Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dekker500 02-25-05, 10:57 AM	This is a general question for rules interpretation. :confused: Can a person (victim) who is under the influence of blink be effectively grappled by a normal person (attacker) who can not see or otherwise touch an invisible/etherial target? For example, say attacker (a roper) wants to grapple victim (a halfling with blink). Victim fails attack of opportunity, attacker makes touch attack to grab target (succeeds despite 50% miss chance from blink). Attacker and victim make opposed grapple checks and attacker wins. Victim is essentially grappled. To this point everything is clear... But on the victim's turn, can he not simply "step through" the attacker to a safe square nearby, effectively leaving the grapple? I can not seem to find specific rules about grappling and blink, although I did find some rules stating that corporeal creature can not effectively grapple incorporeal/etherial, at least not without some magic to compensate. Has anyone seen specific rules about this? Dekker500
Saiph 02-25-05, 11:04 AM	very. good. question. It appears that they cannot be grappled, or even restrained, by a corporeal means for very long at all. To keep it from being completely abused, I'd enforce this clause of the spell: For each 5 feet of solid material you walk through, there is a 50% chance that you become material. If this occurs, you are shunted off to the nearest open space and take 1d6 points of damage per 5 feet so traveled. You do, afterall, have to exit the square occupied by an enemy when you escape a grapple. And you did move through him.
tarkin 02-25-05, 11:10 AM	Hard Question. Changed my mind, agree with the above poster. I would work off of the following line: While blinking, you can step through (but not see through) solid objects. For each 5 feet of solid material you walk through, there is a 50% chance that you become material. If this occurs, you are shunted off to the nearest open space and take 1d6 points of damage per 5 feet so traveled I would therefore conclude that you could use Blinking to escape a grapple easily, but there would be a 50% chance that you would be partily solid in there body, and therefor take 1d6 of damage from being shunted out of them.
IMarvinTPA 02-25-05, 01:06 PM	I can see the 5 ft of solid material if you're trying to escape out the back of a Giant that's grappled you, but you aren't usually trying to walk from head to toe trying to escape a grappler! Improved/Greater Blink (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndLive/spells.asp?ID=4455) does not have this limitation, just don't end your turn inside a solid. It also convienently makes it easier to attack too. (No spoiling your own attacks!) I think it's a better spell than Etheral Jaunt (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndLive/spells.asp?ID=3178) or Ghostform (http://www.imarvintpa.com/dndLive/spells.asp?ID=4390). IMarv
Nom 02-26-05, 07:45 AM	Considering that "you look like you're winking in and out of reality very quickly and at random" (PH pg 206), I'd allow a blinking character to automatically and immediately break the grapple, even out of turn, and whether they wanted to or not. Thus: grapple touch attack, opposed grapple check, any grapple damage, blinking creature breaks grapple. The exception would be a creature capable of grappling with ethereal targets. In this case, blink would have no effect on the grapple, except for any invisibility miss chance (20%) on the initial grapple attempt.