I have a player in my party who is (ab)using the Grapple rules. I'm running this for Adventure's League, so I can't change the encounters very much, not can I apply house rules.
I'm pretty sure I'm up on the rules, but I"m a little unclear as to weather a creature can stand up if they have 0 speed (this player doesn't yet have the grappler feat, so right now he's grappling them and then knocking them prone)
I'm also a little unclear about grappling and somatic components. Nothing in grappled or restrained condition says you can't swing a sword or cast a spell, just that if you have disadvantage to attack if you are restrained (or prone)
His athletics bonus at level 3 is +8 (due to Expertise). Right now that puts him on par with Athletics to most dragons (even the Ancient Dragons). When he gets the feat he ignores size restrictions. I expect him to have +12 easily by the time dragons are an appropriate CR for him (the biggest dragon has +9 to athletics). I haven't found any rules that say creatures gain any kind of size modifier to grapple checks - which would be the ideal soloution.
Oh and to make things worse - he uses a familiar to get advantage on his grapple checks. Totally legit RAW. My only counter-strategy to that is he gets that spell from the Magic Initiate feat - so when his familiar dies he loses it for the day.
Most times he rolls his Athletics and claims "I got 25!" and I look at my monster stat block and there's no point in me even rolling it. Why don't more monsters get any kind of skill proficiencies!?
Any advice would be appreciated. I'm pretty sure he's following the rules as written, but when he's pretty much taking out a significant encounter threat single-handedly (Even if he's taking up all his actions to do it) most of the encounters I'm throwing at them become incredibly tame (and adding another monster of the same type would make it too much, I'm pretty sure)
I'm looking forward to them fighting certain earth-cult enemies that cannot be shoved or knocked prone, because then I can flat out tell him "no".
shivafang wrote:
iserith wrote:
shivafang wrote:
A hawk lives by the rule of the claw: Never let go.
Id allow a hawk to assist on most grapples.
Now a horse?
[quote="shivafang"]
iserith wrote:
iserith wrote:
shivafang wrote:
Greenstone.Walker wrote:
Why not make enemies target the familliar, can imagine it will be very hard to kill, and if he is helping he is in melee range „You little piece of **** (BLARGH!). Not so tough without a help are we?”
Eck wrote:
I have the same problem with my group. The Paladin constantly is using his sword and hitting opponents witht it. Plus, often times he smites them for even more over the top damage. It's really bothering me how they keep doing this.
Greenstone.Walker wrote:
iserith wrote:
Eck wrote:
Eck wrote:
shivafang wrote:
iserith wrote:
Hawk Grapples
It doesn't have to grapple a dude, but if its throwing claws at your eyes, it certanly helps someone else grab your legs and knock you down/grab you.
Horse Grapples
Done, that dude is pinned.
shivafang wrote:
If it becomes a frequent problem, you are perfectly within your rights to increase the number of minions guarding the BBEGs...You are empowered to move monsters around the dungeon if it makes sense, INCREASE the numbers to maintain the desired difficulty for a party, or swap out NPC spellcaster spells to keep things challenging. It is a lot harder to grapple if there are even just 2-3 wimpy minions guarding the path in between.
Misty Step is a 'makes sense in any context' type of spell edit. Especially for air and water themed casters.
From what I have seen so far in Season 2, most of the air cultist casters have thunderwave as a spell, and all of the earth cultists have the Unyielding trait. Familiar's should rarely survive first contact with strong enemies like Orieoth and llarack that are built to just spam AE spells or magic missiles anyways.