Grab

The Grab is another type of Called Shot. To perform it, you must have at least one hand free; two hands are better if you're grabbing and trying to hold a person.

When performing the Grab, begin as with a Called Shot (announce before initiative, +1 to initiative, -4 to hit).

If you hit, you've gotten your hand(s) on whatever it was you were trying to grab: It could be an enemy's weapon, an important item you're trying to retrieve, or any such thing.

However, just because you've grabbed hold of the object doesn't mean that you're in control of it. If some other person already has hold of the object, he's going to struggle with you for control.

In the same round that you performed the grab, roll 1d20. Your opponent will do the same.

Compare the number you rolled to your Strength ability score. Whichever one of you rolled better against his score won the tug·of-war contest.

For purposes of the Grab, all 18 scores (01-50, 51-75, etc.) are just 18. However, in case of a tie. a higher-percentile 18 beats a lower-percentile 18. (For instance,an 18/40 beats an 18/30, an 18/00 beats an 18/99, etc.)

Example: Rathnar the Barbarian tries to grab the Ruby Orb of Blassendom from the hands of his enemy. He successfully rolls to hit and gets his free hand on the Orb.

Rathnar is Strength 17. His enemy is Strength 15. Both roll 1d20.

Rathnar rolls a 10. He's made his roll by 7. His enemy rolls a 9. He's made his roll by 6. Rathhnar snatches the Orb away.

If you grab something and then fail your Strength ability roll, then you've lost: Your enemy has snatched the object back out of your hand.

A tie (for instance, if both of you made your roll by 5, or both missed it by 2, or came up with any other identical answer) means that you re-roll during the same round. Treat this second roll as if it were a second attack in the same round for determining when in the round it takes place (in other words, it will take place after all other characters have performed their first maneuvers for the round).

However, all these Strength rolls resulting from a single Grab maneuver are counted as one "attack;" if a character can make two attacks in a round, and his first attack is a Grab, and the Grab leads to two or three Strength rolls due to struggling, that's all still only one attack. The character still gets his second attack later in the round.

Grabbing a Person

If you're Grabbing someone and you use only one hand, you have two strikes against you. First, the attack is treated as a Called Shot, with the usual penalties; second, you're treated as if your Strength ability score were 3 less. If you have a Strength of 15 and grab someone one·handed, you make your Strength roll as if you had a Strength of 12.

(Strengths of 18 aren't automatically dropped to a 15: it depends on the 18 Strength's percentile bonus. An 18/00 drops to an 18/51. An 18/99 - 18/91 drops to an 18/01... An 18/76 - 18/90 drops to a plain 18. An 18/51 - 18/75 drops to a 17. An 18/01 - 18/50 drops to a 16. And the plain 18 drops to a 15.)

If you use both hands, you don't have to use the Called Shot rules; you can make a Wrestling attack without announclng it far in advance, and don't suffer the +1 initiative or -4 to hit penalty. Also, you get to use your full Strength score. Determine the results of your attack as a Wrestling attack.

If your opponent has any attacks left this combat round, he can respond with a Wrestling, Punching, or other attack (such as stabbing you with a short weapon, for instance). If your Wrestling attack roll resulted in a hold of some sort (any result on the "Punching and Wrcstling Results" chart with a "*" beside it), he has a -4 penalty to hit with any attack but another Wrestling attack. However, he can use his attack to try to break your hold (using the Strength roll tactic described above, under the description for Grab).

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). Its 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, but may not be holding any other weapon in his Grabbing hand.