If you have no flying speed (normal humanoid) and you grapple a hovering target, do you still reduce its movement to 0?

I can see if you have a flight speed through magic or wings keeping a flying target in place, but how does this work if you're just hanging on to the eye stalks of a beholder?

I would think that a DM might make a distinction between hanging onto a hovering creature and grappling it. But as stated, if the DM does consider it to be grappled, then the speed is 0.

Quote from TexasDevin >>

I would think that a DM might make a distinction between hanging onto a hovering creature and grappling it. But as stated, if the DM does consider it to be grappled, then the speed is 0.

 I would consider a grapple to be hanging on, but necessarily the other way around =)

Quote from Wysperra >>

I can see if you have a flight speed through magic or wings keeping a flying target in place, but how does this work if you're just hanging on to the eye stalks of a beholder?

 Assuming you have your feet on the ground when grappling the hovering creature, you are just grabbing it and preventing it from flying away.  Makes plenty of sense to me

If you somehow jumped and grappled without your feet on the ground, then well that isn't really covered in the rules anyways, so it's all up to the DM to improvise some rules that seem to make sense in the moment.  I'd rule that you pull the creature down to the ground with you.

More like 50 feet in the air...

You can ride the pegasus, but if you grab it by the mane for stability, it falls to the ground.

When a flying grappled creature's speed becomes 0 it falls, unless it has the ability to hover. If the grappler doesn't have the capacity to fly then it would be a DM call wether the flying creature stay aloft or get dragged down as the grappler start falling.. Rule for carrying capacity or moving a grappled target could justify a ruling one way or another.

Keep in mind that "The target of your grapple must be no more than one size larger than you" so if we're imagining jumping onto the back of some enormous beast and somehow it must stop flying -- that doesn't work.

A decent depiction of how this rule does make some sense, however, is in the opening scenes of Honor Among Thieves where our heroes essentially grapple an aarakocra high up in the air and they all begin to plummet towards the ground together.  If the creature had the ability to hover than it would not have fallen but it wouldn't be able to fly either.

The ability to hover doesn't make a flying creature impervious to forced movement such as when being pushed, pulled or dragged by a grappler wether horizontally or vertically for exemple , so a falling grappler should be able to drag someone when falling, but the grappled creature itself may not be considered  as falling due to it's ability to hover. 

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

The ability to hover doesn't make a flying creature impervious to forced movement such as when being pushed, pulled or dragged by a grappler wether horizontally or vertically for exemple , so a falling grappler should be able to drag someone when falling, but the grappled creature itself may not be considered  as falling due to it's ability to hover. 

 I can see that if the grappler was on the ground, but in the air is hard to imagine - meaning a non flying attacker grappling a target 30 feet in the air. If the attacker has no flight speed, how does he move the target?

This happens in the movie that I mentioned.  The heroes grab the flying creature and they all fall.

Quote from Wysperra >>

Quote from Plaguescarred >>

The ability to hover doesn't make a flying creature impervious to forced movement such as when being pushed, pulled or dragged by a grappler wether horizontally or vertically for exemple , so a falling grappler should be able to drag someone when falling, but the grappled creature itself may not be considered  as falling due to it's ability to hover. 

 I can see that if the grappler was on the ground, but in the air is hard to imagine - meaning a non flying attacker grappling a target 30 feet in the air. If the attacker has no flight speed, how does he move the target?

 Either by flying themselves or jumping. Some races like Grungs and Harengons have the ability to jump significant heights right out of the gate.

Then there are other effects from the Jump spell, Boots of Striding and Springing, or class features like Path of the Beast's Beastial Soul Jumping ability.

Beholders are inherently able to hover. As such, hanging on by its eyestalks should generally not slow it to 0 speed or make it fall down. Also note the following:

Quote from DrJawaPhD >>

Quote from Wysperra >>

I can see if you have a flight speed through magic or wings keeping a flying target in place, but how does this work if you're just hanging on to the eye stalks of a beholder?

