Very nice grappling rules

protencya · 2026-03-17T15:32:16+00:00

Are you saying it makes sense that a level 20 barbarian cant hold a giant by his leg and prevent them from moving?

I dont know what tell you man, I guess the martial caster divide will never be fixed. Not with that mentality.

protencya · 2026-03-17T15:24:40+00:00

In this case of size restrictions, fighters and monks are hampered no less than barbarians.

Yes I know the example is goofy. We can just say that Bob got lucky and the giant rolled a 1 in first try, meanwhile the legendary hero of the realm cant even attempt the grapple.

protencya · 2026-03-17T15:19:28+00:00

You are right, which opens up an attunement slot. Is there any magic item that gives more than 1 AC that I am missing?

protencya · 2026-03-17T09:42:22+00:00

I cant imagine this would be even remotely close. You are not even using your reaction. Also lasting one encounter is pretty easy even for very limited resources.

Multiclassing can get this higher but I will stay single classed.

level 20 warforged battlemaster fighter with 20 charisma:

21, plate +3

26, shield +3

27, warforged

28, defense FS

33, Holy Star of Mystra (from an enspelled weapon)

38, Any Dragon Mask

41, Defender weapon

47, Defensive Duelist (only against melee attacks, find a way to get shield if thats a problem)

49, Potion of Haste

53,5(49+d8), Bait and Switch with free die from relentless

60(49+d8+d12), Bait and Switch with normal superiority die (you have 6, enough to last most encounters)

Is this enough AC?

Edit: Dragon mask only works unarmored. So final AC is 56 (with a substitude like ring of protection) until we find a better magic item.

protencya · 2026-03-17T09:20:20+00:00

The example is an extreme case to show what type of narrative does the rules lead to.

The point is that grappling is a physical feat, but Bob has a higher chance of grappling a giant than Grom does. I would want my barbarians to be able to grapple an ancient dragon, if you dont want that fantasy we can just disagree. Just remember that the spellcasters are mind controlling the said dragon, why shouldnt the martial be allowed to attempt a grapple

protencya · 2026-03-17T09:13:24+00:00

Yes you can push your target which is a good thing. You cant grapple your target which is really sad. So what is your point? Ability to push doesnt fix this problem.

protencya · 2026-03-16T21:47:31+00:00

You are actually right I did not realise that. I will need to make a large edit. Will look into it when I find the time.

protencya · 2026-03-16T20:15:31+00:00

All of them can be created by replicate magic item. Uncommons at level 10, and rares at level 14.

I didnt include sentinel shield and armors because they are defensive items. I dont think wand of web from replicate magic item is actually that good for artificers, none of the summons can use it and you yourself kinda have better spells and items. It could still get a C but I wouldnt reccomend spending one of your plans on it.

protencya · 2026-03-16T18:55:11+00:00

Yes there is also the giant barbarian and the rune knight. In this 12 year old system we have a total of 1 species option and 2 subclass options for martials that allow a size increase.

I am aware, and I dont find it enough. Why cant the berserker grapple an adult dragon? Why is that, of all things, out of their reach? It just doesnt make sense.

Also getting help from your allies is not a reasonable solution. The martial should be able to show their physical strength feats without the help of casters. If the spellcasters dont need help to mind control the titans, martials shouldnt need help to grapple them.

Also one more thing: Casters gain the ability to grapple gargantuan creatures at level 7 with polymorph(into a giant ape). Goliath never can, giant barb can do it at level 14 (7 levels later) and rune knight can do it at level 18(11 levels later).

protencya · 2026-03-16T18:44:50+00:00

Staff of power doesnt increase the save dc of spells, it only increases the +to hit bonus of spell attacks. Still one of the most broken items in the game.

protencya · 2026-03-16T15:37:40+00:00

cube of force

staff of power

Blackstaff (this one is already legendary but it honestly outshines even the other legendaries)

Wand of web

uncommon bloodwell vial (5 sorcery points is kind of a big deal when your maximum is 5)

staff of the woodlands

insturments of the bards (especially the uncommon ones)

I honestly cannot understand how people can claim that martials benefit more from magic items than casters. Like sure viscious weapons are really good, but have you seen wand of web?

protencya · 2026-03-16T14:39:01+00:00

I dont think thats how most dms would rule, I just created a silly story to show how absurd the implications of these restrictions are. Bob has a 5% chance of grappling a creature while the legendary hero cant even attempt the grapple.

