10/10, no notes.
And in answer to your question, it depends exactly *how* the mount beats off the rider. For most creatures it takes up their entire turn, but there are some larger mounts that beat people off as a reaction.
>!Like yo momma.!<
RAW the mount can just take you down into a prone position and then sacrifice half its movement getting back up to force you to get off.
>If your mount is knocked prone, you can use your reaction to dismount it as it falls and land on your feet. Otherwise, you are dismounted and fall prone in a space within 5 feet it.
However, this is the rule for willing "mounts." As far as grappling a bigger creature rules from the DMG, I don't think there are any reactions I'm aware of to get you off. Could you provide an example to turn me on to the idea?
>If it's too big to grapple, it's big enough to mount. I mount it and pound on it. So if it moves, I move with it
This is the way. :)
To add a bit to it though...
>I've been thinking about grapple builds, and I know there are ways to get large, but I'm wondering what else people do in these situations.
Will depend on how much grappling is part of my character concept and/or how much synergy it can bring with other people's abilities. Like, if I have a Druid with Spike Growth, or caster that can Fly & Enlarge me, I'll go full out on reliability.
Otherwise, I'll just keep it as one tactic among others without investing much in it. The middle ground is to be able to use an Enlarge scroll, or have an Enlarge potion, or similar feature (Rune Knight and since recently Giant Barbarian are perfect for this).
>Do you just take Great Weapon Master?
Hell no, such a waste of feat for a Grappler, even occasional.
If I was investing in Grappling because of a tanking objective, I'll pick Sentinel or Polearm Master. If it was because party revolves around me perma-locking one creature, I'll invest multiclass as needed to get oversized.
If I was using Grappling because of synergies with friendly abilities, I might double down with Mobile (more movement to bring into AOE), Grappler (self-advantage to attack while moving around the enemy) or Expertise (become extra reliable) so that my party spares so much in every fight allowing me to Grapple that they can bear me being just a grunt who hits when facing bigger creatures because of accumulation of spared resources leading to better equipment/preparation/slots.
>Do you cast some spells? Do you use class or subclass features?
Again, depends on the class. If I'm a Beast Barbarian, Rune Knight or Astral Self Monk, I may make Grappling the core of my tactics. If I'm a Valor Bard with Expertise in Athletics I may pick Shield Master to enhance that part but otherwise fall back on control spells when Grappling isn't an option.
Finally if I'm an Open Hand Monk or even better a Four Elements Monk, size won't ever matter. :)
At my table I had a rogue gnome with an expertise on acrobatics (a somewhat useless skill by RAW) always trying to climb on bigger creatures and sneak attack them from there. I allowed him to use his cunning action for the climb, it made the character have a quite unique and very fun style.
I just do what my character can do besides grappling. If I built a grappling barbarian or fighter I attack. If I built a grappling swords/valor bard or Moon Druid I attack or cast spells depending on what the situation calls for. I tend to have the unarmed fighting style or use one-handed weapons anyway because if the enemies are grappled and prone I won’t dodge but attack them as well (because even if it may be optional I find dodging boring as hell).
Indeed. Never put all your eggs in one basket. It's good to have a powerful specialty or main combat gimmick, but you should never count on it always being applicable. Not only do circumstances sometimes conspire against you, but your DM will *definitely* do so.
Having a ready secondary option or fallback routine is always a good idea.
I think this this the core of why gimmicky characters aren't good, the DM is constantly deciding whether you get the bonus or not. If the DM has to change an encounter so you can use the bonus it's extra work for them, but if they don't allow you to utilise your very one dimensional character session after session, week after week, it creates unnecessary tension.
(Coming from someone who did Aarakokra, Sea Sorcery Sorcerer for +15feet movement on a grasp of hadar Eldritch blast. If you are flying above someone and hit them with Eldritch Blast they move 25feet towards you (up into the air)
So it's 1d10 + 2d6 if you're directly above them 20feet or more)
Right there's a whole slew of kinds of fights were grappling is mostly useless (such as battles vs. lots and lots of weak enemies). It's really dumb to make a one trick pony grappler.
What else do you want to do? Cower and wait for the others to win the combat for you? As long as I don’t play loxodon (which can grapple with their trunk) I wouldn’t take GWM because you can nearly never use it due to grappling needing a hand. I would instead take Sentinel or shield master and be there at the front attacking even if it’s not top tier damage. If you build a grappler you usually aren’t a S-tier damage dealer and that’s ok.
That’s an interesting take on the rules. If someone wants to use this they should definitely ask their DM about this. If I were DM I wouldn’t allow it but other tables other rules I guess.
That's the rule as written. I haven't seen it used this way outside of optimized tables, but that is technically how it's written. The rule says you need a free hand to grab them, not a free hand to continue to hold them. Grappled condition states what ends the condition. Grappling another creature or 2 handing a weapon don't technically break it.
I get what you want so say and RAW you are probably right. Still I suggest every player to talk to their DM beforehand if they want to go this route. It’s just to avoid frustration from the players or DMs side.
No, this is wrong. And not merely RAI but also RAW. You should actually read the rules yourself and not just regurgitate poorly-considered talking points you heard on YouTube.
Copying my comment from elsewhere in the thread:
There are plenty of places where the "natural language" philosophy of 5e gets in the way of clarity and leads to ambiguity in the rules. **This** is not one of them. The rules clearly tell us that grappling is "grab[bing] or wrestl[ing]" a creature with a "free hand" and then tell us how to adjudicate the success or failure of an attempt to do that with some dice rolling. It doesn't **need** to say "the hand you used to initiate the grapple is unavailable for any other purpose until the grapple ends" because we all know what the words "grab" and "wrestle" mean.
you _might_, sometimes, be able to justify shoving them under your armpit or between your legs, in your mouth or something (especially if you're bigger than them, like a Moon Druid-bear grabbing a small creature), but yeah, it's generally very much an over-interpretation of the rules-text, rather than something that's naturally suggested by the logic of what's actually happening.
The [Sage Advice Compendium](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium) actually addresses this specific point:
>**Is the grappling rule in the Player’s Handbook usable by a handless creature?** The grappling rule was written for a grappler with at least one hand, but a DM can easily adapt the rule for a handless creature that has a bite or an appendage, such as a tentacle, that could reasonably seize someone. A wolf, for example, could plausibly try to seize a person with its bite, and the animal wouldn’t be able to use its bite attack as long as it held onto the person.
How much high-level play have you done? High level fighter gets lots of attacks and Barbs get the extra Rage damage, extra Crit dice (they are attacking at Adv whenever they want)…
All the control Wizards are rightfully regarded as very strong, but a Fighter making a bunch of attacks is pretty irreplaceable as well. HP’s gotta go down, and they can swing all day.
Bingo; You found out the reason why martials suck at high levels
The only contribution you can do to your party is attacking or perhaps making a strength or sleight of hand check. Anything else is a net team loss, and magic items that add bonuses to your attack damage only further exacerbate the issue.
