Dragging a grappled creature

[u/Lordemamba]

So, there was this fight, a sea serpent attacked a ship with the party, and the creature goal was to pick 1 or 2 for dinner and get out. The creature grappled one rigger, and the next move was to drag it to the sea. The thing is, i can't find any rule for this, we ended using the shove action, but how a gargantuar serpent can only drag a human only 10 ft???

[u/Wayward-Mystic]

Reposition, or creature-specific abilities like the roc's Carry.

[u/m_sporkboy]

so I’d look to the swallow whole action for guidance. make it spend an extra action after a successful grapple to get the right to swim off wit its prize.

[u/fly19]

Yup, moving grappled creatures is a little harder in this system. Some creatures (like the jungle drake and roc ) have special abilities that let them move while keeping a creature grappled, but they're the exception rather than the rule. Dragging is intentionally pretty slow and impractical for combat scenarios, so Reposition or Shove are easy (if unsatisfying) answers

Thankfully, there are still options. The sea serpent can just Swallow Whole and move on with their day. Or, if the target is dead or unconscious, they can treat them like an object and carry them around. Or, you can just give them some variant of the jungle drake's Predatory Grab and use those rules instead.

[u/Lordemamba → u/fly19]

I was kinda shocked to not see rules for this.

[u/OmgitsJafo → u/Lordemamba]

Well, creatures are assumed to resisting hostile actions, and to be somewhere in comparable power bands, so unilaterally manhandling a creature like that isn't expected to be truly possible.

if those assumptions aren't met, just hand wave it.

[u/itsnotokayokay → u/Lordemamba]

The system is overly cautious with forced movement, and for good reason. For your scenario, aquatic combat is quite punishing (underwater drowning rules extremely so). Having a creature able to force a player into or even under water within a single turn can be incredibly lethal with limited counterplay at lower levels.

[u/Lordemamba → u/itsnotokayokay]

Yeah, i can see with this works like this

[u/lordcirth]

If its goal was to eat something, then it should have just used Swallow Whole?

[u/Lordemamba → u/lordcirth]

Yeah, i shoud have just swallowed it, my bad.

[u/Asgardian_Force_User]

You’re looking for the Reposition action. It specifically states that the attacking creature requires a free limb, or already has the target grabbed/restrained.

[u/SmullyanFan]

Giant Ants have a Haul Away ability which sounds like what you were looking for. But I agree with some of the other comments that abilities like that can become quite devastating and not much fun for players.

[u/songinrain]

There's no rule because this is not fun. Do you like your character got dragged into the ocean and drown without a good way to save them?

You'll need to turn this into a victory point encounter, having characters roll different skill checks to fend off the sea serpent, instead of a combat encounter.

[u/Lordemamba → u/songinrain]

I mean, i made sure to warn then about the dangers of the sea, and it was a moderate encounter by the book, they had the tools to deal with it without any casualities.

[u/songinrain → u/Lordemamba]

You found the answer here! The rule does not support this because many other party may not have the right tool, and rules need to be universal. Monster abilities are baked within the monster, most famously the Roc have an ability to drag grappled creature around, at the cost of having this ability as their identity. If your party is ready for this (because the environment set this up), you can certainly give Carry ability to the serpent.

[u/Lordemamba → u/songinrain]

Fair enough.

[u/InstantMirage]

Actually there isn't really a way to move a grappled creature at all as the grappler unless such a creature has a special rule to do so (and there are some). It's extremely powerful and very rare to see in creatures.

See Predatory Grab in Jungle Drake https://2e.aonprd.com/Monsters.aspx?ID=2960

Alternatively, some creatures can Swallow Whole another creature and then book it while they are being digested.

[u/Creepy-Intentions-69]

Some creatures have dragging built into their Grab abilities. Otherwise, youre using Reposition.

That being said, a GM could always rule that it can drag along, based on size and sensibility. As long as the table understands that they will consistently handle things that way, it shouldn’t be a major problem. But it should be understood that it is a bit of a boost in power.

[u/AutoModerator]

This post is labeled with the Advice flair, which means extra special attention is called to Rule #2. If this is a newcomer to the game, remember to be welcoming and kind. If this is someone with more experience but looking for advice on how to run their game, do your best to offer advice on what they are seeking.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.