Glabrezu can grapple one opponent (medium sized or smaller) with each pincer and if they hit, they grapple and do damage.
If they have successfully grappled an opponent with a pincer, can they do further damage (automatic damage) with that pincer, as long as the grapple is maintained?
If the pincer attack did no damage, but only grappled, I could see the answer being "no", but since the pincer DOES do damage, I don't see why it wouldn't continue to do damage once the opponent was grappled with it...after all, the demon only has to squeeze tighter at that point.
That's probably going to be the decision I make in my game, but I wanted to know what the community consensus on that was.
Usually if grappling a creature with an appendage removes its ability to attack with it (or limits its attacks to only the grappled creature), the statblock says so. So while the glabrezu can only grapple one creature with each pincir, as written it can still attack that creature or any other in range (it’s bludgeoning damage, so i would assume it could either squeeze the grappled creature or hit another one when it makes that attack)
So generally, when you grapple a target, you "use" that hand to start the grapple, and general understanding is that you continue to use the hand to maintain it and can't continue to attack with it (though that isn't explicit). See Chapter 9 and Grappled. However, even if your hand (or both hands) are used up maintaining grapples, that wouldn't prevent you from making an Unarmed Strike against whoever you're grappling since that just uses your body in general, not your hands... I'm just not sure whether a specific piece of anatomy that functions as a natural weapon, like a Claw, should be applied as closer to an Unarmed Strike, or a held weapon?
There are basically two wordings that monster grapple effects use. The Glabrezu one is the same one used by Giant Crab: "The glabrezu has two pincers, each of which can grapple only one target."
The other grapple entry you'll see is the one used by the Giant Crocodile or Giant Toad: " Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the toad can't bite another target."
I always read those Bite-type entries to allow you to continue Biting, but only against the target that you're currently biting. The Pincer-type entries I read as initiating a grapple but then not allowing you to continue doing Pincer attacks. I don't feel great about the RAW on this... it certainly seems logical that a crab could keep squeezing and a gator keep biting, but I'm just not sure its clear.
Hypothetically, if one person is grappling another by choking them (with hands), doing damage in subsequent rounds with the grapple seems sensible, until the grapple is broken. If the Glabrezu's pincers are strong enough to do damage on that initial attack, I don't see why they suddenly wouldn't be on subsequent rounds.
With PC's the details of the grapple are not specified (like choking with hands), but they are with the Glabrezu.
Like I said, a PC does damage (strangling) by making an Unarmed Strike. Unarmed Strike does not require any particular part of your anatomy, so there's 100% RAW no problem mechanically with that attack even if that hand is "busy" grappling, describing it as a "strangle" is just fluff. It is less clear that a monster's Claw or Bite can be used for attacks, when that appendage is "busy" grappling.
Remember, monster attacks don't use PC rules. When a monster attack applies grappled, all this does is apply the grappled effect. Nothing about the grappled effect limits the monster's limbs at all, so unless some other effect says otherwise, it is free to use all of its attacks.
That's a good point. Read that way, a Glabrezu can continue to bludgeon other party members with a Pincer that is holding a character, or continue to Pincer the character that is held, while a Giant Crocodile is explicitly limited to only being able to continue biting the character it is currently holding.
I'm not aware of anywhere else in the rules (for players or npcs) that suggests an attack ever automatically hits... even for Unconscious targets you still have to roll against their regular AC, you just get advantage. You could houserule to give them advantage on the attack, but even that's pushing it since they don't have the Grappler feat or an ability that replicates it. Other monsters like Giant Crocodile already get that benefit explicitly by virtue of Restraineding their target.
Glabrezu can grapple one opponent (medium sized or smaller) with each pincer and if they hit, they grapple and do damage.
If they have successfully grappled an opponent with a pincer, can they do further damage (automatic damage) with that pincer, as long as the grapple is maintained?
If the pincer attack did no damage, but only grappled, I could see the answer being "no", but since the pincer DOES do damage, I don't see why it wouldn't continue to do damage once the opponent was grappled with it...after all, the demon only has to squeeze tighter at that point.
That's probably going to be the decision I make in my game, but I wanted to know what the community consensus on that was.
Usually if grappling a creature with an appendage removes its ability to attack with it (or limits its attacks to only the grappled creature), the statblock says so. So while the glabrezu can only grapple one creature with each pincir, as written it can still attack that creature or any other in range (it’s bludgeoning damage, so i would assume it could either squeeze the grappled creature or hit another one when it makes that attack)
So generally, when you grapple a target, you "use" that hand to start the grapple, and general understanding is that you continue to use the hand to maintain it and can't continue to attack with it (though that isn't explicit). See Chapter 9 and Grappled. However, even if your hand (or both hands) are used up maintaining grapples, that wouldn't prevent you from making an Unarmed Strike against whoever you're grappling since that just uses your body in general, not your hands... I'm just not sure whether a specific piece of anatomy that functions as a natural weapon, like a Claw, should be applied as closer to an Unarmed Strike, or a held weapon?
There are basically two wordings that monster grapple effects use. The Glabrezu one is the same one used by Giant Crab: "The glabrezu has two pincers, each of which can grapple only one target."
The other grapple entry you'll see is the one used by the Giant Crocodile or Giant Toad: " Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, and the toad can't bite another target."
I always read those Bite-type entries to allow you to continue Biting, but only against the target that you're currently biting. The Pincer-type entries I read as initiating a grapple but then not allowing you to continue doing Pincer attacks. I don't feel great about the RAW on this... it certainly seems logical that a crab could keep squeezing and a gator keep biting, but I'm just not sure its clear.
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Hypothetically, if one person is grappling another by choking them (with hands), doing damage in subsequent rounds with the grapple seems sensible, until the grapple is broken. If the Glabrezu's pincers are strong enough to do damage on that initial attack, I don't see why they suddenly wouldn't be on subsequent rounds.
With PC's the details of the grapple are not specified (like choking with hands), but they are with the Glabrezu.
Like I said, a PC does damage (strangling) by making an Unarmed Strike. Unarmed Strike does not require any particular part of your anatomy, so there's 100% RAW no problem mechanically with that attack even if that hand is "busy" grappling, describing it as a "strangle" is just fluff. It is less clear that a monster's Claw or Bite can be used for attacks, when that appendage is "busy" grappling.
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Remember, monster attacks don't use PC rules. When a monster attack applies grappled, all this does is apply the grappled effect. Nothing about the grappled effect limits the monster's limbs at all, so unless some other effect says otherwise, it is free to use all of its attacks.
That's a good point. Read that way, a Glabrezu can continue to bludgeon other party members with a Pincer that is holding a character, or continue to Pincer the character that is held, while a Giant Crocodile is explicitly limited to only being able to continue biting the character it is currently holding.
I'm comfortable with that.
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Would the damage be automatic or would you require an attack roll for damage? (Didn't squeeze hard enough)
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I'm not aware of anywhere else in the rules (for players or npcs) that suggests an attack ever automatically hits... even for Unconscious targets you still have to roll against their regular AC, you just get advantage. You could houserule to give them advantage on the attack, but even that's pushing it since they don't have the Grappler feat or an ability that replicates it. Other monsters like Giant Crocodile already get that benefit explicitly by virtue of Restraineding their target.
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There are automatic damage effects (for example, if you get swallowed) but they aren't presented as attacks.
the only automatic hit attack i can think of is the CR25 modron-like creature found in the Tome of Foes... I cant think of its name though
I think the Death Avatar from Deck of Many Things autohits with the Scythe as well.