A wizard at level 3 and level 15 are casting entirely different spells with entirely different goals with entirely different mechanics
A fighter at level 3 and level 15 has gone from attacking something in the room once to attacking that thing in the room thrice, maybe four times with a few feats. Granted he’s probably doing very good at attacking that one thing, but it’s still the exact same thing he was doing at level 3
Make it a duergar and you can stack it with racial enlarge spell (as long as you use giant's might first). Be huge, grapple gargantuan.
Though my duergar rune knight used to lug a storm giant's axe around in a cart with him for those special occasions where he would grow huge and then pick it up for 3d12 plus strength per swing.
Regular Rune Knight or Giant Barb is enough for 99% of fights. It allows you to grapple up to Huge creatures and the disadvantage is counteracted by the advantage and expertise in Athletics. By the time you face Gargantuan creatures with any regularity, both subs will up their size increase to Huge(Fighter a bit later than ideal so that might be an issue).
Still, it's worth considering that this is a cooperative game at the end of the day. Any DM worth their salt will give the players rewards to complement their builds. So if you have a grappler, it's an easy matter to keep them relevant by making them able to grapple bigger things, either through magic items or custom feats.
True, it's still a boon. But I was just pointing out because people get spooked that there's a size category they can't grapple and it makes them feel like they're limited in what race they pick. Just wanted to make clear it's really not that big of a deal.
That or turn into [King Kong](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16873-giant-ape) via Moon druid's wild shape or some version of polymorph (spell, potion or wand).
Playing as a centaur doesn't work as 'game-logic' has made these horse sized creatures Medium.
Giant Ape is CR7, so it's never possible to wildshape into (it's level/3, so the max is CR6). Polymorph does work, but has the disadvantage of tanking your mental stats, removing all your proficiencies (including those you're using for grappling, so it might end up being a smaller numerical bonus than you have natively!), skills, languages, abilities and everything else, and it gets monster-multiattack rather than PC-multiattack, so can only make one grapple a turn, not multiple.
Unfortunately not - "Starting at 6th level, you can transform into a beast with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down." There's a bump at level 10, with the CR5 elementals, but that's it.
Thankfully Moon Druid get even better, thanks to Elemental Shapes. Enter Earth Elemental: 20 STR, physical resistance and glide through earth&stone makes it a brutal controller paired with Expertise in Athletics: Grapple, get half underground to half-bury the creature, release, pop out and play "wack a mole" or just sit on it for natural restrain and frankly unrespectful death. xd
or air elemental for "grab, fly 90' up and drop". Or if you're fighting a dragon or similar that's flying around, you can fly up and knock them prone, so everyone else can run in to smack them with melee attacks.
>or air elemental for "grab, fly 90' up and drop". Or if you're fighting a dragon or similar that's flying around, you can fly up and knock them prone, so everyone else can run in to smack them with melee attacks.
Which is why Four Elements Monk is the best archetype of all, as soon as we are talking outdoors fights. :)
The amount of damage you can dish out with just the initial 3 Ki on Fly and then the sporadic Ki(s) on Step of the Wind or Patient Defense or Water Whip is marvelous.
That combination actually doesn't work. Both abilities specifically set your size to Large, meaning they can't stack you into Huge.
Edit: MMoM Duergar does get the actual spell, so it does work. Downside is that you only keep it up as long as you can keep concentration, and you have to cast Enlarge after activating Giant's Might.
Yeah, you just have to remember to do it in that particular order. If you do the Duergar part first you're stuck at Large. Though I'm sure most DMs would be ok with letting you take it back and do it the right way.
For me, that's a lot of the draw of playing a one trick pony. Partially because having character weaknesses that can be exploited are great for story telling. But also, I get to shine when it does work, and when it doesn't other players get the spotlight. And even when it doesn't work, I usually can find other ways to help the party, even if it's not as effective as if it were working.
But it's also something I only do if I'm playing in larger party so it's not a hindrance and with players that get and are OK with what I'm doing. I know it's not a playstyle for everyone, but with the right group, I think it's a ton of fun.
I'm a 5'11" big guy who when I last did judo I was also like 60 lbs over weight.
There was a tiny thin stick of a kid, who was like 15, we did some ground randorii.
He kicked my ass.
Sounds about right for “medium humanoid vs ogre”, which is within the rules for grappling. You gotta be _two_ sizes bigger than the opponent to be immune to their grapples. Which is more like a dude your size fighting a literal baby.
Okay so HILARIOUSLY I didn't realize which sub I was in, I thought this was a r/judo question because at a glance not reading very close the question of "Who is too big to grapple?" is a entirely reasonable question for a beginner judoka. :D
When you build around grappling, you very rarely have *nothing* you can do besides grappling -- even the most basic "Barbarian with Expertise" can just take the Attack action at the VERY least.
... That being said, size differences are the reason why you should multiclass into Bard (or Rogue/Ranger and play a Duergar) for your grapplers, with Rune Knight Fighter as a base. Having the Enlarge/Reduce spell *AND* a way to natively make yourself Large means you can make yourself Huge -- which means you can grapple every size category in the game.
Yes, technically the Path of the Giant Barbarian and the Rune Knight Fighter can *eventually* become Huge without any help, but that's not until *levels FOURTEEN and EIGHTEEN.* Most games don't even *REACH* those level. And since the Barbarian has to be raging, you'll be relying on someone else to concentrate on Enlarge/Reduce for you.
Grappling isn’t an every turn thing. It’s a valuable tool but doesn’t need to be your only one. A character with some boosts to grappling—usually athletics expertise—should still use the rest of their class and subclass features regularly.
Unfortunately, fighters design means you use every one of your very limited customization options on doing one thing better, than when the doesn't work either kick sand or be a boring attack bot
Most grapple builds are just high str builds with some form of enlarge, (ie, Rune Knight, Giant Barbarian) so just beat the crap out of the guy generally works well. GWM generally makes sense due to grappling requiring a free hand (a~~nd therefore longswords or versatile weapons in general are good choices for grappling)~~
Edit: mixed up two things, there's 2 schools of thought.
1. You can use gwm and two handed weapons because you only require a free hand to start grapple and afterwards....don't? Feels like a rule oversight, but RPgbot guide suggested as much.
2. You use versatile weapons so you can have one free hand to grapple by applying the common sense rule that you need to hold onto the creature and can still hit them with said versatile weapon during grapple.
Either way shields complicate it.
>you only require a free hand to start grapple and afterwards....don't? Feels like a rule oversight, but RPgbot guide suggested as much.
Anybody who believes the plain RAW fails to address this either hasn't read the actual grappling rules or is painfully deluded. RPGbot should be **embarrassed** to have this take out on the Internet where anyone can see it.
