I was scrolling through YT shorts and got a video from MonkeyDM saying that a druid wildshaped into a brown bear had "two opportunities to grapple an enemy" as part of a video describing a cheese grater build. From what I can tell, they were implying that since the bear had multiattack, you could replace each of those with grapple attempts.
My reading of the rules is that the PHB rule says if you can make multiple attacks as part of the (capital A) Attack Action, you could replace those with grapple attempts, and neither the DMG or the MM make any adjustments to that for monsters. On the other hand, the multiattack action is not the attack action, and the bear's stat block doesn't say you can replace either of the attacks with a grapple, so each action would only give one attempt at a grapple.
Keep in mind that the grappling rule in the Player’s Handbook requires the Attack action, so a creature must take that action—rather than Multiattack or another action in the creature’s stat block—when it uses that rule. A monster, such as a roper, that has a special grappling attack doesn’t follow that rule when using its special attack.
I was scrolling through YT shorts and got a video from MonkeyDM saying that a druid wildshaped into a brown bear had "two opportunities to grapple an enemy" as part of a video describing a cheese grater build. From what I can tell, they were implying that since the bear had multiattack, you could replace each of those with grapple attempts.
My reading of the rules is that the PHB rule says if you can make multiple attacks as part of the (capital A) Attack Action, you could replace those with grapple attempts, and neither the DMG or the MM make any adjustments to that for monsters. On the other hand, the multiattack action is not the attack action, and the bear's stat block doesn't say you can replace either of the attacks with a grapple, so each action would only give one attempt at a grapple.
Any other thoughts on this?
Looked into who you're talking about.
That guy gets a lot of rulings wrong. I would use caution with him. There's a few decent YouTubers when it comes to this, but he gets it wrong often.
The Multiattack action is not the Attack action, so if a bear wants to grapple a target, it need to take the Attack action.
This is true. Specifically, the multiattack action tells you how many times a creature can use a specific kind of attack or attacks that it has in its stat block.
I was scrolling through YT shorts and got a video from MonkeyDM saying that a druid wildshaped into a brown bear had "two opportunities to grapple an enemy" as part of a video describing a cheese grater build. From what I can tell, they were implying that since the bear had multiattack, you could replace each of those with grapple attempts.
My reading of the rules is that the PHB rule says if you can make multiple attacks as part of the (capital A) Attack Action, you could replace those with grapple attempts, and neither the DMG or the MM make any adjustments to that for monsters. On the other hand, the multiattack action is not the attack action, and the bear's stat block doesn't say you can replace either of the attacks with a grapple, so each action would only give one attempt at a grapple.
Any other thoughts on this?
Looked into who you're talking about.
That guy gets a lot of rulings wrong. I would use caution with him. There's a few decent YouTubers when it comes to this, but he gets it wrong often.
I actually agree. I have noticed the same thing. Promoting a bunch of builds that don't really work if you actually follow the rules.
I don't go to him for rules advice, but since I like D&D, his stuff shows up in the algorithm for me.
Multiattack allows you to do whatever the multiattack specifies you can do, there's no RAW ability to replace components of the multiattack, though a DM can rule otherwise. I would consider it reasonable to replace the Claws attack with Grapple, but not the Bite attack.
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I was scrolling through YT shorts and got a video from MonkeyDM saying that a druid wildshaped into a brown bear had "two opportunities to grapple an enemy" as part of a video describing a cheese grater build. From what I can tell, they were implying that since the bear had multiattack, you could replace each of those with grapple attempts.
My reading of the rules is that the PHB rule says if you can make multiple attacks as part of the (capital A) Attack Action, you could replace those with grapple attempts, and neither the DMG or the MM make any adjustments to that for monsters. On the other hand, the multiattack action is not the attack action, and the bear's stat block doesn't say you can replace either of the attacks with a grapple, so each action would only give one attempt at a grapple.
Any other thoughts on this?
The Multiattack action is not the Attack action, so if a bear wants to grapple a target, it need to take the Attack action.
Here's the official ruling in Sage Advice Compendium on this topic:
I forgot to check sage advice. Thanks for the confirmation.
Looked into who you're talking about.
That guy gets a lot of rulings wrong. I would use caution with him. There's a few decent YouTubers when it comes to this, but he gets it wrong often.
This is true. Specifically, the multiattack action tells you how many times a creature can use a specific kind of attack or attacks that it has in its stat block.
"Not all those who wander are lost"
I actually agree. I have noticed the same thing. Promoting a bunch of builds that don't really work if you actually follow the rules.
I don't go to him for rules advice, but since I like D&D, his stuff shows up in the algorithm for me.
Multiattack allows you to do whatever the multiattack specifies you can do, there's no RAW ability to replace components of the multiattack, though a DM can rule otherwise. I would consider it reasonable to replace the Claws attack with Grapple, but not the Bite attack.