Now that you’re scared away from grappling, some advantageous uses for it.

Grappling Spellcasters

Ever run into a Troglodyte cleric with an AC of 28? Ever try whacking it with a longsword at 5th level? If you have, you’ve spent a lot of time missing. Ever dealt with a wizard with an ungodly Concentration check who keeps firing spells off regardless of you attempts to interrupt him with a timely crossbow bolt or magic missile volley?

Grappling may be a good solution, then. Grappling checks rely upon touch attacks, so for fighters a hit is nearly guaranteed in any reasonably fair fight. Most spellcasters will have a touch AC of 10 or close to it, and protective magic items are very expensive, so by the time you’re dealing with folks that have such items in a substantive manner, your base attack bonus should more than make up for it.

What to do

Send in somebody to draw an attack of opportunity from the spellcaster (so the target will not get a free shot as a result of the grapple attempt) and go for the grapple. Upon establishing a grapple the target is reduced to a very limited subset of spells (those lacking the somatic component) or will have to use the Still Spell metamagic feat in order to get his next spell off.

Provided that your party can deal with the rest of your opponents in the field of battle, and you have a light weapon available to continue damaging the spellcaster while you’re grappled, this can be a great way to remove a troublesome cleric or wizard from the fray. And when your bloodthirsty companions are done eviscerating your other foes, you may still be sitting on a live bad-guy that you can question and get vital information out of.

Potential Problems

Two problems may come up preventing this tactic: your opponent may not take the sucker freebie that your friend tried to draw out, leaving an attack of opportunity to interrupt your grapple attempt. Additionally, the target spellcaster may have combat reflexes and a decent dexterity, in which case he’ll have more than one attack of opportunity per round. There is a feat available in the Sword and Fist book that prevents this attack of opportunity at all, and makes for a good workaround if you employ this tactic often.

Once employed, to hold the grapple you need to move into the target’s space. Assuming that you weren’t already toe-to-toe with your target, any other nearby opponents (within reach) will get a free shot at you. The best defense against this is to have allies clearing the way for you with a well-placed Bull Rush or two. Of course, if there’s plenty of healing power around and you’ve got a goodly ammount of hit points, you can just take one or two for the team, accepting the attacks as the price to pay for removing a spellcaster from play.

Optimizing Effectiveness

Prepare yourself:If you have your own spellcasters around, get a Bull’s Strength to help out your strength bonus (thereby improving your grapple checks). Mobility will give a +4 to your AC when you move into the target spellcaster’s space. If you’re using supplemental rules such as the Sword and Fist, you can benefit from the Improved Grappling feat.

Prepare your party: unless your only opponent is the target spellcaster, you’re going to need to keep your target’s buddies away from you. Let your party know what you’re about to do, and make sure they’ll back you up. One or two party members with Improved Bull Rush can clear the spellcaster’s allies away and then keep them occupied. A cleric casting Silence on you can double the effectiveness of your grapple by squelching verbal components while you squelch somatic components.

Sample Encounter

Four adventurers (Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, and Rogue) square off against Evil Wizard and his five Goblin lackeys. In the opinion of the adventuring party, the goblins aren’t much of a threat, but they’ve heard that this wizard is trouble, so they decide they need to neutralize him fast.

Normally (without improved initiative involved) the order of combat will tend towards rogue, fighter, evil wizard, wizard, cleric, goblins

1. Rogue rushes in to occupy the goblin closest to the wizard, attacks
2. Fighter uses move action to get to the wizard, drawing an attack of opportunity. Uses standard action to initiate grapple. As fighter has a good AC, the wizard probably misses on either attack of opportunity (from initial movement or grapple attempt). As fighter has superior base attack bonus and likely superior strength, he wins the grapple check.
3. Evil Wizard tries to cast non-somatic spell to get the fighter off of him (presuming he has any memorized). He has to make a concetration check to do so.
4. Wizard fires off an area of effect attack spell at the largest group of goblins available
5. Cleric casts Silence on Fighter, who voluntarily fails saving throw. Wizard is now reduced to casting spells with only Focus, Material, or no component spells.
6. the Rogue, Wizard, and Cleric mop up the goblins over the next couple of rounds. The Fighter grapples to pin then grapples for subdual damage to knock the wizard out. They Interrogate the wizard after tying him up and ending the silence spell.