Feel free to direct me to another existing thread if one exits, but can a Monk begin a grapple solely with her legs? It's a common scene in fantasy films, and thought it would be an exciting combat maneuver for out game setting. Thoughts?
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1. Grapple, in general, requires a free hand.
2. Being a monk does not directly change that.
3. Having an unarmed attack that is not made with hands that does have the Grapple trait allows you to Grapple with the applicable body part with no free hands. (Gnoll's Crunch feat giving a bite with Grapple is a good example)
4. There are monk stances that grant an unarmed attack with the Grapple trait, like Gorilla Stance and Clinging Shadows stance. They aren't explicit about what anatomy is used for the Strike. If the GM agrees with the interpretation that that unarmed attack could be done with legs, then grappling with legs would be part of that ruling.
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Also note that "free hands" is a mechanical concept, so a creature with multiple arms/hands still only has access to two "free hands"(at least as a PC, with NPCs perhaps gaining specific special abilities representing being multi-handed).
So if you have a one-armed Monk, you could arguably have one of your legs be your second "hand", though its functionality would be a matter of discussion with your GM. Which is to say "free hands" can be somewhat nebulous when disconnected from traditional bipedal forms.
Which leads me to my last point, I'd let you grapple with your legs if you weren't using one of your typical "free hands". So there'd be no net mechanical advantage, extra utility, etc., but if you like the imagery, sure, go for it. Abilities like Gnoll's Crunch are pretty precious, so if you are going for a mechanical advantage, you're gonna have to invest.
Great feedback. Thank you folks.
4. There are monk stances that grant an unarmed attack with the Grapple trait, like Gorilla Stance and Clinging Shadows stance. They aren't explicit about what anatomy is used for the Strike. If the GM agrees with the interpretation that that unarmed attack could be done with legs, then grappling with legs would be part of that ruling.
I'll note that both of those have narrative outs that make it appropriate.
Clinging Shadow stance is a ki spell that makes you have magical smoke coming from you for attacks. It also has the reach trait, so you weren't using your hand anyway.
And gorilla stance... well... you are emulating a creature with opposable thumbs on its feet. So it wouldn't surprise me if it had feet grappling techniques.