Questions about the Hook Fighter feat and grappling


Rules Questions

Grand Lodge

Ran across the feat Hook Fighter (Adventurers Armoury 2) yesterday and found it rather intriguing.

Hook Fighter wrote:

You treat a grappling hook as a one-handed weapon that deals piercing damage equal to a heavy pick of its size and that has the disarm and trip special weapon features. You do not incur penalties as you would for using a grappling hook as an improvised weapon. If you are proficient with whips and your grappling hook has at least 10 feet of rope or chain attached to it, you can treat it as a two-handed melee weapon with 15-foot reach, though you can use it against foes anywhere within your reach (including adjacent foes), though you don’t threaten any squares with it.

Changing between using a grappling hook as a normal weapon and a reach weapon is a move action. When performing a reposition maneuver with a grappling hook, you can only move the target toward you from its original position.

First question I come up with is how exactly you stat out the grappling hook...it says "deals damage as a heavy pick" does that include crit multiplier? In Pirates of the Inner Sea they actually added grappling hook as an exotic ranged weapon to the weapon charts, but it only has the Grapple property, and does not have the trip or disarm properties, it is also just a basic 1d6 x2 damage weapon.

Also...if playing a Constructed Pugilist with a Grapnel Arm...when you enchant the arm do any enchantments on the constructed limb work on both your unarmed strikes and your grapnel modification?

Next up...grappling questions.

If you play a Constructed Pugilist Brawler with a Grapnel Arm modification...

Grapnel Arm wrote:
The constructed pugilist can fire a grappling hook built into her prosthesis. The grappling hook is attached to a 40-foot-long fine chain affixed to the limb. The constructed pugilist can attack with the grappling hook as a standard action, making a ranged touch attack against the target. The grappling hook can’t be used as part of a full attack. On a successful hit, the grappling hook deals no damage, but it functions as though it had the grapple weapon special feature, except it requires only a hit (not a critical hit) and the grapple ends if the constructed pugilist moves more than 40 feet away from the grappled creature. The constructed limb can’t be used to make melee attacks until the grappling hook has been reloaded (a standard action).

When you successfully grapple someone at range, talking to a few other people makes it sound like you do not just magically yoink them across the battlefield like Scorpion in Mortal Kombat...so how does it work having them at the end of a tether?

How does movement work in this case? Can you move half your movement towards them while pulling them half your movement towards you? Do you pick only one, move to them or move them to you?

If you leave them at the end of your chain, how does movement for other people through the connecting squares work? Does it become difficult terrain, impassable, people just ignore it and jumprope on through unhindered?

Could someone else try to sunder your chain to free them?

Any special rules, feats, etc. I should be aware of related to wielding a grappling hook and grappling?


Slyme wrote:

First question I come up with is how exactly you stat out the grappling hook...it says "deals damage as a heavy pick" does that include crit multiplier? In Pirates of the Inner Sea they actually added grappling hook as an exotic ranged weapon to the weapon charts, but it only has the Grapple property, and does not have the trip or disarm properties, it is also just a basic 1d6 x2 damage weapon.

Also...if playing a Constructed Pugilist with a Grapnel Arm...when you enchant the arm do any enchantments on the constructed limb work on both your unarmed strikes and your grapnel modification?

Dumb as it is, there's a huge difference between the Improvised Weapon Grappling Hook and the Exotic Weapon Grappling Hook.

The Hook Fighter feat refers to the Improvised Weapon, and as mentioned doesn't even share properties with the Exotic Weapon. Furthermore, I haven't encountered any Improvised Weapon with a x4 modifier, so I'm confident that you only get the 1d6 dmg.

As for the Constructed Pugilist, I'd consider the Grapnel Arm's Grappling Hook a separate weapon to the Constructed Arm, as the description of Grapnel Arm seems to make a distinction. So no enhancement bonus.

***

Slyme wrote:
How does movement work in this case? Can you move half your movement towards them while pulling them half your movement towards you? Do you pick only one, move to them or move them to you?

The normal grapple rules assume that your target is adjacent to you, which is why the target normally ends up in any adjacent square. You can ignore that part of the rules, but RAW you'd have to move when moving your target, or else it would probably be a Reposition maneuver.

Nothing restricts you in which way you move your target and yourself, so meeting them halfway is definitely an option.

***

Slyme wrote:

If you leave them at the end of your chain, how does movement for other people through the connecting squares work? Does it become difficult terrain, impassable, people just ignore it and jumprope on through unhindered?

Could someone else try to sunder your chain to free them?

The description of the Grapnel Arm is silent on this obvious problem, which leaves it up to GM interpretation. I'd personally rule it as difficult terrain, considering they only need to slip under or above the chain.

And yes, someone could try to sunder your chain to break the grapple. Not much different from someone sundering a Mancatcher or Net to free the poor soul within. This should be a problem since the chain won't gain more HP/Hardness from being magical, and is a tempting target to anyone nearby the chain stretching across the battlefield.
Even the grappled target is probably better off sundering than attempting a grapple/escape artist check.

I'd consider a human Brawler or Fighter for the FCB bonus to CMD vs Grapple/Sunder.


To follow up on the grapple movement comment by wonderstell, this is the relevant portion of the grapple rules.

Quote:
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).

Grand Lodge

The problem with the move them adjacent thing is that was written years before ranged grappling was added to the game via things like barbed arrows, grapnel arms, etc. It appears to have been intended for characters/creatures with reach, not for someone grappling someone across the battlefield.

The wording on every ranged grapple option I can find seems to indicate that you leave them right where they were when you fired off your ranged grapple, and most mention losing the grapple if you leave a certain range. If you could just yank people 40 feet across a battlefield (or several hundred feet in the case of a barbed arrow), it would be pretty game breaking.

As for enchanting the arm...I'm leaning towards the enchantment working on both...the grapnel is a modification which is a permanent part of the limb. It doesn't say you can take any grappling hook and fire it from the limb, it specifies it being built into the limb.

Re-reading the chapter on combat I am thinking the chain would just count as a passable obstacle, people could move through the area with the chain at 2x movement.

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