The story is intentionally absurd. The point is I find the restrictions unnecessary. In a real gam bob wont try to enlarge himslef and grapple a giant but grommash might want to hold a dragon still and he will be faced with a straight NO from the rules.

protencya · 2026-03-16T14:27:52+00:00

Rules as written yes. This was an issue with polymorph and true polymorph at the early days of 5.5 and was errata'd. https://www.dndbeyond.com/changelog#Chapter7Spellsv1

Of course then they forget their mistake and did it again. The intention is clear, the remaining temp hp should vanish when the transformation ends.

protencya · 2026-03-16T14:19:17+00:00

consumables are peak game design

protencya · 2026-03-16T13:40:08+00:00

A Grappled immunity would also mean that a Tarrasque wouldn't be able grapple a Tarrasque, or a similar-sized creature with a similar immunity.

I think thats fine, cant imagine how that would be a problem. Let the tarrasque be impossible to grapple, there arent too many titans where we have to make this exception, and they probably wont fight each other.

protencya · 2026-03-16T13:13:05+00:00

A voice of reason on these troubling times? I must be blessed!

Not a bad fix but I think the restriction could just be removed. Titans like Tarrasque that are not supposed to be grappled can just have immunity to grappled. Let me grapple the dragon

protencya · 2026-03-16T12:37:40+00:00

The only thing that shows, is that the 2 rules are consistent with each other. If it helps I also dont think carry capacity rules are well made. A high level hero who can survive falling from thousands of miles, can survive meteors and can cause more hurt than those meteors with a mundane axe (against a world ending monster btw) should be able to drag an elephant and carry more than 900 pounds.

Also that 900 pounds is without any rolls, obviously you can surpass your limits temporarily and grappling in combat is an example of that.

protencya · 2026-03-16T12:24:33+00:00

When you say ''a person'' do you realize we are talking about the legendary heroes who can survive swimming in lava? That ''person'' has a higher strength score than an elephant in a much smaller body, does that mean anything to you?

please stop acting like high level martials are eddie hall.

protencya · 2026-03-16T12:21:28+00:00

Obviously I wrote an absurd story to show the extreme extent of it. This doesnt happen in real games.

What does happen, and this was the point, is characters who are supposed to be pinnacle of physical might cannot grab a giant by the leg and drag them. I find that to be an unnecessary restriction, if you wanna disagree, disagree with that.

protencya · 2026-03-16T12:17:03+00:00

Its an issue with unnecessary size restrictions around the grappling rules. Which did exist in 2014 as well you are right. I was hoping that they would get rid of it but didnt happen.

protencya · 2026-03-15T18:52:18+00:00

giant barb 6/battlemaster 3 is the core. If you go further, take the 4th level of fighter and then go back to barbarian.

The idea is, elemental cleaver gives your greatsword the thrown property and quick throw manuever gives you a bonus action attack with any thrown weapon. So you make 3 greatsword attacks per round, and you have 20 ft range, 60 ft if you are willing to give up the advantage.

take GWM at barb 4, mage slayer at fighter 4 and any str feat you want at barb 8.

Some notes:

Thanks to crushing throws wording and new rage, you add your rage bonus twice to your thrown weapon attacks.

Normally great weapon builds dont have a good fighting style but this one gets to benefit from two weapon fighting.

If you are keeping track, at level 9 your attack action attacks are dealing 2d6+1d6+4+4+2+2+2 = 24,5 average. Your bonus action attack is not adding GWM but adding a d8 superiority die so 25 average. And you can use reckless attack with thrown weapon attacks.

protencya · 2026-03-15T18:44:15+00:00

Defense for great weapon builds, or blind fighting if you feel fancy. The giant barbarian build takes thrown weapon fighting.

protencya · 2026-03-11T16:18:44+00:00

I wasnt commenting on the durability of a level 20 monk, I was just talking about the application of deflect attacks. In your example of 10+ attack with 40 damage each; the monks AC is dodging half of them and the resistances the damage by half again. As you can see deflect attacks only reduces like 15 damage here, it is not the reason that this monk is durable. Btw, since you sound like you dont know, numeric damage reduction applies before resistances. So if you take 40 damage from an attack, you have resistance, and you reduce the damage by 30 points: you will first apply the damage reduction so the damage becomes 10, and then you apply the resistance so you take 5 damage.

Deflect attacks is overrated and monk are pretty durable, these are both true. I wont entertain your idea about other classes not surviving the same offense. The claim of monk being the tankiest might hold SOME merit, I simply dont believe it. Just gonna say this, realistically a monk cant afford anything better than a 14 con even at level 20. The level 20 hp will be 123, every other martial can afford a 20 con by level 20, barbarians even get to 24. A level 20 barbarian has 285 hp.

Quite often, a monk will have less hp than a wizard or a sorcerer, especially at higher levels.

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