3:10 in the new 2024 rules, monks specifically are actually able to use their strength mod OR dex mod for their grapple and shove DC’s. So you dont have to worry about high strength anyways.
you run just outside the perimeter holding the enemies inside the spike growth later level ranger also can just ignore hazards from plants including magical hazards like spike growth
Ah that's what I was going to ask. I think Treantmonk used the Playtest Fly ability of the Elemental monk to scrape the grappled enemy of them, or I am confusing it with him using a video similar to this one? But there is no way to avoid getting damage your self unless you have some immunity.
@@The_RealWilliamThe Elemental monk gets 15 ft. Reach on Unarmed Strikes at level 3 now, so you could technically grab someone from that far away and run around. Even if you need to be within 5 feet to keep someone grappled (which i can't find to confirm in the rules) you could still push them into the spikes with your Elemental Strikes, or the flying speed you mentioned at level 11
3:09 you don’t need to use strength as in the monk’s martial arts dexterous strikes feature it says: “When you use the grapple or shove option of your unarmed strike, you can use your dexterity modifier instead of your strength modifier to determine the save DC” Also you can take the unarmed fighting style as a Ranger since the only restricted “fighting styles” are Druidic Warrior and blessed warrior from the Ranger and Paladin.
Doesn’t the new monk allow you to use Dexterity for grappling? also, in 2014 rules Rangers get a free expertise at level 1, so Skill expert is superfluous. Great build though; I already knew Rangers were underrated grapplers, but a high power ranger-monk was unexpected
@@The_RealWilliam The new rules let you use old subclasses; they don’t say what to do if the mechanics don’t line up, but any reasonable DM would adapt it
Hey, I think there's a problem, the grappler feat specifies that you can only punch and grab once, and as per the feat description it also uses the one use per turn grapple option of the unarmed strike. I really want to know a way of grappling more creatures in the same turn
For your consideration, adding at least three levels in Scout Rogue gives you a feature that lets you move half your speed as a reaction when an enemy ends its turn within 5' of you. Definitely a greater speed boost than those five levels in Barbarian. Alternatively, three levels in Genie Warlock (Dao) to get spike growth, six levels in Dance Bard to get Inspiring Movement, Two levels of fighter for Action Surge, and the rest in Astral Monk.
I made a really great grappler using the Artificer a whil back. Using the 2014 rules Human Fighter/Artificer 1lvl Fighter 19lvls Battlesmith Artificer Get Tavern Brawler feat and unarmed fighting style get the skill expert feat for double proficiency in Athletics. Infusions: Belt of Hill Giants Strength Enhanced Armor +2 Boots of Speed Ring of Protection Ring of Free Action Repulsion Shield Craft/Get: Full plate armor Goggles of night Cloak of protection. THE BUILD: - +2 Plate Armor + Repelling Shield, + Ring of Protection + Cloak of Protection + Haste + Spell storing item: Warding Bond (cast by Steel Defender) = 28 AC (without the shield Spell) and resistance to all damage. - Longstrider + Haste + Boots of Speed = 160ft movement speed (320 if you use your haste action to dash) - Grapple with one attack, you're second attack shove them to the ground and the dash using your haste. Now have fun dragging this poor bastard around 160 feet, while you have a 28-33 AC they have disadvatage to hit you, and you have resistance to all their damage oh and they have to beat your 15 Athletics check (20 with Flash of Genius) to break free :). Used this on a Villain that had been annoying my party all campaign. Had our cleric cast Silence and I pulled them into it so they couldn't leave. A spell caster who couldn't hit me, cast spells, or break free of my grapple.
The cheese grater shenanigans get old very fast, and destroy the verisimilitude of the game, IMO. While I‘m all in, for using the environment to improvise exciting combat stunts, this movement-weaponizing exploit should have been purged by RAW in the 2024 PHB. Anyways, I would rule that the friction needed to properly damage an opponent by dragging him through hazardous terrain, also requires the grappler to make a STR save against DC 15?? (-1 for every size and STR point the victim is below yours). The margin of success defines how many 5 ft increments the grated one may be dragged (= damage dice taken), before losing grip on him. Hopefully this will be addressed in the upcoming DMG.
