.
That list doesn't include attack.
A pinned creature is tightly bound and can take few actions. A pinned creature cannot move and is denied its Dexterity bonus. A pinned character also takes an additional –4 penalty to his Armor Class. A pinned creature is limited in the actions that it can take. A pinned creature can always attempt to free itself, through a combat maneuver check or Escape Artist check. A pinned creature can take verbal and mental actions, but cannot cast any spells that require a somatic or material component. A pinned character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level) or lose the spell. Pinned is a more severe version of grappled, and their effects do not stack.
the above never says you can only do these two things. it says you are very limited. You can cast spells using verbal components, so you can use your mouth. You could probably read a scroll if it is open and close enough to read. Other actions available to you include, ceasing concentration on a spell, dropping something you were holding, lowering your spell resistance, using a wand, etc.
Regardless of whatever the specific type of pinning described by the GM, however YOU CAN ALWAYS ATTEMPT TO FREE YOURSELF. If the best way you could free yourself is to bite your attackers arm as he squeezes you - thn so be it.
"The best way to free myself is to walk away from the grapple as if I had freedom of movement, so that's what I'm going to do."
"The best way to free myself is to full attack with my claws, so that's what I'm going to do."
Yeah, no. Attacking is out unless it's a verbal or mental action.
A pinned creature cannot attack. Trying to claim an attack under the guise of escaping is quite simply shenanigans.
Even your purported excuse fails at the first hurdle, as damaging your grappler does not affect his grapple check. Your grappler only takes a penalty to CMB if they are hit by an AoO provoked by performing that maneouvre.
So very limited means no movement and restrictions on spell casting? So pinning a martial means exactly dogspit?