Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Ahglock Mar 09, 2015 8:51:06	I love grapple as a DM. Throwing players off ledges, controlling movement etc. are all fun ways to make the battle more dynamic. Add in some real hazards and it becomes a threat.    I don't want to spoil the adventure but grapple+burrow+exotic location=awesome. Or grapple+ocean and now forced under water combat.    Any other DMs using grape to good effect and if so how?  What other tactics are you using outside a monsters basic stats?
#2 Justin2166 Mar 09, 2015 9:16:52	I don't know about you, but generally I don't find a group of zombies all that frightening.  I think, this should be an easy encounter-- nothing too dangerous here.  The fighter might think, these things won't hit me and if they do its very little damage.  People get reckless.   But have those zombies grapple and try to pull you away instead of just attack and thats kind of terrifying.  Pulling you away from your group into a pack of monsters... grabbing you and the both of you falling off cliffs into possibly more zombies below...  zombies pulling you down a hallway to feast on you and not really caring about setting off various traps.  Bloated and drowned zombies grabbing you and pulling you down into a pool of water to continue the struggle is intense.  It adds a whole other level of challenge beyond their challenge rating.   I completely agree with you, DM's should consider grappling in their games more often.
#3 IxidorRS Mar 09, 2015 9:37:23	Do with zombies what the Grapple Bard does. Grab one turn, drag at half speed Prone the next, drag at half speed. Now that zombie and all it's friends pile on. They still don't do a ton of damage but this seems so much more frightening.   Of course, the standard zombie won't be particularly good at this. Perhaps a zombie that carries some sort of poison could be in the same encounter. Standard zombie with a sort of sickly green glow around it. Whenever one of these attacks the other zombies seem to instinctively try to grab that target when they normally just attack.
#4 Kalani Mar 09, 2015 9:51:54	Just have multiple zombies grapple the same target. If you are feeling extremely mean - have additional zombies use the help action, granting the grapplers advantage on their athletics check to prevent the PC from escaping.   Escaping the Grapple: The PCs acrobatics/athletics check must beat all opposed rolls in order to escape. They remain grappled by any zombie(s) they fail to escape from. Each helper grants advantage to one zombies opposed check to prevent the PC from escaping.   Disadvantage: The DM is also within their rights to impose disadvantage on their escape check, if circumstances warrent. Being grappled by a swarm of zombies certainly counts IMO.
#5 Synjin Mar 09, 2015 10:27:38	In iserith's Roll20 game, the Barbarian Kanati (played by bawylie), is a grappling mo'fo!!!
#6 Kalani Mar 09, 2015 10:35:45	Wonder if I can get in on that game. I get on well with both iserith and Bawylie, and share a similar disposition in respect to gaming.
#7 Ahglock Mar 09, 2015 10:43:22	Kalani wrote:
#8 Kalani Mar 09, 2015 11:28:51	For those who say zombies are too mindless to use the help action, I would agree with you. However, in my proposed scenario, the zombies aren't intentionally helping each other. It is just that there are so many of them, some of the zombies are incidentilly helping the grapplers maintain the grapple (by pressing in on the PC).   I would probably limit it to a maximum of 5 zombies grappling/helping with the rest trying to evicerate/maul the PC. This scenario works better with large swarms of zombies for obvious reasons.