There's nothing in the description for the Astral Arms that suggests that they can actually hold onto anything. They just initiate a grapple and then automatically lose it. Any DM would probably ignore that but you would probably only be able to grapple two creatures at once. Personally, I really like the idea of dipping into champion fighter for a grapple build. Their Remarkable Athlete feature says they can move up to half their speed if they land a critical hit and with the number of attacks you're making with a doubled critical range, it will provide a lot of potentially for dragging through spikes. Also, it gives you Action Surge to get Spike Growth up reliably on the first turn.
I propose an interesting combat/dnd optimization idea for you: Who would win in a fight, one million level 1 player characters, or one of every dragon? Starting location is the largest city that's been published on the material plane. No lair actions, the classes on the player side must be as equal as possible, players can optimize for this fight, standard array for stats, random selection for race of players, no races with a starter feat, bahamaut doesnt get their gold dragon body guards
It would probably be the 1 million players, since… they’d have a combined million turns and action economy is king when it comes to dnd. Like you could easily do 1 million variant human warlocks with agonizing blast and even if most of them miss, they could easily melt through one of every dragon. Im sure there’s plenty of more optimal level dps ranged builds but in the end, it’s still 1million player actions vs less than 50 dragons
@@seerai-42 no species that get a feat at level one, but also remember the dragons can fly. They can attack at range But youre right that action economy is incredibly important
@@mrinfinity5557 true true, although even with flight there’s plenty of flying races. heck make everyone wizards that knows magic missile and it’s over for the dragons, that’s 1 million casts of three 1d4+1 of guaranteed force damage.
@@seerai-42 see, thats why i said that its equal of each class, because obviously all those magic missiles would be too much, unless the dragons had shield as a spell or were immune to it (like how the tarrasque is immune to magic missile)
I think monks can use dex modifier to determine grapple condition (lvl1. dexterous attack). Also you can just let go of the targets for a free action meaning as a level 9 monk, you can just climb a wall and let go of the creature, taking d6 for evers 10 feet( if i remember correctly), so you can just go over a cliff edge let go of grappled guy, go back to safety. One counter to the spike growth method the dm can come up with make a athletics check for every 5 feet of the movement to not get caught in the spikes or something like that. I still very much enjoy your content, but i dont think my dm would appreciate breaking his game this much.
The relevant part of the 2024 PHB grappled condition reads: "Movable. The grappler can drag or carry you when it moves, but every foot of movement costs it 1 extra foot unless you are Tiny or two or more sizes smaller than it." - This establishes that moving the grappled creature requires it to be dragged or carried. Under Carry Capacity in 2024 PHB: "While dragging, lifting, or pushing weight in excess of the maximum weight you can "CARRY", your Speed can be no more than 5 feet". That is to say the build does work but limited to the weight you can carry. Putting into perspective: A STR score of 10 allows a creature with a medium creature's equivalent carry capacity of 150 lbs and 300lb with large creature's equivalent carry capacity. A STR score of 20 yields 300lb for medium and 600lb for large. Average humanoid would weigh around 200 lbs. Add onto that the weight of equipment and gear... IF we use the enlarge/reduce as a guideline for creature's size/weight - a large humanoid creature's average weight would be around 1600 lbs
Hey man you can make this better with a few tweaks , instead of goliath go tabaxi, 24 rules monk uses dex for grapple and goliath only gives advantage with str tests, drop ranger instead buy a spell ring and use it as you see Fit, you can easily get 20 dex by lvl 8, go monk 18 and fighter 2 for action surge, you can dash as bonus action already no need for ki, so just grab the enemy and shred it while dashing up to 3 times per turn
I think that the new 4 elements monk has it's own strengths even though it cant grapple as many as the astral self, it can still grapple from 15ft away making it so that grappled creatures cant retaliate, and the way that oil works you can do way more damage from a distance.
4:38 you wouldnt be able to use grapple and unarmed strike damage at the same time unless u took the grappler feat, but even then its once per turn as apart of the attack action
Simic Hybrid is pretty bad for grappling as its grappling ability cant replace an attack. Its its own action so you can only grapple a single tsrget with these arms per turn.
@@XP_Goblin Hmm... can I use that idea for my next BBEG? Just some goblin that stumbled into a deceased wizard's lair and read some tomes until he got super buff and wise and smart, then learned magic and stuff?