 Assuming you have your feet on the ground when grappling the hovering creature, you are just grabbing it and preventing it from flying away.  Makes plenty of sense to me

If you somehow jumped and grappled without your feet on the ground, then well that isn't really covered in the rules anyways, so it's all up to the DM to improvise some rules that seem to make sense in the moment.  I'd rule that you pull the creature down to the ground with you.

 I've done the on-ground grapple and it was glorious. Dodged 10 eye rays before it rolled a Wis save against my barbarian.

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

Beholders are inherently able to hover. As such, hanging on by its eyestalks should generally not slow it to 0 speed or make it fall down. Also note the following:

A magical  organ  called  the   "levator  magnus", located  in  the  center  of  the  body  surrounded  by  the  creature's  brain,  produces
an influence that causes the beholder to float in the air. This allows it to move about slowly, up and down, left or right,
forward  or  back  at  a  slow  speed,  like  that of a pacing man. No magical spell or device can negate this levitation, though beholders cannot resist the push of great winds.

                                                                                                                                                           -           "The ecology of the Beholder" from Dragon Magazine #76 (1983) 

If spells and devices cannot stop the beholder's hover ability, then a Medium humanoid barely hanging on certainly would not be able to either.

 Careful using old editions to support 5e mechanics arguments. Flavor and rules are detached from each other, and even the universe's rules changed in between editions. Grappled is grappled, period, going by RAW.

Quote from Song_of_Blues >>

Beholders are inherently able to hover. As such, hanging on by its eyestalks should generally not slow it to 0 speed or make it fall down. Also note the following:

 

 

Grappling a Beholder reduce it's speed to 0, because it's not immune to such effect. But the ability to hover makes them hard to knock out of the air so when such flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, it doesn't falls but it still can't move or speed  0 nonetheless.

It floats immobile in the air if you prefer. But something can still push, pull or drag it in any direction.

Here’s the thing in regards to RAW

Either we are debating what the RAW actually means, in which case rules and such can and should be cited.

OR

We are debating on what the RAW should be, in which case it does not matter what it is right now.

It seems to me that we have both people trying to figure out what the RAW is, and what it should be. This doesn’t really go anywhere, so let’s settle it now.

Are we debating what the RAW is? Or what it should be?

Quote from DragonRiderHN >>

Are we debating what the RAW is? Or what it should be?

In here the "what is RAW" always takes precedence.
When we agree on that then a bit of "what should it be" can also be done (like some discussions about the 1DND UA's that are knocking about).

RAW
flying - If a flying creature is knocked prone, has its speed reduced to 0, or is otherwise deprived of the ability to move, the creature falls, unless it has the ability to hover or it is being held aloft by magic, such as by the fly spell.

grappled - A grappled creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.

To support this we have Developer tweets:

JC - The grappled condition reduces any speed you have to 0. If you have a flying speed, it's now 0, and you fall unless you're hovering
MM - creature is safe at speed 0 only if it can hover

NOTE however that you cannot grapple a creature two sizes or larger than you.  However there are optional rules to use the grapple rules to hang on to a creature two sizes or larger which don't impede the creatures movement but result in you automatically moving with the creature.

If the grappler has a flight speed then its holding both of them aloft.  If it doesn't have a flight speed or the ability to hover then both creatures fall. If the creature has the ability to hover then both of them stay aloft but a grappler without a flight speed will have no way to drag or forcibly move the creature in mid-air.

If the grappler does have flight and can hold them aloft then encumbrance might come into play but thats all on the DM because encumbrance focuses specifically on items and objects, not creatures.  One might easily argue that the application of encumbrance comes from the Grappling ability itself which reduces the grappler's move to half.

1. Being grappled reduces a creature's speed to 0 regardless of whether it is on land/sea/air
2. Having the hover trait means a grappled creature does not fall when their speed is reduced to 0
3. A creature grappling a hovering creature does not fall while they maintain the grapple
4. A creature grappling a hovering creature can move around the target using standard rules for climbing
5. A creature (without a fly speed) grappling a hovering creature cannot move the target