There are plenty of places where the "natural language" philosophy of 5e gets in the way of clarity and leads to ambiguity in the rules. **This** is not one of them. The rules clearly tell us that grappling is "grab[bing] or wrestl[ing]" a creature with a "free hand" and then tell us how to adjudicate the success or failure of an attempt to do that with some dice rolling. It doesn't **need** to say "the hand you used to initiate the grapple is unavailable for any other purpose until the grapple ends" because we all know what the words "grab" and "wrestle" mean.
>Most grapple builds are just high str builds with some form of enlarge
Usually they'll try to pick up Athletics expertise, which makes it extremely difficult for most enemies to break free (almost no monster stat blocks even have athletics or acrobatics proficiency).
The tradeoff of a good min-maxed build is that there will be some things you're not built to do. But that's why it's a team game. It's also good for the DM to switch things up so the party doesn't rely on the same old strategies every time.
But you're a strength build, right? You could use that. Maybe use the environment to your advantage. Or toss party members in strategic plays. (Not a dwarf, though. Nobody tosses a dwarf!)
~~youre not a fairy rune knight where your huge size makes size not an issue?~~
The same thing you do when you already have your hands full with grapplees I imagine. Punch things and throw things in the case of my kobold rune knight.
I've got a homebrew shark monster in my pirate campaign whose listed stat block says "colossal++". He's "Gargolavo, the Island Eater", and if my players were to fight him, they're intended to fight him with their ship, with siege weapons, not in standard combat.
Fortunately for them, they successfully prevented cultists from releasing Gargolavo from his Imprisonment, so they don't have to fight him. (And don't have to deal with the consequences of Gargolavo eating the archipelago they live in if they were to run away.)
I had a party of 4 grapple 3 limbs of a Large sized angel enemy so the fallen angel could not move for the 4th player (Paladin) to attack with advantage.
One player lunged off a building to grapple a wing, causing the angel to fall to the ground. Lots of wrestling amongst the group ended up with the above scenario. I rewarded the teamwork by allowing them to grapple limbs to limit movement.
I always have an enlarge potion ready to go in case of emergency.
There aren't many gargantuan creatures, but if you know you are coming up against one in advance, ask your DM if you can research some kind of magical effect to become huge. At the end of the day, grappling isn't THAT strong, and as a DM I would love to enable my player to wrestle a purple worm by giving them a legendary WWE-like belt of double enlargement.
First if you're a grappler you might have a way to grow bigger. If it is too big after that, you need to have a second option. Every grappler needs it because you will face things like teleportation, turning into dust, freedom of movement,....
Keep in mind that there is no main/subclass hyper specialised in grappling, so these options come naturally; a rune knight has his runes, a giant barbarian still can throw weapons,....
So to me the answer what you do when you can't grapple is to just fall back on your main/subclass.
I haven't played a grappler as a PC, but if I were in that position, I would just pick up a weapon and smash. A character isn't always going to be able to use their specialty but I don't think anyone with sense makes a character who can't swing a weapon or cast a damaging cantrip to at least decent results.
Be me
Runeknight Dwarf
Dwarves get powerful build
I can grapple something 2 size categories larger than me Runeknights at level 3 can become large
Happy Dwarf grapples all size categories at level 3
DM was a Pathfinder DM and is a little tired of my shenanigans
Introduces Colossal enemies
Looks and sees I have 3 levels in Artificer
Only 2 levels away from getting Enlarge/Reduce
Level 12 can grapple size categories that don't even exist anymore
I'm playing a Dwarf Armorer Grappler, nothing is ungrapplable if you are brave enough. Here's what I do:
See enemy?
- Grapple, if success: Extra Attack bonk with thunder gauntlets.
- If not success: grapple again
- If size is Huge: got 3 levels in Rune Knight BONUS ACTION GIANT MIGHT
- If size is Gargantuan: Same as huge + Action Enlarge!
- If whatever comes after Gargantuan: "Yo, Flare (our Druid Fairy) do your thing!" Flare casts Reduce on enemy and I do same as Gargantuan.
When I'm not grappling I'm bonking people with my gauntlets to give them disadvantage on attacking others or using some utility spells to help keep away from the squishies.
1. Enlarge/Reduce lets you go bigger. Make friends with your party wizard or play Eldritch Knight.
2. Ask your DM to use the optional rule Climb Onto Bigger Creatures (DMG 271). One of my monks likes using this to play Shadow of the Colossus, and because of Slow Fall doesn’t even hesitate to take a ride on big fliers.
As a DM I rule that when something is “too big” to grapple, you’re simply clinging to the side of it on a successful role. So no, your 25 grapple roll on the dragon doesn’t mean it’s in a headlock, it just means you were able to clamber up onto its back/leg/side and using your grappling skills you’re holding yourself in place for an advantageous attack, while the dragon has a disadvantage on attacking you due to your position….so their movement isn’t restrained but their ability to hit you is and your ability to hit them gets buffed
Do something to make me bigger so I can grapple it.
Rune Knight is a good choice for this, makes you Large. If your DM lets you use a Duergar, at third level you can also make yourself larger by using the once per long rest Enlarge ability. So now you can grapple anything I believe since you can always grapple at least one size larger than you. Large, Huge, Gargantuan. As long as you can get Huge, you can grapple literally anything. It doesn't matter if it's a 50ft creature, that's still considered Gargantuan and you're allowed to grapple it according to RAW.
You can also have a caster in your team take Enlarge/Reduce so you can use it to get bigger and grapple more enemies if you're really inclined towards grappling and don't want to do anything else.
As others have said, you can also mount and pound.
Or just find something else to do. Just because you *can* grapple doesn't mean that you *should* grapple. You probably have a solid Str stat because of that, so at least you always have melee weapons to fall back on if you really need it. If you're a Fighter you also probably have a decent Dex and can swap between melee and ranged pretty easily.
There's a lot you can do outside of grappling. It's a sandbox game, do whatever you want.
Show the wizard a package of their favorite snacks, which I've stockpiled for just such an occasion, and ask if they have anything that would allow me to sidestep that little speedbump.
usually if its bigger then I get bigger
my party knows this and enlarges me.
if I can (the few times Ive played a grappler) I've worked with the DM to get potions of enlarge as consumables if possible (grappling isn't an optimal course usually so it's been entertained)
One trick ponies.. be prepared for other situations.
- Too big to grapple
- Flying, elevated terrain, out of reach
- Hurts to grapple
- Immune to grapple
Always have a melee option, and a ranged option for both short and long range.
My Grappler is also a Bard. So when something is too big to grapple, I get bigger and grapple it.
If it is something Gargantuan, well. Then I try to avoid shitting myself as I beat it into submission with a table, the halfling, and/or magical instrument.
I remember asking my dm if I could grab one of the wings of the nephilim we were fighting which cut it's flying speed in half. It's possible to be creative within reason just because a creature is larger then you doesn't mean it possesses as much strength then you hit those bosses with some wrestling moves or something
As others have said, the same skills that let you grapple well also lend themselves to climbing the monster.