You'd have to homebrew something for that, and it would cause Grappling to basically only work against medium or smaller creatures, pretty much ever. Which would be really unfortunate for martial characters who are supposed to be good at that kind of control. Carry weight and push/pull rules are generic, and so grappling rules are more specific in that they state you can specifically move a grappled creature with you when you move, but you must spend an extra foot of movement for each foot moved while doing so. Remember, D&D is not, and should not be, a physics simulator. As DM's, we look at the rules, follow them logically, and we don't insert expectations until we've fully parsed the situation and considered balance and outcomes. After all, the size limitation on grappling is there specifically to reduce and simplify worrying about all those numbers into a single, simple check. You shout, "make my monster grow," cast Enlarge/Reduce on the Barbarian, and now CAN she grapple that adult dragon and drag them away from the party by their tail? Yes. Yes she can.
You are still a large creature with powerful build and a high str score, you're good. That doesn't even touch on the fact you can lift heavier things with a successful athletics check that you have expertise in.
@@lordderppington4694 Size Huge creatures start at over 4,000lb, and go quickly up to 32,000... you're not moving that adult dragon if your DM homebrews weight limits on grappling. :P Also, good luck to that DM figuring out how much a random color of adult dragon weighs. D&D is not a physics simulator! This is why we have easy rules to interpret things.
Appreciate it. I mentioned you could go druid instead, but I just really wanted that +10ft lol. Instead of Goliath and 5 ranger. Do tabaxi and 3 druid for moon. Then you can be a bear, grapple 4 targets. Have the feature of tabaxi to double movement on a turn.
Another great spell is stinking cloud, letting you just steal enemy actions and bonus actions, and it only activates at start of turn, not when you enter, so you can drag enemies into the cloud and leave them there
Again you forgot about Ranger gaining Roving at level 6 that grants +10ft to your speed in 2024 PHB, and if you have a Druid in the party and he's the one casting Spike Growth, you can use Zephyr Strike to gain +30ft of speed as well, a Goliath Gloomstalker in large form using this in the first turn would have 95ft of speed in total, without Multiclass
That would only work at night or in really high caves, and its only 60 feet meaning 6d6 bludgeoning and you take 6d6-30 at level 6 so pretty much negated.
bruh, you really need to think about winged tiefling. unless they got reworked and im unaware, they have no weight penalty so you can grab a guy fly strait up and let go
@@XP_Goblin ...you kinda missed my point. being a one trick pony makes you easy to counter, if all you have is the spike growth grinder then the dm can come up with counter measures. including low level flight in the build provides another form of irresistible damage to the build via fall damage and there are also ways to go hybrid by dropping the enemy, dropping yourself(which i think is still a free action that doesnt take movement), catching yourself before you hit the ground with flight, grapple enemy again, then invoke grinder strat
4 hands? Nah, how about 100?! Hear me out, shapechange into a Giant Centipede and then cast Enlarge/Reduce. You can now grapple 100 medium or smaller creatures. Then just shimmy around that Spike Growth with all those other speed bonuses and… that’s a lot of damage. Yes this is incredibly theoretically and entirely impractical but, more importantly, it’s funny
Ah, the Cheese Grater strategy. It's extremely powerful, and FAR more powerful in 2024. Consider that monk can grapple allies, who can willingly fail and be carried along with him at high speeds. Now consider that instead of dragging the enemies through spike growth, your ally you grapple has cast Spirit Guardians, or Yolande's Regal Presence, or anything similar that's an emanation. They now deal damage the first time a creature enters the area effect on a turn. You now run through them with the Wrecking Ball strategy, and every enemy you run past takes whatever 3d8 or 4d6 damage, half on a save, and you can spend a ki point to dash AND disengage so no attacks of opportunity, AND you can run them to cover and safety where the enemies potentially can't hit them anymore. Also, starting at level 10, you can bring an ally with you when you use Step of the Wind, without even having to grapple them! That means that in a party of 4 with a monk and 3 spellcasters, you can take your ENTIRE TEAM with you however absurdly far you're moving. Enjoy! A small correction: you said the enemy gets no save against the damage. The save is when they're grappled. For the cheese grater, you really need an ally to be casting and concentrating on spike growth, so this works best when you have a druid in the party. Then you don't even specifically need Ranger, and Athletics no longer matters, so you may be better off starting as a Monk. Also consider Way of the Elements monk if your DM lets them remain grappled at range with your Elemental Strikes. Even if they don't, you could go Bugbear to grapple an enemy at 10' range, where many won't be able to hit you anymore. But if Element monk can keep them grappled at range, you can hold them 15' away where they can't even get to you. Element monk starting at level 11 can also grapple enemies and then fly them into the air and drop them into the middle of spike growth for a bunch of fall damage, and move them 5' back and forth by flying over the spike growth. You can also use Slow Fall to reduce your fall damage by 55', letting you safely fall 60' using your reaction. With this and at least 120' movement per round, you can also fly up with the enemy, drop them 60' for 6d6 bludgeoning damage and the prone condition with no save, fall 60', use your reaction to take no fall damage, grapple them again, then fly back up. Letting go of something is a free action, so at the start of your turn or if they're going to attack you, you can just drop them for another 6d6 bludgeoning damage. This is much less than dragging them through spike growth, but you won't always have spike growth, and it can be an excellent way to deal with a single target for dirt cheap. An interesting note: whether it's 2014 or 2024 rules, nothing prevents grappling multiple creatures from halving your movement speed multiple times. This is often overlooked, but the 2024 Grappler feat now negates the movement penalty. Strangely, they changed the wording in 2024 and moved the penalty to the Grappled condition, causing it to increase the cost of each foot of movement by 1 foot additional, yet the Grappler feat still references your speed being halved (which it normally is, but not always, if you're paying extra movement per foot from other sources.)
