Grappling, as with a few other D&D 5E abilities, has rules that are stretched across the Player’s Handbook (PHB), with some specific rules found in other books as well. Today, we’re going to look at the basic functions of grappling.
Grappling a Creature
The basic rules for grappling are found in the PHB, page 167. Let’s break it down one step at a time.
When you want to grab a creature or wrestle with it, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple. If you’re able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
So, to begin with, a grapple is a type of attack. It essentially replaces a weapon or unarmed attack.
This means that you can make as many grapple attacks in a round as you have attacks (although there are obvious restrictions that we’ll get to momentarily).
The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you, and it must be within your reach.
Almost all playable races in 5E are medium size (with a handful of exceptions), which means you can typically grapple a creature large or smaller. Increasing your size (such as with enlarge/reduce), or changing your shape (polymorph) can allow you to target larger creatures with a grapple.
Note that “within reach” here refers to your touch or unarmed range, not your weapon range. Using a polearm or a whip won’t increase your grapple range, but playing a bugbear (Volo’s Guide to Monsters) will.
Using at least one free hand, you try to seize the target by making a grapple check, a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use). You succeed automatically if the target is incapacitated. If you succeed, you subject the target to the grappled condition (see appendix A). The condition specifies the things that end it, and you can release the target whenever you like (no action required).
Now we start getting into some complexities.
First of all, “at least one free hand” means if you are dual wielding or using a shield, you must first empty one hand before attempting to grapple. Typically, you can only stow or draw one weapon as part of your turn (dual wielder gets around this).
This also limits the number of grapple attacks we can make in a turn. A fighter with three attacks and an available use of action surge, could potentially attempt up to six grapple attacks, but could only functionally succeed on two of them (if both hands were empty).
The grapple attack is not a normal attack, but is a Strength (Athletics) check made against the target’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. If you aren’t familiar with contested checks, this basically means that instead of attacking an AC, you are attacking the creature’s contesting roll. So, a character rolls an Athletics check totaling 17 against a creature’s Athletics roll totaling 12: the character’s roll is higher and the creature is grappled (subjected to the grappled condition). If the creature’s roll is higher, the attack has no effect (unless the DM determines some situational effect to take place).
I have seen cases where a DM has let a player roll Athletics against a creature’s AC instead. This is a homebrew variant and has both pros and cons: On the one hand, a fixed score can speed up combat. On the other hand, it can unbalance the ability fairly quickly. Creatures with a low AC will be grappled consistently and without difficulty, whereas heavily armored creatures will be difficult to grapple. It also removes a bit of the idea of contest from the grapple checks.
“You succeed automatically if the creature is incapacitated.” This line was added to newer printings of the PHB and has also been released by Wizards of the Coast as “Errata” (available from the D&D website). Incapacitated creatures can’t take actions or reactions, and by extension this means that they can’t contest an attempt to grapple them.
We’ll look at the grappled condition in a minute, but you’ll find the details on the conditions page in the PHB, all the way on page 190.
Escaping a Grapple. A grappled creature can use its action to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your Strength (Athletics) check.
Escaping a grapple is not a bonus action or a repeated saving throw, it requires an action. A creature cannot break a grapple and then make an attack, or dodge, or help, etc., because they have used their action to escape.
Obviously a DM can choose to override this at their discretion based on a creature’s background, experience, or build, but as a general rule an action is required to break the grapple.
Either Athletics or Acrobatics can be used. Succeeding with Acrobatics is tantamount to slipping or twisting out of the hold, whereas Athletics is overpowering the hold.
Moving a Grappled Creature. When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.
Moving a creature allows for more interesting options. For one thing, it means that you can drag a creature with you to grapple another. You could potentially position a creature next to a cliff or other danger, release them and shove them. Alternately, you can use your movement to remove a hostile creature from melee range of a friendly creature.
The Grappled Condition
A grappled creature’s speed becomes 0, and it can’t benefit from any bonus to its speed.
The condition ends if the grappler is incapacitated (see the condition),
The condition also ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling effect, such as when a creature is hurled away by the thunderwave spell.
A grappled creature’s speed becomes 0, meaning that they cannot move on their own. If they are knocked prone they cannot get up because to do so requires using half of their regular movement.
They cannot benefit from any bonus to movement speed, so magical equipment, spells, potions, etc. that add to speed don’t have any benefit to the creature as long as they are grappled.
If the grappler is incapacitated, the effect ends. This seems fairly self explanatory, but you can’t keep someone in a headlock if you aren’t conscious.
If the grappled creature is removed by means of significant force (such as the thunderwave spell mentioned, the effect also ends.
The Grappler Feat
The grappler feat improves considerably upon the grapple ability. Here’s the description from the PHB along with some explanatory notes:
Prerequisite: Strength 13 or higher
You’ve developed the skills necessary to hold your own in close-quarters grappling. You gain the following benefits:
- You have advantage on attack rolls against a creature you are grappling.
- You can use your action to try to pin a creature grappled by you. To do so, make another grapple check. If you succeed, you and the creature are both restrained until the grapple ends.
- Creatures that are one size larger than you don’t automatically succeed on checks to escape your grapple.
Obviously, to make an attack on a creature you are grappling means that you be able to make an attack. A DM might let you make an unarmed attack with your head, or if you’re grappling two creatures and are big enough and strong enough, to knock them together, or you may be playing a dwarven battlerager and can make an attack with your armor. Otherwise, you must have enough hands free to make a normal attack, keeping in mind that great weapons require two hands to use.
Regardless, if you manage an attack against a creature you are grappling, you have advantage on it.
“You can use your action to try and pin a creature grappled by you.” A lot of people question why this would be desirable, since it results in you becoming restrained as well. A few reasons come to mind: The largest one is that D&D is (typically) a group game where the party should (probably) be acting like a team in combat. Pinning a single dangerous creature restrains them and you, but the rest of your team has a much better chance of dealing with the creature. Attacks made on the pinned creature have advantage, and attacks it makes are at disadvantage. Meanwhile, you are also restrained, but since the grappler feat gives you advantage on attacks against creatures you are grappling, your attacks are made as normal against the pinned creature, with the advantage gained from grappler cancelling the disadvantage of being restrained.
“Creatures that are one size larger than you don’t automatically succeed on checks to escape your grapple.”
If you are one of the people who has read and reread the PHB, DM’s Guide, etc. looking for where it states that creatures one size larger than you automatically succeed on checks to escape your grapple, you can relax. It isn’t there. Like anywhere. At all.
Presumably, someone put this in thinking that “Hey if an elf tries to grapple with an ogre, the ogre would win, right? After all, being one size larger means that the ogre’s lift, drag, push, carry scores are doubled, so he would obviously be able to break any hold that a medium creature would put on him.”
However, D&D is not a real world tactical game, it’s a fantasy RPG, and (more importantly), the rule was never actually included. This last element of the grappler feat was officially removed in the errata and newer printings of the PHB, which means that you can ignore it.
And that, friends, fiends and followers, is everything you need to know about grappling in D&D 5E. Sure, there’s still lots that we could say about specific builds and exploits, but there’s lots of other places where you can read about that sort of thing, and besides; I think you’re better off figuring those things out for yourself.
Thanks for reading. Happy gaming and we’ll see you next time!