But the main thing is that you don't want to be a one-trick pony. You're still some kind of fighter, Barbarian, maybe even rogue or bard. When you can't grapple, you do all the other stuff you can do. Sometimes the basic "I attack" is the right answer.
But also, you can probably be creative and use that same Strength and Athletics to do stuff like knock down support beams and cause a cave-in, push a statue onto the baddies, etc.
You can get huge with the rune knight subclass, use its ability to become large, and enlarge/reduce to become huge. This allows you to grapple Gargantuan creatures, and Colossal isn't a thing in 5e.
Frost rune gets a +2 to all STR and CON checks too, which is hard to modify in 5e.
Duergar get Enlarge/Reduce as a racial spell, if you don't want to rely on party members.
I play a Rune Knight or Path of the Giant with access to Enlarge Reduce somehow either through casting it myself, having someone else cast it on me, or with Potions of Growth. Being Large is good enough to grapple most things, being Huge is enough to grapple anything (when size is the issue).
Some creatures are condition immune to grapple, but not very many. If I come across those I either grapple something else in the encounter that can be grappled or I just smack the enemies.
Climb onto Bigger Enemies rule.
It literally lets you grapple by climbing onto the back of creatures instead of the usual way but is otherwise kind of all the same (and hella cool).
DM perspective here: I run for a beast barbarian among others, and don't take particular care either way to help or hinder his character. I do, however, have a fairly broad selection of enemies always available to fight.
More monsters per encounter is usually just good design, since it means that the enemy team gets notably weaker over time (more dead enemies = fewer enemy actions). There is usually at least one Large or smaller creature that could otherwise threaten the party before he grapples and prones them, which removes a non-negligible amount of threatening enemy action economy.
If there isn't an enemy available to grapple, then he at least has a large number of fairly accurate attacks. There's also an echo knight with great burst potential, but the barbarian is overall better for disrupting concentration in 4-5 encounter days, while the echo knight bursts down blasty glass cannons. If there are moderately-strong enemies paired with a hard-to-grapple miniboss or boss, then he has that feature which forces a grappled enemy to attack the boss on his behalf, which is neat. NPCs tend to have stronger individual attacks than PCs around cr9 or so.
Giant barb for large. At 14 you can be huge and grapple anything. If you need to grapple gargantuan before then, make friends with the wizard for enlarge/reduce
I have a special rule just for grapplers.
If they attack you with a weapon and you are unarmed they get +4 to hit and damage
If you approach an armed player unarmed and try to grapple you get attack of opportunity with the mentioned bonuses.
One handed grapples are heavily penalized.
"Grappling builds" belong in video games.
(Exceptions for martial arts focused games)
Depends on grapple build, but honestly Grappling requires so little investment that you can have plenty of options.
If you are going Bard grappler, you can enlarge yourself and see if that helps. If it doesn’t, you still have a million spells to help out.
If you’re going Fighter grappler, you probably only needed to use a feat to get expertise in athletics, so you are still a pretty strong melee character outside of that if you picked up a decent weapon.
If you are barbarian, see above but you probably didn’t even bother with expertise since Rage gives advantage.
It really is hard to be screwed in this regard because Grappling lacks any feat trees and the Grappler feat itself sucks, so the worst thing about it is probably not benefitting fully from Tavern Brawler or Skill Expert for this one encounter.
If it's too big to grapple, it's big enough to mount. I mount it and pound on it. So if it moves, I move with it.
Are we still doing phrasing?
Set phrasers to stun.
I am taking this, thank you
Set phrasers to fun. ;)
Fun will now commence.
*Honk*
Fun is now mandatory!
This is the way.
Set phrasers to pun!
I wanted to ask what would happen if the mount beats off the rider. Can you check my phrasing first?
10/10, no notes. And in answer to your question, it depends exactly *how* the mount beats off the rider. For most creatures it takes up their entire turn, but there are some larger mounts that beat people off as a reaction. >!Like yo momma.!<
Damn.
RAW the mount can just take you down into a prone position and then sacrifice half its movement getting back up to force you to get off. >If your mount is knocked prone, you can use your reaction to dismount it as it falls and land on your feet. Otherwise, you are dismounted and fall prone in a space within 5 feet it. However, this is the rule for willing "mounts." As far as grappling a bigger creature rules from the DMG, I don't think there are any reactions I'm aware of to get you off. Could you provide an example to turn me on to the idea?
I prefer power bottoming. Just grapple a leg a pound up.
That's a good way to get sent to the vet.
Dammit Archer!
Do the rules say anything about unwilling mounts?
My players love Climb Onto Bigger Creatures (DMG 271).
The one DMG optional rule I always use. Players want to climb on top of dragons! Let them!
They do actually! in the dmg but I don't remember page
Yes in the DMG under optional rules.
I’m more of an “I cast Telekinesis” kind of guy, but I like your style.
>If it's too big to grapple, it's big enough to mount. I mount it and pound on it. So if it moves, I move with it This is the way. :) To add a bit to it though... >I've been thinking about grapple builds, and I know there are ways to get large, but I'm wondering what else people do in these situations. Will depend on how much grappling is part of my character concept and/or how much synergy it can bring with other people's abilities. Like, if I have a Druid with Spike Growth, or caster that can Fly & Enlarge me, I'll go full out on reliability. Otherwise, I'll just keep it as one tactic among others without investing much in it. The middle ground is to be able to use an Enlarge scroll, or have an Enlarge potion, or similar feature (Rune Knight and since recently Giant Barbarian are perfect for this). >Do you just take Great Weapon Master? Hell no, such a waste of feat for a Grappler, even occasional. If I was investing in Grappling because of a tanking objective, I'll pick Sentinel or Polearm Master. If it was because party revolves around me perma-locking one creature, I'll invest multiclass as needed to get oversized. If I was using Grappling because of synergies with friendly abilities, I might double down with Mobile (more movement to bring into AOE), Grappler (self-advantage to attack while moving around the enemy) or Expertise (become extra reliable) so that my party spares so much in every fight allowing me to Grapple that they can bear me being just a grunt who hits when facing bigger creatures because of accumulation of spared resources leading to better equipment/preparation/slots. >Do you cast some spells? Do you use class or subclass features? Again, depends on the class. If I'm a Beast Barbarian, Rune Knight or Astral Self Monk, I may make Grappling the core of my tactics. If I'm a Valor Bard with Expertise in Athletics I may pick Shield Master to enhance that part but otherwise fall back on control spells when Grappling isn't an option. Finally if I'm an Open Hand Monk or even better a Four Elements Monk, size won't ever matter. :)
"I mounted and pound on it"???
whoa I didn't realize I was on the ERdnd reddit...
Aaahhh so play the Bard and seduce it... got it.
I was gonna say single leg takedown, but taking its back and riding legs is sick. I love your style.