@@The_RealWilliam Monks have a feature to attack and grapple at the same time, but it's optional and only once per turn. Grappling replaces an attack, and doesn't deal any damage normally.
@@The_RealWilliam Where does it say that? Can you cite your source? Grappling does not do any damage without the Grappler* feat's "Punch and Grab" feature (it's not monk-specific, my bad), and that's optional. See 2024 PHB, p377. There are many monster features which deal damage and Grapple the target when they hit, but that would only become available if you're polymorphed or something.
I don't think you mentioned carry and drag weight limits? I understand you need a lotalot of str to move a grappled creature more than 5 feet. It feels like they wrote the 2024 rules capping movement at 5 ft if you can't make the strength requirements for the creature's weight very intentionally to stop this cheese grater approach. There are still interesting things to do with this build but I don't think your way works unless you have like 20 strength, Even if you have powerful build
Unless the DM is absolutely oblivious to carrying capacity, this would never work... Your max speed would go down to 5. That's 5 movement, regardless of what your current movement is.
I'm just mesmerized by the cape. Shield your eyes, Edna Mode.
Hugmaster Class
3:10 in the new 2024 rules, monks specifically are actually able to use their strength mod OR dex mod for their grapple and shove DC’s. So you dont have to worry about high strength anyways.
Man I’m so happy I found your channel. Great content as always
Thank you! I'm trying to lol
How does the player themselves avoid taking damage from the Spike Growth though? Unless I missed that somewhere in the video.
you run just outside the perimeter holding the enemies inside the spike growth
later level ranger also can just ignore hazards from plants including magical hazards like spike growth
Over this build, you either move beside or above the spike growth. Instead of through it, so you actually be entering it
Yup. Just hold them over. A little less funky when you have the fly speed u mentioned
Ah that's what I was going to ask. I think Treantmonk used the Playtest Fly ability of the Elemental monk to scrape the grappled enemy of them, or I am confusing it with him using a video similar to this one? But there is no way to avoid getting damage your self unless you have some immunity.
@@The_RealWilliamThe Elemental monk gets 15 ft. Reach on Unarmed Strikes at level 3 now, so you could technically grab someone from that far away and run around. Even if you need to be within 5 feet to keep someone grappled (which i can't find to confirm in the rules) you could still push them into the spikes with your Elemental Strikes, or the flying speed you mentioned at level 11
3:09 you don’t need to use strength as in the monk’s martial arts dexterous strikes feature it says: “When you use the grapple or shove option of your unarmed strike, you can use your dexterity modifier instead of your strength modifier to determine the save DC”
Also you can take the unarmed fighting style as a Ranger since the only restricted “fighting styles” are Druidic Warrior and blessed warrior from the Ranger and Paladin.
Doesn’t the new monk allow you to use Dexterity for grappling? also, in 2014 rules Rangers get a free expertise at level 1, so Skill expert is superfluous.
Great build though; I already knew Rangers were underrated grapplers, but a high power ranger-monk was unexpected
yea, i think it was an oversight
Yes you can use your Dex or Str for damage. Since Astral Monk doesn't exist in the 2024 rules, I would be curious how you would get it.
