list of all available grapple feats?


Advice


I have a player who is loving Grappling. I know of a few feats but with the game being out so long and so many books I was wondering if anybody had a list of all the grappling feats in one place?

The Exchange

I would probably recommend going to d20pfsrd.com and doing a search for "grappl" in the spreadsheet of the "Feat Database" there.

That should get you the basics for all the Feats with LISTED Grapple Bonus/synergies. Of course it's not going to help you with ones that simple work well while grappled but may not specifically call it out.

only search for "grappl' so it works regardless of the full word (grapple, grappled, grappling)

Additionally you may want to search for CMD, CMB, Combat Maneuver Bonus/Defense, and Pinned. Just to see what things might give more generic bonuses or work specifically if you've successfully pinned something.


thanks I downloaded it. hope it helps.


Improved Grapple
Greater Grapple
Rapid Grappler
Jawbreaker
Bonebreaker
Neckbreaker
Body Shield
Felling Escape
Piercing Grapple
Reverse Grapple

Rage Powers:
Animal Fury
Raging Grappler
Body Bludgeon

I'm sure there are more out there but these are some good ones I enjoy.


I find the idea of a grapple master pretty feat intensive any suggestions fro a good class? my player is a tetori monk.

i thought fighter or barbarian would be a better option.

The Exchange

If you're looking to be a 1 trick pony, sure a fighter type build is going to load you up with feat choices. Once you start hitting creatures with Freedom of Movement or just freakish CMD you're gonna be standing around looking foolish.

I would stick with the Monk myself, lots of other valid abilities and the movement speed to get to the person you want to grab quickly.


Tetori monk is really the best grapple class in the game due to being able to shut down Freedom of Movement option later in game.

The next best option for a Grappler would be the Brawler over fighter everyday in my opinion. Fighter gets a few more feats; however, Grappler gains Martial Flexibility that dominates a few extra feats. Also you scaling unarmed damage for Grappling (if you're going with the damage option).

Also, one grappling feat no one has suggested yet would be Celestial Obedience (Falayna); it provides a +4 bonus to Grapple checks and CMD (which makes it more difficult to escape your grapples).


Thanks!

what about grappling more than one creature at a time? could he grapple a entire village of kobolds? and what are his penalties to ac dex ect when he is the one controlling the grapple? oh and creatures bigger than him? is there a feat to take or can he wrestle a huge robot?


You can grapple two creatures at once with the Grabbing Style feat chain's pinnacle: Grabbing Master at level 8 (for monks / brawlers).

Beast Shape II allows you to become an animal with the grab ability - depending on the amount of attacks (with grab) that means grappling a lot of creatures. Beast Shape III unlocks becoming a magical beast, offering a bunch of new options.

EDIT: If you really want to focus on grapple, hobgoblin monks get a favored class bonus of +1/4 to CMB for it.

EDIT2: Another options is summoner with synthesist archetype: Grab is a 2 points evolution and works for all attacks of the chosen type. I guess you can pull it with witch, synergist archetype and probably some familiar archetype too, but you will have to wait till level 14 for full effect.


where does it say you cant grapple 2 creatures at once?

i 100 believe you i just need to pass it along.


My favorite grapple build I've played so far is Brawler (Mutagenic Mauler). As has been mentioned, Tetori's are the kings of grappling because of being able to shutdown/avoid things that would normally prevent grappling, like Freedom of Movement. If all you ever want to do is grapple, that would be my suggestion.

However, Brawlers are my favorite because when you don't want to or can't grapple, you can fall back on Flurry, which a Tetori cannot do.

My view on Grappling is that it is a form of controlling: you pick one BBEG and grapple them then pin them. They are effectively out of the fight at this point, assuming you are awesome enough at holding them. You can technically use the tie-up option and move on to another target, but hopefully by the time you've grapple, pinned, and tied-up the BBEG, all the lesser creatures are taken care of for the most part.

Also, grappling is less useful on mooks because action economy dictates that it would be better to just punch them, especially if they are going to go down in 1-2 hits anyway.

This is why I feel like Brawlers are better: they can beat up on stuff until something dangerous enough to be grappled shows up. An example would be creatures with lots of natural attacks; if you grapple them, they are (potentially) limited to one attack. So you've effectively shut down this creatures devastating natural attack routine. Be prepared to take their wrath until you can pin them though.

My last piece of advice would be to give up on grappling a target if it's a close match; it takes you several actions to grapple, pin, etc. It only takes them one escape attempt to break free. I made this mistake against a triceratops; I thought I could get him, but kept failing and meanwhile he was killing my teammates and eventually me. If I had just flurry-ed it instead of wasting several turns on grapple attempts, it likely would have just died. Only grapple something if you're pretty confident you can reliably over-power it.


In the grappling rules, it states you need both hands to grapple someone; since (most) characters only have 2 hands, you can't use both hands to grapple more than one creature, since each grapple instance requires both hands.

Also, there are no restrictions on grappling creatures larger than you, other than your ability to beat their increasingly higher special size modifier to CMB/CMD.

As for penalties, even if you initiate the grapple, you become grappled along with the target, so you take the same Dex/AC penalties as the creature you have grappled. You don't take the same penalties when you pin them. The Dex penalty is important because it lowers the targets CMD, but not your CMD unless you are using Dex for combat maneuvers. Also, I believe generic/unspecified penalties to AC also apply to CMD.


You can play brawler and choose from different combat feats for each combat.

The Exchange

RaizielDragon wrote:

My view on Grappling is that it is a form of controlling: you pick one BBEG and grapple them then pin them. They are effectively out of the fight at this point, assuming you are awesome enough at holding them. You can technically use the tie-up option and move on to another target, but hopefully by the time you've grapple, pinned, and tied-up the BBEG, all the lesser creatures are taken care of for the most part.

Also, grappling is less useful on mooks because action economy dictates that it would be better to just punch them, especially if they are going to go down in 1-2 hits anyway.

If you only look at grappling as an ability to control something until the end then yes, much of what is said here is correct.

My Monk utilizes grapple as a primary option only when there's a particularly nasty bad guy that needs to be taken out of the fight as quickly as possible in any manner possible.

During most fights he will take a flurry of blows any chance he gets, if he has to move 10+ feet to get to a target he will use the standard action to grapple. A fail means the roll was low enough a melee attack probably would have missed too, and a success can prevent the creature from taking more effective actions that round. Then once it's my monk's turn again he'll release the grapple and go full flurry.


also final embrace and kraken style feat chains.


thanks!

where does it say you cant grapple multiple creatures at once?


Lobolusk wrote:

thanks!

where does it say you cant grapple multiple creatures at once?

It doesn't as far as I know. "Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll."

You don't need both hands to grapple.

You can release one hand as a free action and take the penalty. If you're able to threaten and make attacks outside of the grapple you can then grapple an additional target. With the grapple feats you can maintain as a move and grapple someone else as as a standard. Or on a missed attack with snapping turtle clutch.


You've only got a limited number of actions you can use each round to maintain a grapple. Tetori Monk is great if you're obsessed with grappling since Freedom of Movement can become common later in the game (at least if the DM feels like making it so)

The Raging Grappler rage power is also really great since it allows you to damage a foe by initiating a grapple and also allows you to render a foe prone when you maintain the grapple. It could be tough for a Monk to pick up Rage Powers due to the Lawful alignment restriction, but some options like Primalist Bloodrager, Viking Fighter, or the Furious Guardian PrC exist.

Rapid Grappler is probably better overall than Body Shield, but Body Shield is potentially much funnier since you can make your enemies hit each other.

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