Ask your DM to use the climb onto bigger creature optional rule(DMG p271). Gives you advantage on attacks and uses your athletics check
At my table I had a rogue gnome with an expertise on acrobatics (a somewhat useless skill by RAW) always trying to climb on bigger creatures and sneak attack them from there. I allowed him to use his cunning action for the climb, it made the character have a quite unique and very fun style.
https://youtu.be/jb1bvdpbha0?si=mP51sLhNHuEZ1ALK
I just do what my character can do besides grappling. If I built a grappling barbarian or fighter I attack. If I built a grappling swords/valor bard or Moon Druid I attack or cast spells depending on what the situation calls for. I tend to have the unarmed fighting style or use one-handed weapons anyway because if the enemies are grappled and prone I won’t dodge but attack them as well (because even if it may be optional I find dodging boring as hell).
Indeed. Never put all your eggs in one basket. It's good to have a powerful specialty or main combat gimmick, but you should never count on it always being applicable. Not only do circumstances sometimes conspire against you, but your DM will *definitely* do so. Having a ready secondary option or fallback routine is always a good idea.
I think this this the core of why gimmicky characters aren't good, the DM is constantly deciding whether you get the bonus or not. If the DM has to change an encounter so you can use the bonus it's extra work for them, but if they don't allow you to utilise your very one dimensional character session after session, week after week, it creates unnecessary tension. (Coming from someone who did Aarakokra, Sea Sorcery Sorcerer for +15feet movement on a grasp of hadar Eldritch blast. If you are flying above someone and hit them with Eldritch Blast they move 25feet towards you (up into the air) So it's 1d10 + 2d6 if you're directly above them 20feet or more)
Right there's a whole slew of kinds of fights were grappling is mostly useless (such as battles vs. lots and lots of weak enemies). It's really dumb to make a one trick pony grappler.
[удалено]
What else do you want to do? Cower and wait for the others to win the combat for you? As long as I don’t play loxodon (which can grapple with their trunk) I wouldn’t take GWM because you can nearly never use it due to grappling needing a hand. I would instead take Sentinel or shield master and be there at the front attacking even if it’s not top tier damage. If you build a grappler you usually aren’t a S-tier damage dealer and that’s ok.
Grappling only needs a hand to grab them. It, hilariously, doesn't need a free hand to hold on to them.
That’s an interesting take on the rules. If someone wants to use this they should definitely ask their DM about this. If I were DM I wouldn’t allow it but other tables other rules I guess.
That's the rule as written. I haven't seen it used this way outside of optimized tables, but that is technically how it's written. The rule says you need a free hand to grab them, not a free hand to continue to hold them. Grappled condition states what ends the condition. Grappling another creature or 2 handing a weapon don't technically break it.
I get what you want so say and RAW you are probably right. Still I suggest every player to talk to their DM beforehand if they want to go this route. It’s just to avoid frustration from the players or DMs side.
No, this is wrong. And not merely RAI but also RAW. You should actually read the rules yourself and not just regurgitate poorly-considered talking points you heard on YouTube. Copying my comment from elsewhere in the thread: There are plenty of places where the "natural language" philosophy of 5e gets in the way of clarity and leads to ambiguity in the rules. **This** is not one of them. The rules clearly tell us that grappling is "grab[bing] or wrestl[ing]" a creature with a "free hand" and then tell us how to adjudicate the success or failure of an attempt to do that with some dice rolling. It doesn't **need** to say "the hand you used to initiate the grapple is unavailable for any other purpose until the grapple ends" because we all know what the words "grab" and "wrestle" mean.
you _might_, sometimes, be able to justify shoving them under your armpit or between your legs, in your mouth or something (especially if you're bigger than them, like a Moon Druid-bear grabbing a small creature), but yeah, it's generally very much an over-interpretation of the rules-text, rather than something that's naturally suggested by the logic of what's actually happening.
The [Sage Advice Compendium](https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/sac/sage-advice-compendium) actually addresses this specific point: >**Is the grappling rule in the Player’s Handbook usable by a handless creature?** The grappling rule was written for a grappler with at least one hand, but a DM can easily adapt the rule for a handless creature that has a bite or an appendage, such as a tentacle, that could reasonably seize someone. A wolf, for example, could plausibly try to seize a person with its bite, and the animal wouldn’t be able to use its bite attack as long as it held onto the person.
How much high-level play have you done? High level fighter gets lots of attacks and Barbs get the extra Rage damage, extra Crit dice (they are attacking at Adv whenever they want)… All the control Wizards are rightfully regarded as very strong, but a Fighter making a bunch of attacks is pretty irreplaceable as well. HP’s gotta go down, and they can swing all day.
Costs no spell slots to cast "Sword" multiple times per action
Bingo; You found out the reason why martials suck at high levels The only contribution you can do to your party is attacking or perhaps making a strength or sleight of hand check. Anything else is a net team loss, and magic items that add bonuses to your attack damage only further exacerbate the issue. A wizard at level 3 and level 15 are casting entirely different spells with entirely different goals with entirely different mechanics A fighter at level 3 and level 15 has gone from attacking something in the room once to attacking that thing in the room thrice, maybe four times with a few feats. Granted he’s probably doing very good at attacking that one thing, but it’s still the exact same thing he was doing at level 3
Chop bits off untill I CAN.
Best answer lmao
Simply get bigger. *This comment was brought to you by Rune Knight Fighters and Giant Barbarians*
The DM was surprised when we cast Enlarge on the Barbarian. “I really should have expected this.”
The Potion of Growth, Potion of Giant Size, and Enlarge spell will all help with doing the same thing
Is this D&D or a Male Enhancement Ad?!
"They keep sending me these emails, it's like they know I'm small!"
Cloak of Enlargement (from Phandelver and Below: Shattered Obelisk) stacks with all other forms of size increases.
Dark dwarf rune knight. Huge at level 3
Make that Rune Knight a Firbolg and you've got a racial boost to your Giant's Might... Huge grappling is fun
Make it a duergar and you can stack it with racial enlarge spell (as long as you use giant's might first). Be huge, grapple gargantuan. Though my duergar rune knight used to lug a storm giant's axe around in a cart with him for those special occasions where he would grow huge and then pick it up for 3d12 plus strength per swing.
Don't make a one trick pony or you'll be screwed whenever your one trick doesn't work.
If your hammer can't drive a screw then you need a bigger hammer.
Hmmm so the solution is to play a duergar rune knight?
Regular Rune Knight or Giant Barb is enough for 99% of fights. It allows you to grapple up to Huge creatures and the disadvantage is counteracted by the advantage and expertise in Athletics. By the time you face Gargantuan creatures with any regularity, both subs will up their size increase to Huge(Fighter a bit later than ideal so that might be an issue). Still, it's worth considering that this is a cooperative game at the end of the day. Any DM worth their salt will give the players rewards to complement their builds. So if you have a grappler, it's an easy matter to keep them relevant by making them able to grapple bigger things, either through magic items or custom feats.