@@The_RealWilliam Tasha's is "backwards compatible", so yes you can use Astral Self in 2024
@@The_RealWilliam The new rules let you use old subclasses; they don’t say what to do if the mechanics don’t line up, but any reasonable DM would adapt it
@@bananabanana484 Yeah I know. I have the book.
Hey, I think there's a problem, the grappler feat specifies that you can only punch and grab once, and as per the feat description it also uses the one use per turn grapple option of the unarmed strike. I really want to know a way of grappling more creatures in the same turn
"But we can also, punch someone in the face"
This made me laugh so hard. Thank you, I needed that.
Been wanting to make a grappling build for a long time thanks
I knew you were
cant believe i watched a xp goblin video without the mention of the chronolometer dash action
I was very tempted. Idk who approved that magic item
For your consideration, adding at least three levels in Scout Rogue gives you a feature that lets you move half your speed as a reaction when an enemy ends its turn within 5' of you. Definitely a greater speed boost than those five levels in Barbarian.
Alternatively, three levels in Genie Warlock (Dao) to get spike growth, six levels in Dance Bard to get Inspiring Movement, Two levels of fighter for Action Surge, and the rest in Astral Monk.
I made a really great grappler using the Artificer a whil back. Using the 2014 rules
Human Fighter/Artificer
1lvl Fighter 19lvls Battlesmith Artificer
Get Tavern Brawler feat and unarmed fighting style
get the skill expert feat for double proficiency in Athletics.
Infusions:
Belt of Hill Giants Strength
Enhanced Armor +2
Boots of Speed
Ring of Protection
Ring of Free Action
Repulsion Shield
Craft/Get:
Full plate armor
Goggles of night
Cloak of protection.
THE BUILD:
- +2 Plate Armor + Repelling Shield, + Ring of Protection + Cloak of Protection + Haste + Spell storing item: Warding Bond (cast by Steel Defender) = 28 AC (without the shield Spell) and resistance to all damage.
- Longstrider + Haste + Boots of Speed = 160ft movement speed (320 if you use your haste action to dash)
- Grapple with one attack, you're second attack shove them to the ground and the dash using your haste. Now have fun dragging this poor bastard around 160 feet, while you have a 28-33 AC they have disadvatage to hit you, and you have resistance to all their damage oh and they have to beat your 15 Athletics check (20 with Flash of Genius) to break free :).
Used this on a Villain that had been annoying my party all campaign. Had our cleric cast Silence and I pulled them into it so they couldn't leave. A spell caster who couldn't hit me, cast spells, or break free of my grapple.
The cheese grater shenanigans get old very fast, and destroy the verisimilitude of the game, IMO. While I‘m all in, for using the environment to improvise exciting combat stunts, this movement-weaponizing exploit should have been purged by RAW in the 2024 PHB. Anyways, I would rule that the friction needed to properly damage an opponent by dragging him through hazardous terrain, also requires the grappler to make a STR save against DC 15?? (-1 for every size and STR point the victim is below yours). The margin of success defines how many 5 ft increments the grated one may be dragged (= damage dice taken), before losing grip on him. Hopefully this will be addressed in the upcoming DMG.
There's nothing in the description for the Astral Arms that suggests that they can actually hold onto anything. They just initiate a grapple and then automatically lose it. Any DM would probably ignore that but you would probably only be able to grapple two creatures at once.
Personally, I really like the idea of dipping into champion fighter for a grapple build. Their Remarkable Athlete feature says they can move up to half their speed if they land a critical hit and with the number of attacks you're making with a doubled critical range, it will provide a lot of potentially for dragging through spikes. Also, it gives you Action Surge to get Spike Growth up reliably on the first turn.
I propose an interesting combat/dnd optimization idea for you:
Who would win in a fight, one million level 1 player characters, or one of every dragon?
Starting location is the largest city that's been published on the material plane. No lair actions, the classes on the player side must be as equal as possible, players can optimize for this fight, standard array for stats, random selection for race of players, no races with a starter feat, bahamaut doesnt get their gold dragon body guards
It would probably be the 1 million players, since… they’d have a combined million turns and action economy is king when it comes to dnd. Like you could easily do 1 million variant human warlocks with agonizing blast and even if most of them miss, they could easily melt through one of every dragon. Im sure there’s plenty of more optimal level dps ranged builds but in the end, it’s still 1million player actions vs less than 50 dragons
@@seerai-42 no species that get a feat at level one, but also remember the dragons can fly. They can attack at range
But youre right that action economy is incredibly important
@@mrinfinity5557 true true, although even with flight there’s plenty of flying races. heck make everyone wizards that knows magic missile and it’s over for the dragons, that’s 1 million casts of three 1d4+1 of guaranteed force damage.
