Grabbing a Monster

The same rules apply to grabbing monsters . . . but there are a couple of other things to consider.

No Strength Ability Score. Most monsters aren't listed with a Strength ability score. This makes comparisons a little difficult. In general, if the situation ever comes up, the DM should decide for himself what Strength a specific monster has.

Here's one rough rule of thumb to approximate a Strength score: Determine how much damage the monster can do with its single largest attack. That's your starting number. (In other words, if it does 1–8 damage with its worst attack, you start with the number 8.)

If the monster has multiple attacks, add 1 to the starting number per extra attack the monster has.

Add 8 to the number if the monster is an animal known for its ability to carry weight (horses, pegasi, camels) or contains parts of such a monster (as the hippogriff does).

The DM may further adjust this number as he desires.

The result is a rough measure of the monster's Strength.

(Yes, there will be many examples which don't adhere well to that rule of thumb. But it's someplace to start.)

Example: The Nightmare has attacks of 2–8/4–10/4–10. Its largest possible attack is 10 (our starting number); it has two extra attacks per round (for a +2 to that starting number); it's a horse-like animal (for a +8). Final Strength score: 20.

Size Difference. Also, the relative size of the two combatants is important. Humans are medium-sized (M) ``monsters.'' They have an advantage when grabbing small monsters (such as goblins, imps, and children, for instance) and a disadvantage when grabbing large ones (dragons, golems and hippopotami, for example).

Treat a character's Strength as 3 higher when he is grabbing and struggling with a smaller monster, and 6 lower when grabbing and struggling with a larger one. (This bonus or penalty is halved with player-character races and demihuman NPCs. Thus, halflings, goblins, kobolds and gnomes are at a –3 when wrestling with Medium-sized opponents such as humans; Dwarves, because they are so close to human-sized, are not. Humans are at a mere +1 bonus to Strength when wrestling with halflings, goblins, kobolds and gnomes.)

Grabbing is performed with hands only. The character may be wearing gloves or even the Cestus described in the Equipment chapter of this book, but may not be holding any other weapon in his Grabbing hand.

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