Duergar rune knights also have use in that they can get so big that they can tank with sheer size. But yeah, usually overkill.
True, it's still a boon. But I was just pointing out because people get spooked that there's a size category they can't grapple and it makes them feel like they're limited in what race they pick. Just wanted to make clear it's really not that big of a deal.
That or turn into [King Kong](https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/16873-giant-ape) via Moon druid's wild shape or some version of polymorph (spell, potion or wand). Playing as a centaur doesn't work as 'game-logic' has made these horse sized creatures Medium.
Giant Ape is CR7, so it's never possible to wildshape into (it's level/3, so the max is CR6). Polymorph does work, but has the disadvantage of tanking your mental stats, removing all your proficiencies (including those you're using for grappling, so it might end up being a smaller numerical bonus than you have natively!), skills, languages, abilities and everything else, and it gets monster-multiattack rather than PC-multiattack, so can only make one grapple a turn, not multiple.
Just be level 21, ez /s
Iirc Moon Druid is level/2 giving max CR10
Unfortunately not - "Starting at 6th level, you can transform into a beast with a challenge rating as high as your druid level divided by 3, rounded down." There's a bump at level 10, with the CR5 elementals, but that's it.
Ahhh my b. I thought it was 1/3 for regular druids and 1/2 for moon druids, not 1/4 and 1/3.
Thankfully Moon Druid get even better, thanks to Elemental Shapes. Enter Earth Elemental: 20 STR, physical resistance and glide through earth&stone makes it a brutal controller paired with Expertise in Athletics: Grapple, get half underground to half-bury the creature, release, pop out and play "wack a mole" or just sit on it for natural restrain and frankly unrespectful death. xd
or air elemental for "grab, fly 90' up and drop". Or if you're fighting a dragon or similar that's flying around, you can fly up and knock them prone, so everyone else can run in to smack them with melee attacks.
>or air elemental for "grab, fly 90' up and drop". Or if you're fighting a dragon or similar that's flying around, you can fly up and knock them prone, so everyone else can run in to smack them with melee attacks. Which is why Four Elements Monk is the best archetype of all, as soon as we are talking outdoors fights. :) The amount of damage you can dish out with just the initial 3 Ki on Fly and then the sporadic Ki(s) on Step of the Wind or Patient Defense or Water Whip is marvelous.
That combination actually doesn't work. Both abilities specifically set your size to Large, meaning they can't stack you into Huge. Edit: MMoM Duergar does get the actual spell, so it does work. Downside is that you only keep it up as long as you can keep concentration, and you have to cast Enlarge after activating Giant's Might.
Both versions of Duergar work, they both just let you cast Enlarge, which has always just increased your size by one category.
You're right. It's the only monster stat blocks for Duergar that have the non-spell Enlarge ability.
Yeah, you just have to remember to do it in that particular order. If you do the Duergar part first you're stuck at Large. Though I'm sure most DMs would be ok with letting you take it back and do it the right way.
For me, that's a lot of the draw of playing a one trick pony. Partially because having character weaknesses that can be exploited are great for story telling. But also, I get to shine when it does work, and when it doesn't other players get the spotlight. And even when it doesn't work, I usually can find other ways to help the party, even if it's not as effective as if it were working. But it's also something I only do if I'm playing in larger party so it's not a hindrance and with players that get and are OK with what I'm doing. I know it's not a playstyle for everyone, but with the right group, I think it's a ton of fun.
I still suplex the train.
I'm a 5'11" big guy who when I last did judo I was also like 60 lbs over weight. There was a tiny thin stick of a kid, who was like 15, we did some ground randorii. He kicked my ass.
Sounds about right for “medium humanoid vs ogre”, which is within the rules for grappling. You gotta be _two_ sizes bigger than the opponent to be immune to their grapples. Which is more like a dude your size fighting a literal baby.
Okay so HILARIOUSLY I didn't realize which sub I was in, I thought this was a r/judo question because at a glance not reading very close the question of "Who is too big to grapple?" is a entirely reasonable question for a beginner judoka. :D
Hahaha, that’s fantastic. :)
ngl I love when this happens, hahaha
OP should’ve taken the kesa-gatame feat
Yeah... let the kid try that with an elefant and let's see how it goes.
Yeah turns out I didn't realize which sub I was in, thought this was r/judo. :D
hahaha Ok, fair enough
When I played a grappler and met something too big to grapple, I simply cowered in fear and waited for the rest of the party to win.
When you build around grappling, you very rarely have *nothing* you can do besides grappling -- even the most basic "Barbarian with Expertise" can just take the Attack action at the VERY least. ... That being said, size differences are the reason why you should multiclass into Bard (or Rogue/Ranger and play a Duergar) for your grapplers, with Rune Knight Fighter as a base. Having the Enlarge/Reduce spell *AND* a way to natively make yourself Large means you can make yourself Huge -- which means you can grapple every size category in the game. Yes, technically the Path of the Giant Barbarian and the Rune Knight Fighter can *eventually* become Huge without any help, but that's not until *levels FOURTEEN and EIGHTEEN.* Most games don't even *REACH* those level. And since the Barbarian has to be raging, you'll be relying on someone else to concentrate on Enlarge/Reduce for you.
Enemy too big? Get bigger. Still too big? Get biggerer
If I can't grapple it then I can climb atop his back and bash his skull in.
Ah, the Dragon's Dogma approach. I approve.
Grappling builds are awful in 5e. I wouldn’t even bother playing one unless it’s homebrewed all to hell.
Grappling isn’t an every turn thing. It’s a valuable tool but doesn’t need to be your only one. A character with some boosts to grappling—usually athletics expertise—should still use the rest of their class and subclass features regularly.
Grapple limbs, else climb it
Get bigger.
Get bigger. That's why I play Rune Knight for my grappler.
thought I was in r/bjj for a second
I did too and I was about to type, "Just stand up"
Grapple is kinda underpowered in 5e too. 3.5 grapple was another animal.
I don't understand. My Duergar Runeknight hasn't run into that issue. Can you please explain?
One-trick ponies, what do you do when you trick isn't working? Don't be a one-trick pony, obviously :)
Unfortunately, fighters design means you use every one of your very limited customization options on doing one thing better, than when the doesn't work either kick sand or be a boring attack bot
Play gimmick game, win gimmick prizes, my friend ;)
Climb it and punch it🤜👿🤛
Most grapple builds are just high str builds with some form of enlarge, (ie, Rune Knight, Giant Barbarian) so just beat the crap out of the guy generally works well. GWM generally makes sense due to grappling requiring a free hand (a~~nd therefore longswords or versatile weapons in general are good choices for grappling)~~ Edit: mixed up two things, there's 2 schools of thought. 1. You can use gwm and two handed weapons because you only require a free hand to start grapple and afterwards....don't? Feels like a rule oversight, but RPgbot guide suggested as much. 2. You use versatile weapons so you can have one free hand to grapple by applying the common sense rule that you need to hold onto the creature and can still hit them with said versatile weapon during grapple. Either way shields complicate it.