@@seerai-42 see, thats why i said that its equal of each class, because obviously all those magic missiles would be too much, unless the dragons had shield as a spell or were immune to it (like how the tarrasque is immune to magic missile)
I think monks can use dex modifier to determine grapple condition (lvl1. dexterous attack). Also you can just let go of the targets for a free action meaning as a level 9 monk, you can just climb a wall and let go of the creature, taking d6 for evers 10 feet( if i remember correctly), so you can just go over a cliff edge let go of grappled guy, go back to safety. One counter to the spike growth method the dm can come up with make a athletics check for every 5 feet of the movement to not get caught in the spikes or something like that. I still very much enjoy your content, but i dont think my dm would appreciate breaking his game this much.
Monk also can use dex for grappling modifier at level 1 in the 2024 rules.
A jump distance/ height videos would be cool maybe using a grung or something?
The relevant part of the 2024 PHB grappled condition reads: "Movable. The grappler can drag or carry you when it moves, but every foot of movement costs it 1 extra foot unless you are Tiny or two or more sizes smaller than it." - This establishes that moving the grappled creature requires it to be dragged or carried.
Under Carry Capacity in 2024 PHB: "While dragging, lifting, or pushing weight in excess of the maximum weight you can "CARRY", your Speed can be no more than 5 feet".
That is to say the build does work but limited to the weight you can carry.
Putting into perspective:
A STR score of 10 allows a creature with a medium creature's equivalent carry capacity of 150 lbs and 300lb with large creature's equivalent carry capacity.
A STR score of 20 yields 300lb for medium and 600lb for large.
Average humanoid would weigh around 200 lbs. Add onto that the weight of equipment and gear...
IF we use the enlarge/reduce as a guideline for creature's size/weight - a large humanoid creature's average weight would be around 1600 lbs
The character I used would have a drag, push, lift of 2,400 lbs
Hey man you can make this better with a few tweaks , instead of goliath go tabaxi, 24 rules monk uses dex for grapple and goliath only gives advantage with str tests, drop ranger instead buy a spell ring and use it as you see Fit, you can easily get 20 dex by lvl 8, go monk 18 and fighter 2 for action surge, you can dash as bonus action already no need for ki, so just grab the enemy and shred it while dashing up to 3 times per turn
I think that the new 4 elements monk has it's own strengths even though it cant grapple as many as the astral self, it can still grapple from 15ft away making it so that grappled creatures cant retaliate, and the way that oil works you can do way more damage from a distance.
4:38
you wouldnt be able to use grapple and unarmed strike damage at the same time unless u took the grappler feat, but even then its once per turn as apart of the attack action
I did take the grappler feat and you are correct
You are correct but I don't think it matters that much considering it's only 1d6~ when you're roller coasting someone's face through vines.......
@@Pamporito it kinda does
@@deadku6150 You're doing 300+ damage D: you wanted 303+?
@@Pamporito its an important to seperate it because that would imply it works at far lower level as aell
For the 2014 rules you can also go simic hybrid for race to get another 2 arms for grappling, making 6 total.
Simic Hybrid is pretty bad for grappling as its grappling ability cant replace an attack. Its its own action so you can only grapple a single tsrget with these arms per turn.
Could you use this as half of your max damage combo. Just team up with some casters with prismatic wall, haste etc.
Yup absolutely
The monk doesn't us strength for grappling it's dexterous strike feature let's it use dex for its grapple dc
I knew it was going to be Spikegrowth but I still hoped it wouldn’t be.
You are a goblin, but you seem to be much more intelligent than most others. What is your stat block?
Top secret. I totally didn't find a bunch of tomes in a cave
@@XP_Goblin Hmm... can I use that idea for my next BBEG? Just some goblin that stumbled into a deceased wizard's lair and read some tomes until he got super buff and wise and smart, then learned magic and stuff?
It would be hilarious
@@XP_Goblin Sweet! I can do lots of cool stuff with this....
BWAHAHA
Do you have a written build guide by chance? Would love to make this character for my next campaign!
Hope your DM doesn't use carrying capacity rules.
