Does grappling explicitly work only with a free hand?

[Dargath]

I have been working on a Lizardfolk Barbarian and reading through the class feats I got to the feat called Thrash. In my mind I was imagining, due to the Ancestry Feats and how you can get a bite attack, of making an unarmed strike with said bite attack and there would surely be some kind of grappling feat tree to improve grappling which would tie into using thrash as something of an “alligator death roll” after biting to grapple.

However having read the rules for grappling it says only one free hand. Also can you have a two handed weapon and just take one hand off when you want to grapple?

The build I was hoping for involved using a Greatsword and using my bite attack to weave into grappling and spamming thrash. So more often than not it would be first action hit with greatsword, second action bite attack and find a feat to let that grapple or something, then thrash. At this point I’m not sure if I can mechanically build out this idea though.

[Captain Morgan]

You can only grapple someone if you have a hand free or an attack with the grapple property. Traits and free hands are an important part of how weapons and unarmed strikes are balanced against each other.

The shark and snake instincts both give you bite attacks with the grapple property, but their anethema includes using weapons while raging. So if you skip the greatsword this works, but I don't think you can do it otherwise.

The other option is use a bastard sword so you can take a hand off to grapple someone with, if you're ok with not biting them.

I'm not sure if there are any weapons beyond this that have the grapple property.

[Dargath]

Captain Morgan wrote:

You can only grapple someone if you have a hand free or an attack with the grapple property. Traits and free hands are an important part of how weapons and unarmed strikes are balanced against each other.

The shark and snake instincts both give you bite attacks with the grapple property, but their anethema includes using weapons while raging. So if you skip the greatsword this works, but I don't think you can do it otherwise.

The other option is use a bastard sword so you can take a hand off to grapple someone with, if you're ok with not biting them.

I'm not sure if there are any weapons beyond this that have the grapple property.

Hmmm Bastard Sword sounds good to me I think. Or I might just drop the grappling idea altogether.

[Captain Morgan]

Dargath wrote:

Captain Morgan wrote:

You can only grapple someone if you have a hand free or an attack with the grapple property. Traits and free hands are an important part of how weapons and unarmed strikes are balanced against each other.

The shark and snake instincts both give you bite attacks with the grapple property, but their anethema includes using weapons while raging. So if you skip the greatsword this works, but I don't think you can do it otherwise.

The other option is use a bastard sword so you can take a hand off to grapple someone with, if you're ok with not biting them.

I'm not sure if there are any weapons beyond this that have the grapple property.

Hmmm Bastard Sword sounds good to me I think. Or I might just drop the grappling idea altogether.

I will say barbarians have some great feats for grappling, and I think the death roll idea is pretty viable. But it does mean trading the raw damage of the d12 greatsword for the battlefield control of grappling.

[Aratorin]

Dargath wrote:

Captain Morgan wrote:

You can only grapple someone if you have a hand free or an attack with the grapple property. Traits and free hands are an important part of how weapons and unarmed strikes are balanced against each other.

The shark and snake instincts both give you bite attacks with the grapple property, but their anethema includes using weapons while raging. So if you skip the greatsword this works, but I don't think you can do it otherwise.

The other option is use a bastard sword so you can take a hand off to grapple someone with, if you're ok with not biting them.

I'm not sure if there are any weapons beyond this that have the grapple property.

Hmmm Bastard Sword sounds good to me I think. Or I might just drop the grappling idea altogether.

Keep in mind that you have to spend an Action to regrip the Bastard Sword if you want to use it 2-Handed after Grappling.

[OrochiFuror]

Hopefully they add a few lizardfolk feats down the line. Making the bite have the grapple tag is one upgrade that is very thematic.

[Dargath]

OrochiFuror wrote:

Hopefully they add a few lizardfolk feats down the line. Making the bite have the grapple tag is one upgrade that is very thematic.

This would be the way in an ideal world...

I basically just wanted to use Artisan Guilds giant crocodile champion from their Lizardfolk release as my miniature scaled down to medium, and then at Large and then again at the size it naturally comes (huge) as I wanted to be a giant instinct Barbarian. The bite attack to grapple just felt thematic cuz my miniature was a crocodile looking creature. Crocodiles death roll..

It was all basically making a character around the miniature haha.