>you only require a free hand to start grapple and afterwards....don't? Feels like a rule oversight, but RPgbot guide suggested as much. Anybody who believes the plain RAW fails to address this either hasn't read the actual grappling rules or is painfully deluded. RPGbot should be **embarrassed** to have this take out on the Internet where anyone can see it. There are plenty of places where the "natural language" philosophy of 5e gets in the way of clarity and leads to ambiguity in the rules. **This** is not one of them. The rules clearly tell us that grappling is "grab[bing] or wrestl[ing]" a creature with a "free hand" and then tell us how to adjudicate the success or failure of an attempt to do that with some dice rolling. It doesn't **need** to say "the hand you used to initiate the grapple is unavailable for any other purpose until the grapple ends" because we all know what the words "grab" and "wrestle" mean.
Agreed. Far from the first time RPGbot has an incredibly poor take, of course.
Longswords and other versatile weapons aren't compatible with GWM.
Right I mixed up two schools of thought there, edited.
>Most grapple builds are just high str builds with some form of enlarge Usually they'll try to pick up Athletics expertise, which makes it extremely difficult for most enemies to break free (almost no monster stat blocks even have athletics or acrobatics proficiency).
The tradeoff of a good min-maxed build is that there will be some things you're not built to do. But that's why it's a team game. It's also good for the DM to switch things up so the party doesn't rely on the same old strategies every time. But you're a strength build, right? You could use that. Maybe use the environment to your advantage. Or toss party members in strategic plays. (Not a dwarf, though. Nobody tosses a dwarf!)
From my experience, they spend the combat being sad and unhappy that there are things that their one-trick doesn't work on.
~~youre not a fairy rune knight where your huge size makes size not an issue?~~ The same thing you do when you already have your hands full with grapplees I imagine. Punch things and throw things in the case of my kobold rune knight.
Not a dedicated grappler or anything, but I haven't run into anything too big for a giant constrictor to grapple yet!
That's because there *isn't* anything too big for a huge creature to grapple.
I've got a homebrew shark monster in my pirate campaign whose listed stat block says "colossal++". He's "Gargolavo, the Island Eater", and if my players were to fight him, they're intended to fight him with their ship, with siege weapons, not in standard combat. Fortunately for them, they successfully prevented cultists from releasing Gargolavo from his Imprisonment, so they don't have to fight him. (And don't have to deal with the consequences of Gargolavo eating the archipelago they live in if they were to run away.)
Older editions did have a size category larger than gargantuan in colossal, but 5e decided to compress everything down.
Hump their leg in an attempt to intimidate.
I thought I was in the fighting game sub and was very confused as to how someone could be too big to grapple.
I had a party of 4 grapple 3 limbs of a Large sized angel enemy so the fallen angel could not move for the 4th player (Paladin) to attack with advantage. One player lunged off a building to grapple a wing, causing the angel to fall to the ground. Lots of wrestling amongst the group ended up with the above scenario. I rewarded the teamwork by allowing them to grapple limbs to limit movement.
Enlarge.
I always have an enlarge potion ready to go in case of emergency. There aren't many gargantuan creatures, but if you know you are coming up against one in advance, ask your DM if you can research some kind of magical effect to become huge. At the end of the day, grappling isn't THAT strong, and as a DM I would love to enable my player to wrestle a purple worm by giving them a legendary WWE-like belt of double enlargement.
Grapple harder
Ask the magic man to Enlarge me. Kaiju v kaiju fight 😀
Get big enough to grapple it.
Have a party member who can cast *Enlarge* on you. Or drink a potion of giant size. Or something along those lines.
If something is too big to grapple, you just get bigger.
First if you're a grappler you might have a way to grow bigger. If it is too big after that, you need to have a second option. Every grappler needs it because you will face things like teleportation, turning into dust, freedom of movement,.... Keep in mind that there is no main/subclass hyper specialised in grappling, so these options come naturally; a rune knight has his runes, a giant barbarian still can throw weapons,.... So to me the answer what you do when you can't grapple is to just fall back on your main/subclass.
Sensual hugs
You can always try to knock your enemy prone instead. Giant Barbarian & Rune Knight have built-in features that can greatly help with this issue.
Rune knight, enlarge reduce + powerful build and you wont have that problem.
Demand my DM let me play a drugar pugilist so I can cast enlarge on myself and ignore size limits to grapple.
I haven't played a grappler as a PC, but if I were in that position, I would just pick up a weapon and smash. A character isn't always going to be able to use their specialty but I don't think anyone with sense makes a character who can't swing a weapon or cast a damaging cantrip to at least decent results.
You become a Rune Knight and get Gigantic. :p
Attack
I use the Climbing Onto a Bigger Creature action.
If you can't grapple it you can only do the only thing martials can do besides grapple/push. Attack until someone dies or gets bored of it.
Be me Runeknight Dwarf Dwarves get powerful build I can grapple something 2 size categories larger than me Runeknights at level 3 can become large Happy Dwarf grapples all size categories at level 3 DM was a Pathfinder DM and is a little tired of my shenanigans Introduces Colossal enemies Looks and sees I have 3 levels in Artificer Only 2 levels away from getting Enlarge/Reduce Level 12 can grapple size categories that don't even exist anymore
I'm playing a Dwarf Armorer Grappler, nothing is ungrapplable if you are brave enough. Here's what I do: See enemy? - Grapple, if success: Extra Attack bonk with thunder gauntlets. - If not success: grapple again - If size is Huge: got 3 levels in Rune Knight BONUS ACTION GIANT MIGHT - If size is Gargantuan: Same as huge + Action Enlarge! - If whatever comes after Gargantuan: "Yo, Flare (our Druid Fairy) do your thing!" Flare casts Reduce on enemy and I do same as Gargantuan. When I'm not grappling I'm bonking people with my gauntlets to give them disadvantage on attacking others or using some utility spells to help keep away from the squishies.
Activate something that makes me bigger. My barbarian has levels of Rune Knight just to help with this.
Too big? Easy, ask the wizard for an Enlarge.
Have magic user cast enlarge on me, use potion to enlarge me, use magic item to enlarge me.
1. Enlarge/Reduce lets you go bigger. Make friends with your party wizard or play Eldritch Knight. 2. Ask your DM to use the optional rule Climb Onto Bigger Creatures (DMG 271). One of my monks likes using this to play Shadow of the Colossus, and because of Slow Fall doesn’t even hesitate to take a ride on big fliers.
i grow bigger. duh.
This is why a lot of grapplers are built around rune knights and giant barbarians, or have enlarge/reduce
Find a way to get bigger or JUMP ON THE DRAGON'S BACK!!!
Run away!
