As Overlord I had two of my minions adjacent to a Hero with the Grapple ability. This states that " enemies adjacant to a figure with Grapple cannot spend movement points until the figure is dead. " Obviously they couldn't move. Interestingly they were side-by-side in a narrow 2 square wide corridor with the Hero in front of them by one square.

Q1: Could I have moved a further a further beastie through a grappled, but otherwise friendly figure into the next empty space beside the Hero? For instance, could I move monster 'm' through M to 's'?

| H s |

| M M |

| m s |

H = Hero with Grapple ability, s = empty Space, M = Monsters that are grappled, m = the monster I wish to move

The Hero in question insisted that I couldn't move through grappled friendlies, thus my monsters were effectively blocking the corridor despite the fact that one can normally move through friendly figures - just not stop on such a square.

Q2: Would Grapple affect creatures with the Fly ability? I'm thinking not.

Q3: As stated Grapple affects adjacent enem ies . Are there any limits to this, such as size? A dude grapplying a multiple square troll and everything around him just seems daft to me, but apparently legal? How does a Hero fight with his sword and lock down umpteen enemies surrounding him? I know, don't apply logic to Descent, but it's kind of annoying.

Q4: If a Hero with the Grapple ability is in a pit, while he has LoS to adjacent squares surely Grapple does not apply outside of the pit space(s)? I didn't allow this but the question came up.

TuftyMcTavish said:

Q1: Yes you can move the monster into the empty space. You can only grapple one monster per space, which allows other figures to move through grappled spaces.

Q2: I'm not positive on this one, but think the only thing that you can't grapple is a Blood Ape in mid "leap". If the Blood Ape has finished his "leap" next to a hero who grapples, the Ape could no longer "leap". So yes, flyers should be grappled.

Q3: There is no limits to size.

Q4: It makes no sense, but yes grapple would still apply.

On a side note, my house rules are usually few and far between, but we have house ruled that you can't grapple "Ghost".

Q1: You could have, your friend was wrong. I've been dealing with Tahlia and a Bear-Tatoo all through our RtL campaign, and this is the only way to get past her in a narrow hallway. Overwhelm with numbers. I think it's been clarified on the old boards at some point, but I'm not sure.

Q2: It would. Fly does not grant immunity to Grapple. Only currently Soaring monster cannot be grappled.

Q3: There are no limits due to size or number, even dragons can be grappled.

Q4: If you go by the wording of the Grapple ability, being in a pit does NOT matter, since the figures are still adjacent. I'm not entirely sure there hasn't been a special ruling on this one though.

I second Uthoroc's answers. Nice, concise responses.

In reference to Royaldoy's no-grappling-ghost house rule, I think it makes sense thematically; i.e., a figure with Ghost ability cannot be hit by a melee attack from an adjacent space (because it's a ghost), so it certainly should not be able to be held, either.

But the thought of Tahlia grappling a couple master shades and being attacked by them but being unable to return fire is amusing, at least from the OL perspective. Of course, she can break the grapple on her turn. But I could see situations in which the OL brings in the shades adjacent to her tin order o move other non-ghost monsters through the shades, essentially bypassing the grapple.

Another thought, if the melee hero with grapple were to be careless and end in a corner, the OL could pin the hero in with shades What are you going to do next turn, Tahlia?!? Dodge? Muahaha, muahaha!

I now have an image of Tahlia surrounded by all the Sahdes in the game, unable to attack them, with the shades unable to move away.

This makes me laugh.

Royaldoy said:

I know in the FAQ it says that a monster with Leap can not be pinned with Grapple, so Blood Apes can still Leap away from Heroes with Grapple.

Big Remy said:

Indeed. Leap does not require the spending of MP, so is not affected by Grappling.

Royaldoy said:

Excellent. Thanks for the answers, folks. This is a neat summary I think - one monster per space. I'll be sure to remember this!

****, wish I had seen this a while ago. Our group decided that if a monster was grappled, then other monsters could not enter the space. This of course made grapple a very powerful skill. It caused me no end of problems as the Overlord.

Grapple is still very powerful - one of the essential three crowd control skills: Telekinesis, Taunt, Grapple. All three cause the overlord untold grief.