I'm not carrying anyone. Only grappling
You'd have to homebrew something for that, and it would cause Grappling to basically only work against medium or smaller creatures, pretty much ever. Which would be really unfortunate for martial characters who are supposed to be good at that kind of control. Carry weight and push/pull rules are generic, and so grappling rules are more specific in that they state you can specifically move a grappled creature with you when you move, but you must spend an extra foot of movement for each foot moved while doing so. Remember, D&D is not, and should not be, a physics simulator. As DM's, we look at the rules, follow them logically, and we don't insert expectations until we've fully parsed the situation and considered balance and outcomes. After all, the size limitation on grappling is there specifically to reduce and simplify worrying about all those numbers into a single, simple check. You shout, "make my monster grow," cast Enlarge/Reduce on the Barbarian, and now CAN she grapple that adult dragon and drag them away from the party by their tail? Yes. Yes she can.
That would be more like push, drag, lift capacity which is different i think
You are still a large creature with powerful build and a high str score, you're good.
That doesn't even touch on the fact you can lift heavier things with a successful athletics check that you have expertise in.
@@lordderppington4694 Size Huge creatures start at over 4,000lb, and go quickly up to 32,000... you're not moving that adult dragon if your DM homebrews weight limits on grappling. :P Also, good luck to that DM figuring out how much a random color of adult dragon weighs. D&D is not a physics simulator! This is why we have easy rules to interpret things.
Sorry brother. Goliath gloomstalker ranger, astral self monk makes my eyes glaze over. 2024 power creep build. Still subbed.
Appreciate it. I mentioned you could go druid instead, but I just really wanted that +10ft lol.
Instead of Goliath and 5 ranger. Do tabaxi and 3 druid for moon. Then you can be a bear, grapple 4 targets. Have the feature of tabaxi to double movement on a turn.
Please do a fighter video
What type
I think a battle master maneuver combo would be fun. Or maybe a video on Eldridge knight.
Ah yes, the eldritch cheese grater
Another great spell is stinking cloud, letting you just steal enemy actions and bonus actions, and it only activates at start of turn, not when you enter, so you can drag enemies into the cloud and leave them there
Again you forgot about Ranger gaining Roving at level 6 that grants +10ft to your speed in 2024 PHB, and if you have a Druid in the party and he's the one casting Spike Growth, you can use Zephyr Strike to gain +30ft of speed as well, a Goliath Gloomstalker in large form using this in the first turn would have 95ft of speed in total, without Multiclass
Can you do the best polearm paladin build
You could also be a simic hybrid instead of goliath for the 2 extra grapple arms
So what I'm hearing is...6 arms
Could you potentially just use way of the shadow monk, grapple them, then drop them from high places teleporting around like night crawler's dad.
That would only work at night or in really high caves, and its only 60 feet meaning 6d6 bludgeoning and you take 6d6-30 at level 6 so pretty much negated.
Man... I was about to do a video about monk warlock build. I hope you dont feel i steeeled it or anything
4:36 Punch and Grab is only usable once per turn
Yea, realized I miss spoke. Not like I included any damage from unarmed punch but still
Parmiggiano Reggiano
Spiiiiike Grooowwwth
If you went simic hybrid for race you could add two more arms for more hugs
Simic Hybrid can't replace an attack with a grapple with its arms. Its its own action to grapple a single creature per turn.
@@yasch3696 on an attack with one of your appendages you can use a bonus action to make it a grapple
@@yasch3696 or using the new rules since that is an unarmed melee attack it can just grapple by the new rules
bruh, you really need to think about winged tiefling. unless they got reworked and im unaware, they have no weight penalty so you can grab a guy fly strait up and let go
Winged variant tieflings are awesome. They can wear medium armor and still fly
@@XP_Goblin ...you kinda missed my point. being a one trick pony makes you easy to counter, if all you have is the spike growth grinder then the dm can come up with counter measures. including low level flight in the build provides another form of irresistible damage to the build via fall damage and there are also ways to go hybrid by dropping the enemy, dropping yourself(which i think is still a free action that doesnt take movement), catching yourself before you hit the ground with flight, grapple enemy again, then invoke grinder strat
4 hands? Nah, how about 100?! Hear me out, shapechange into a Giant Centipede and then cast Enlarge/Reduce. You can now grapple 100 medium or smaller creatures. Then just shimmy around that Spike Growth with all those other speed bonuses and… that’s a lot of damage. Yes this is incredibly theoretically and entirely impractical but, more importantly, it’s funny
Forgot Giff for advantage.
