So the Ranger in my Kignmaker game got a Fangwire and used it to grapple an enemy. Rolled a Crit Success, so the enemy was constrained and then utterly failed to Escape three times.
Next turn, target is still grabbed/restrained (doesn't matter for the question) and the Ranger attacks it again with the Fangwire. His argument was that he's basically pulling on the wire to inflict damage, which honestly does kind of make sense. I'm just wondering if there's RAW somewhere that explicitely says you can't Strike with a weapon or unarmed attack that you are currently using to grapple.
I couldn't find anything like this, but if no such rule exists, he could in theory by RAW use the fangwire to grapple one enemy and then still attack someone else with the same weapon, which seems a bit silly.
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I do not know about explicit rules, but the Fangwire itself gives a good example for RAI:
"The wielder wraps the wire around a vulnerable spot, such as the neck, and twists it to inflict potentially fatal lacerations"
You grapple with it, then twist aka attack with it.
I think it is obvious that you cannot garotte another target without releasing the first one, so i would rule it like this:
- attack your grappled target: yes
- attack another target without breaking the grapple: no
I suggest to not try to make verisimilitude as a way to try to explain why a RAW works in that way because this always will open a space to discuss something like "but if I make the things in such way then the rules need to work differently" (usually trying to make the things work in favor of the player).
Instead try to narrate/describe in a way where the RAW makes sense without break it. Because as The Raven Black said "It is for ease of play, not for verisimilitude" if you want to add verisimilitude you can make a plausible explanation to justify the RAW but never the opposite.
I couldn't find anything like this, but if no such rule exists, he could in theory by RAW use the fangwire to grapple one enemy and then still attack someone else with the same weapon, which seems a bit silly.
Just say that the Fangwire is long enough to be used to attack another target while keep the first one grabbed/restrained.
Anyway this probably won't happen once that the player probably will prefer to attack the target that he's already grabbed/restrained because this target is off-guard for him.
Maybe. But GMs are supposed to take into account free monsters' appendages for Striking ("The creature is grabbed by whichever body part the monster attacked with, and that body part can't be used to Strike creatures until the grab is ended"). I don't think that it's any less true for PCs. Yes, it seems it was so self-evident for designers they forgot to actually write it, but the hand or weapon with which you've grabbed someone is no longer free. Or else it's definitely TGTBT.Fun RAW fact, you can make 3 opponents Restrained within the same round with only a hand free or a Grapple weapon.
This feels like RAI, and they just forgot to clarify it.
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Maybe. But GMs are supposed to take into account free monsters' appendages for Striking ("The creature is grabbed by whichever body part the monster attacked with, and that body part can't be used to Strike creatures until the grab is ended"). I don't think that it's any less true for PCs. Yes, it seems it was so self-evident for designers they forgot to actually write it, but the hand or weapon with which you've grabbed someone is no longer free. Or else it's definitely TGTBT.Fun RAW fact, you can make 3 opponents Restrained within the same round with only a hand free or a Grapple weapon.
I think this needs looked at for errata, actually.
Yes, the CRB version of the Grab monster ability says that you can't continue Strike'ing with a monster attack that you are using the grab ability with.
Player characters are under no such restriction. Which is strange to envision with some weapons at all, and really hard to justify when using Strike against a different opponent than the one you are grappling with the weapon.
And the Rage of Elements updated Grab monster ability doesn't have that restriction that the CRB version does. So at least now it is consistent that a monster can be grabbing one party member with its bite attack, and then make bite attack Strikes against a different party member at the same time just like PCs can.
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With 6-second rounds, there is plenty of time to press fangwire to neck here, whip it around to whack someone there, then whip it back to re-press against first neck before victim has the wits to do anything.
I would think that you would need to make another attack roll to whip it back around the original victim's neck again.
This scenario description looks more like a free action release, strike someone else, then a separate attack against the first target.
I had to go and check to see if the game rules would horribly break the narrative description if you combine a Gill Hook with Lunge or an Extending rune.
Fortunately(?!) it doesn't since Lunge doesn't have Grapple on the list of combat maneuvers that you can do with it, and the Extending rune is limited to just Strike.
I don't see any listed weapons that have both Grapple and Reach, but I think you can cobble one together using Inventor with a Weapon Innovation.
So how does the narrative go if you grapple one creature at reach with your weapon and then Strike with that same weapon against an enemy also at reach, but on the opposite side of you?
I do not know about explicit rules, but the Fangwire itself gives a good example for RAI:
"The wielder wraps the wire around a vulnerable spot, such as the neck, and twists it to inflict potentially fatal lacerations"You grapple with it, then twist aka attack with it.
I think it is obvious that you cannot garotte another target without releasing the first one, so i would rule it like this:
- attack your grappled target: yes
- attack another target without breaking the grapple: no
Yeah, I might not allow Striking with most weapons while they are grappling, but it clearly makes sense for the fangwire.
Personally I would generally allow attacking the target that you are also grappling with the weapon. But not other targets.
But that is... technically... not what the rules actually say.