Wrestling
Hello everyone and welcome to Extraordinary Feats, where we indulge your appetite for awesome feats each and every week. Just yesterday, we released Advanced Arcana III, which, I’m sure you’ll agree, is the best thing to happen to spells since at least Advanced Arcana II. If you haven’t got your copy yet, go ahead click the handy banner at the side of your screen and go buy one. I can wait, and the feats will still be here when you get back. Got it? Great. Now, in a few short moments you’re going to have more cool magic stuff than you’re going to know what to do with, so I won’t try to bog you down with any more hype; instead, let’s talk about something we didn’t spend a lot of time on in Advanced Arcana III: wrestling.
Yes, wrestling: one of the Western world’s oldest and most revered fighting styles, commonly referred to by those playing the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game as grappling. In my personal experience as a GM, grappling ended up being one of the deadliest and most effective fighting styles in the game. After all, as I’m sure you’re aware, there are basically two kinds of characters: those who are good at grappling, and those that aren’t. And while even the best grappler is hardly a match for a monster bigger than Huge, most of your carefully crafted NPCs are going to end mushed to pulp in the hands of a PC grappler. That said, grappling is far from the most exciting form of combat, and this article aims to change all that… so move over Improved Grapple and Greater Grapple, and get ready to blown out of the water by feats that make grappling cooler.
Ankle Lock (Combat [Wrestling])
A straightforward leglock in which you use your legs to isolate one of your opponent’s legs, with your foot in his armpit and your forearm on his calf, allowing you to apply extreme pressure to your target’s ankle and Achilles tendon.
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: Whenever you are in control of a grapple, you may attempt a grapple check in order to attempt to apply the ankle lock. If this check is successful, your CMD is treated as though it were 4 higher for purposes of escaping the grapple for as long as you maintain control of the grapple. You may only apply one wrestling feat at a time.
Bear Hug (Combat [Wrestling])
Perhaps the simplest of all grapple holds, the bear hug is still incredibly effective once locked in, causing incredible pain the target.
Prerequisites: Strength 13, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: As long as you are in control of a grapple, you may attempt a grapple check as a swift action at a -4 penalty against the creature you are currently grappling in order to apply the bear hug. If this check is successful, you deal twice the normal amount of damage whenever you use the grapple action to deal damage for as long as you remain in control of the grapple. So long as you have the bear hug applied, you suffer a -4 penalty on CMD for the purposes of grappling. You can only apply one wrestling feat at time.
Hammerlock (Combat [Wrestling])
To execute a hammerlock, you bend the arm of your opponent behind his back, with his hand forced upward towards his neck, applying painful pressure to his shoulder and restricting use of his arm.
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: As long as you are in control of a grapple, you choose to apply the hammerlock to the creature you are grappling. As long as you have the hammerlock applied, you may attempt a special grapple check. If you exceed the target’s CMD, you cause him to feel excruciating pain in his shoulder, effectively causing him to be sickened for 1 round. Additionally, a character who has the hammerlock applied to him cannot make attacks against the creature that is grappling it. You may only apply one wrestling feat at a time.
Nelson (Combat [Wrestling])
A nelson has numerous variations, including the quarter, half, and full nelson, and is one of the simplest and most effective grapple holds. You encircle your opponents’ arms with your own, beginning under the armpit and ending at the base of your foe’s neck, applying pressure on the head and neck while restricting the use of his arms.
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: As long as you are in control of a grapple, you may choose to apply the nelson to the creature you are grappling. While the nelson is applied, you cannot use grapple to damage your opponent, but gain a +4 bonus to CMD for the purposes of maintaining the grapple. Additionally, the creature you are grappling must gain control of the grapple in order to attack you with a held weapon. You may only apply one wrestling feat at a time.
Triangle Choke (Combat [Wrestling])
Using your legs to form a triangle shape, restricting one of your opponent’s arms and his neck, you can apply simple pressure in order to strangle him.
Prerequisites: Improved Grapple, base attack bonus +1.
Benefit: As long as you are in control of a grapple, you may attempt a grapple check in order to apply a triangle choke. If your check is successful, you can restrict the target’s airways, so that he is forced to hold his breath or begin to suffocate. For as long as you maintain the grapple, you may attempt to apply additional pressure with a special grapple check to reduce the number of remaining rounds the target can hold his breath by 1. This special action requires a standard action. See the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook for more information of suffocation. You can only apply one wrestling feat at a time.