Ah, the Cheese Grater strategy. It's extremely powerful, and FAR more powerful in 2024.
Consider that monk can grapple allies, who can willingly fail and be carried along with him at high speeds. Now consider that instead of dragging the enemies through spike growth, your ally you grapple has cast Spirit Guardians, or Yolande's Regal Presence, or anything similar that's an emanation. They now deal damage the first time a creature enters the area effect on a turn. You now run through them with the Wrecking Ball strategy, and every enemy you run past takes whatever 3d8 or 4d6 damage, half on a save, and you can spend a ki point to dash AND disengage so no attacks of opportunity, AND you can run them to cover and safety where the enemies potentially can't hit them anymore. Also, starting at level 10, you can bring an ally with you when you use Step of the Wind, without even having to grapple them! That means that in a party of 4 with a monk and 3 spellcasters, you can take your ENTIRE TEAM with you however absurdly far you're moving. Enjoy!
A small correction: you said the enemy gets no save against the damage. The save is when they're grappled.
For the cheese grater, you really need an ally to be casting and concentrating on spike growth, so this works best when you have a druid in the party. Then you don't even specifically need Ranger, and Athletics no longer matters, so you may be better off starting as a Monk. Also consider Way of the Elements monk if your DM lets them remain grappled at range with your Elemental Strikes. Even if they don't, you could go Bugbear to grapple an enemy at 10' range, where many won't be able to hit you anymore. But if Element monk can keep them grappled at range, you can hold them 15' away where they can't even get to you. Element monk starting at level 11 can also grapple enemies and then fly them into the air and drop them into the middle of spike growth for a bunch of fall damage, and move them 5' back and forth by flying over the spike growth. You can also use Slow Fall to reduce your fall damage by 55', letting you safely fall 60' using your reaction. With this and at least 120' movement per round, you can also fly up with the enemy, drop them 60' for 6d6 bludgeoning damage and the prone condition with no save, fall 60', use your reaction to take no fall damage, grapple them again, then fly back up. Letting go of something is a free action, so at the start of your turn or if they're going to attack you, you can just drop them for another 6d6 bludgeoning damage. This is much less than dragging them through spike growth, but you won't always have spike growth, and it can be an excellent way to deal with a single target for dirt cheap.
An interesting note: whether it's 2014 or 2024 rules, nothing prevents grappling multiple creatures from halving your movement speed multiple times. This is often overlooked, but the 2024 Grappler feat now negates the movement penalty. Strangely, they changed the wording in 2024 and moved the penalty to the Grappled condition, causing it to increase the cost of each foot of movement by 1 foot additional, yet the Grappler feat still references your speed being halved (which it normally is, but not always, if you're paying extra movement per foot from other sources.)
Grappling is not a game, you do damage when you go to grapple. The only ability that a monk to whisp away a willing creature is Step of the Wind.
@@The_RealWilliam Monks have a feature to attack and grapple at the same time, but it's optional and only once per turn. Grappling replaces an attack, and doesn't deal any damage normally.
@@RaethFennec You do damage when you grapple. It literally says that. I don't know any such feature in the monk.
@@The_RealWilliam Where does it say that? Can you cite your source?
Grappling does not do any damage without the Grappler* feat's "Punch and Grab" feature (it's not monk-specific, my bad), and that's optional. See 2024 PHB, p377.
There are many monster features which deal damage and Grapple the target when they hit, but that would only become available if you're polymorphed or something.
@@RaethFennec Oh okay. Looks like we both got confused, because I was thinking maybe you were referring to a Monk Subclass.
Its kind of stupid but how about a grappler who jumps really high for fall damage?
This would be hilarious
I don't think you mentioned carry and drag weight limits? I understand you need a lotalot of str to move a grappled creature more than 5 feet. It feels like they wrote the 2024 rules capping movement at 5 ft if you can't make the strength requirements for the creature's weight very intentionally to stop this cheese grater approach. There are still interesting things to do with this build but I don't think your way works unless you have like 20 strength, Even if you have powerful build
Unless the DM is absolutely oblivious to carrying capacity, this would never work... Your max speed would go down to 5. That's 5 movement, regardless of what your current movement is.
with that combo you also take damage?
You shouldn't. You aren't in the spikes
🎂
Obligatory comment
Please don’t mention spike growth…
Update: I no longer care about this video
You rather me mention prismatic wall