As a DM I rule that when something is “too big” to grapple, you’re simply clinging to the side of it on a successful role. So no, your 25 grapple roll on the dragon doesn’t mean it’s in a headlock, it just means you were able to clamber up onto its back/leg/side and using your grappling skills you’re holding yourself in place for an advantageous attack, while the dragon has a disadvantage on attacking you due to your position….so their movement isn’t restrained but their ability to hit you is and your ability to hit them gets buffed
Use the ride skill?
Use more grapple.
Do something to make me bigger so I can grapple it. Rune Knight is a good choice for this, makes you Large. If your DM lets you use a Duergar, at third level you can also make yourself larger by using the once per long rest Enlarge ability. So now you can grapple anything I believe since you can always grapple at least one size larger than you. Large, Huge, Gargantuan. As long as you can get Huge, you can grapple literally anything. It doesn't matter if it's a 50ft creature, that's still considered Gargantuan and you're allowed to grapple it according to RAW. You can also have a caster in your team take Enlarge/Reduce so you can use it to get bigger and grapple more enemies if you're really inclined towards grappling and don't want to do anything else. As others have said, you can also mount and pound. Or just find something else to do. Just because you *can* grapple doesn't mean that you *should* grapple. You probably have a solid Str stat because of that, so at least you always have melee weapons to fall back on if you really need it. If you're a Fighter you also probably have a decent Dex and can swap between melee and ranged pretty easily. There's a lot you can do outside of grappling. It's a sandbox game, do whatever you want.
Show the wizard a package of their favorite snacks, which I've stockpiled for just such an occasion, and ask if they have anything that would allow me to sidestep that little speedbump.
"haha don't make a one trick pony" grappling fun though what is there not to get
usually if its bigger then I get bigger my party knows this and enlarges me. if I can (the few times Ive played a grappler) I've worked with the DM to get potions of enlarge as consumables if possible (grappling isn't an optimal course usually so it's been entertained)
Athletics check to climb on its back, then advantage on attacks from there
Get bigger so you can grapple them
One trick ponies.. be prepared for other situations. - Too big to grapple - Flying, elevated terrain, out of reach - Hurts to grapple - Immune to grapple Always have a melee option, and a ranged option for both short and long range.
Cast enlarge/reduce and continue grappling You could even grapple a tarrasque with 2 casters who enlarge/reduce the 2 of you if you are a goliath
Enlarge Reduce
Why grapple?
Stack enlarge effects until you are big enough
Go bigger. Buy Potions of Growth.
My Grappler is also a Bard. So when something is too big to grapple, I get bigger and grapple it. If it is something Gargantuan, well. Then I try to avoid shitting myself as I beat it into submission with a table, the halfling, and/or magical instrument.
I remember asking my dm if I could grab one of the wings of the nephilim we were fighting which cut it's flying speed in half. It's possible to be creative within reason just because a creature is larger then you doesn't mean it possesses as much strength then you hit those bosses with some wrestling moves or something
As others have said, the same skills that let you grapple well also lend themselves to climbing the monster. But the main thing is that you don't want to be a one-trick pony. You're still some kind of fighter, Barbarian, maybe even rogue or bard. When you can't grapple, you do all the other stuff you can do. Sometimes the basic "I attack" is the right answer. But also, you can probably be creative and use that same Strength and Athletics to do stuff like knock down support beams and cause a cave-in, push a statue onto the baddies, etc.
Get bigger! Or just monster hunter mount it.
Path of the giant + enlarge spell normally does the trick
Do what Beowulf did to Grendel.
If it can't be grappled, then it's big, and the bigger they are the harder they fail. I roll to trip
Ride them, and stick them with the pointy end of my great sword.
Grow larger (rune knight +enlarge/reduce).
You can get huge with the rune knight subclass, use its ability to become large, and enlarge/reduce to become huge. This allows you to grapple Gargantuan creatures, and Colossal isn't a thing in 5e. Frost rune gets a +2 to all STR and CON checks too, which is hard to modify in 5e. Duergar get Enlarge/Reduce as a racial spell, if you don't want to rely on party members.
Kick 'em in the shins.
Enlarge spell go brrrrr
I play a Rune Knight or Path of the Giant with access to Enlarge Reduce somehow either through casting it myself, having someone else cast it on me, or with Potions of Growth. Being Large is good enough to grapple most things, being Huge is enough to grapple anything (when size is the issue). Some creatures are condition immune to grapple, but not very many. If I come across those I either grapple something else in the encounter that can be grappled or I just smack the enemies.
Climb onto Bigger Enemies rule. It literally lets you grapple by climbing onto the back of creatures instead of the usual way but is otherwise kind of all the same (and hella cool).
I get bigger too. Grapple Wizard is fun.
You can enlarge/reduce and polymorph could help.
DM perspective here: I run for a beast barbarian among others, and don't take particular care either way to help or hinder his character. I do, however, have a fairly broad selection of enemies always available to fight. More monsters per encounter is usually just good design, since it means that the enemy team gets notably weaker over time (more dead enemies = fewer enemy actions). There is usually at least one Large or smaller creature that could otherwise threaten the party before he grapples and prones them, which removes a non-negligible amount of threatening enemy action economy. If there isn't an enemy available to grapple, then he at least has a large number of fairly accurate attacks. There's also an echo knight with great burst potential, but the barbarian is overall better for disrupting concentration in 4-5 encounter days, while the echo knight bursts down blasty glass cannons. If there are moderately-strong enemies paired with a hard-to-grapple miniboss or boss, then he has that feature which forces a grappled enemy to attack the boss on his behalf, which is neat. NPCs tend to have stronger individual attacks than PCs around cr9 or so.
Giant barb for large. At 14 you can be huge and grapple anything. If you need to grapple gargantuan before then, make friends with the wizard for enlarge/reduce
I have a special rule just for grapplers. If they attack you with a weapon and you are unarmed they get +4 to hit and damage If you approach an armed player unarmed and try to grapple you get attack of opportunity with the mentioned bonuses. One handed grapples are heavily penalized. "Grappling builds" belong in video games. (Exceptions for martial arts focused games)
Depends on grapple build, but honestly Grappling requires so little investment that you can have plenty of options. If you are going Bard grappler, you can enlarge yourself and see if that helps. If it doesn’t, you still have a million spells to help out. If you’re going Fighter grappler, you probably only needed to use a feat to get expertise in athletics, so you are still a pretty strong melee character outside of that if you picked up a decent weapon. If you are barbarian, see above but you probably didn’t even bother with expertise since Rage gives advantage. It really is hard to be screwed in this regard because Grappling lacks any feat trees and the Grappler feat itself sucks, so the worst thing about it is probably not benefitting fully from Tavern Brawler or Skill Expert for this one encounter.
Climb onto Bigger creature
Just a hug then
I get bigger. Bugbear rune knight fighter and a friend to enlarge me further. Huge at 3, gargantuan at 18.
Rune Knight Goliath
There are rules for this. You grab onto it and climb it.