D&D 3E/3.5 (3.5) Lethal Grappling?

TremorFang

First Post
Alright so I want to play a grappler that focuses on choking / breaking limbs and necks. Hoping to be a Stone Giant (if the DM deems it o.k.), if not maybe a goliath. It's going to be a 10th level game and I had a few questions about this concept.

1st question - Are there any feats that greatly help in terms of grappling?
[Besides Improved Grapple]

2nd question - How would one go about trying to choke an opponent or break
their neck, limbs, back?

3rd question - Any other suggestions on amplifying the grappler to be a touch
more lethal?

Thanks, have a great day. :)
 

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I think a good source for related feats and such is the Complete Warrior book. Also, a grappling specialist Prestige Class called the Reaping Mauler can be found in that book. I'm not good with any specific feats, but with that book and Tome of Battle I reckon you might find something useful.
 

The Reaping Mauler is among the worst Prestige Classes ever written. It requires the useless feat Clever Wrestling, which requires you to be medium size. Becoming larger than medium size by whatever means is the key to successful grappling, though. So whenever you get an Enlarge Person spell from your trusty arcanist, you lose all benefits of the Prestige Class.

Not that said benefits are great. Among other things, it gives you Improved Grapple as a bonus feats some levels in, so you're 8th or 9th level or so when you get it. Do you really want to wait so long to get that crucial feat for a grapple-focused character? Nah. Also, the rest of the class features are quite sub-par. Forget about Reaping Mauler this instant. It actually makes you worse at grappling.


So, after the PrC-bashing, on to the useful stuff:
In a grapple, you deal unarmed damage. So upping your unarmed damage is the way to go. Monks do that nicely. However, two levels of Monk is enough for any Monk build. Get a Monk's Belt to increase unarmed damage more, as well as Improved Natural Attack/Superior Unarmed Strike, and, of course, size increases (Enlarge Person, Expansion, and/or a large sized race are nice and partly stack). Size increases not only increase your Str and unarmed damage, but also your grapple modifier, and let you grapple bigger foes.

Increasing damage and grapple modifier can also be done with a Cleric build - go with the usual Divine Power and Righteous Might, and get Girallon's Blessing for more arms, claw damage, and a rend attack.

The king of grappling damage is the Black Blood Cultist prestige class. These guys grow fangs and claws when in a rage, get Improved Grapple as a bonus feat early on, a little bit of damage reduction, and at 8th level get the excellent Savage Grapple ability: on a successful grapple check, you deal additional damage as if you had also hit with all your natural weapon attacks at once! This guy can easily deal 100+ damage/round in a grapple. The more limbs you have, the merrier.

Shapechanging is another possibility. A Druid or Wildshape Ranger can assume many deadly grappling forms - that is, forms with the Improved Grab and Constrict abilities.
A Fleshraker Dinosaur is an excellent form, for example: on a charge, you can make a full attack, with poison, that also trips your opponent and has the equivalent of Improved Grab stacked on. Bear forms are generally very, very strong and have Improved Grab. Snake-like forms often offer Improved Grab and Constrict.
If you go into the Master of Many Forms PrC, many more options open up. Just comb through the monster manuals and come up with the most lethal grappling monster you can find.
 

Well, no wonder someone had made their own version of Reaping Mauler somewhere which I actually liked better, but yeah.

Which book is the Black Blood Cultist from? And I think the one asking the whole question would probably want to be a grappler in humanoid form instead of shapeshifting for Grappling purposes, but since I am not said person, I could be wrong.
 

Black Blood Cultist is from Champions of Ruin.

You may be right about the humanoid form thing, but how cool is it to play a scrawny Halfling who can turn into a Dire Bear and hug monsters to death?
 


The Reaping Mauler is among the worst Prestige Classes ever written. It requires the useless feat Clever Wrestling, which requires you to be medium size. Becoming larger than medium size by whatever means is the key to successful grappling, though. So whenever you get an Enlarge Person spell from your trusty arcanist, you lose all benefits of the Prestige Class.
If you no longer qualify for a feat you can't "use" it. You still have it though, so I don't see why you would lose the benefits of feats or prcs that require it.
 

OK, so you still can use your worthless PrC's subpar class features - if your DM interprets it the same way. I for one wouldn't, though.
 

I am most definitely going to look into the black blood cultist. After all, a giant growing claws and fangs when ticked off would be scary as hell.

The info on the unarmed strike is very useful as well. Thanks.
 

Tashalatora Monks work well with grappling. Monk2/PsyWar18 is the typical build. Pick up Expansion, Grip of Iron, and Inertial Armor as 1st level powers, Improved Grapple and Scorpion Grasp as feats, and you are good to go. Heck, if your DM will allow Scorpion's Grasp to qualify as Improved Grab (they have the EXACT same wording where it counts), you could even take Multigrab and Improved Multigrab from Savage Species, which would allow you to grapple several foes at once. Tash will keep your UAS damage high and give you a slight backup AC boost. Throw on augmented Expansion and Improved Natural Attack and you could be looking at 4d6+ UAS damage easily by mid levels.
 

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