Post/Author/DateTime	Post
TrojanAx 03-12-04, 12:52 PM	page 291 of the DMG "damage reduction is the amount of hit points the creature ignores from normal attacks" Page 154 of the PHB Special Attacks : Grapple From this and much debate on the forums it would seem that grappling gets around damage reduction to begin with, which balances out its lower damage and difficulty. But in light of this I am trying to find a way to get around damage reduction if grappling is not considered a special attack like it is listed as in the PHB. If you do a grapple check to damage your opponent you do damage equivalent to your unarmed attack. But your Ki Strike would not seem to apply since this is not an actual attack but rather an opposed grapple check. What about armor spikes, yes they can be used as weapons so attacking normally gets around DR, but back to grapple checks. PHB page 124: Armor Spikes: which allow you to deal extra piercing damage on a successful grapple check. So far everyone agrees this is from two seperate sources. So you do your 1d3 and then a 1d6 seperate. So if it has DR of 10/magic the 1d3 is negated and the 1d6 gets thru. This does mean grappling can get thru DR but no matter what your monk, ftr and str damage is only the 1d6 (totally moot) would get thru and DR depending on its material etc. So I just need to make sure that since you would never do damage in a grapple otherwise because no DR is ever going to be applied to your grapple damage, and since it is listed as a special attack where DR is applied to only normal attacks. It is therefor true that grappling damage from grapple checks gets thru DR. (like the devil has tough skin, but big deal, you can still dislocate his arms and squeeze the beath out of him). This of course also applies to monsters so a characters DR also does not apply. These rulings are all for my living greyhawk character that uses grapple and now see 15/magic etc on monsters, so under DM's discretion I can not do damage to my opponents. Thanks
Southernskies 03-12-04, 10:32 PM	This is not a campaign issue - you should send it to the Sage as a Rules Clarification of the Core Rules. That being said: Starting the Grapple > Unarmed damage Attack your Opponent > Armor Spikes damage or other Light Weapon damage Damage Your Opponent > Unarmed damage Use Opponent's Weapon > damage of opponent's Light weapon. Armor Spikes say to refer to Table 7-5. The damage their is 1d6 (for medium creatures); not +1d6 of bonus damage. The advantage of grappling is that it negates your foe's Dex Bonus (and Reach) so they can pound them down/sneak attack them easier and they can only attack the grappler (you).
TrojanAx 03-12-04, 11:30 PM	The way they work in 3.5 is that they DO add damage to grappling, OR they can be used as a seperate weapon. So in fact they do add 1d6, assuming you are not a gnome