Grab

Characters can grab weapons or important items away from their opponents. If the character wants to grab his opponent directly, he should consider it a wrestling attack and resolve it as unarmed combat; see Chapter Five. A character has to have a hand free to grab; if both hands are full, he’s got to drop something in order to attempt the grab. (Two-handed weapons can be held in just one hand, but the character can’t attack this way.) The attacker must announce the grab attempt before he makes his attack roll.

Trying to grab an enemy’s possessions while he threatens you is a bad idea; the defender receives an immediate attack of opportunity against the grabber.

Generally, the grab attempt works the same way a disarm attempt does. The character attempting to grab an item must make an opposed roll against AC 0 while the intended victim rolls against AC 4. The DM may assign certain penalties to the character attempting the grab, depending on circumstances; grabbing a tiny ring on someone’s finger might incur a –8 penalty to the target Armor Class for the grabbing character. If the opposed roll results in a tie, the item may be dropped or broken at the DM’s discretion.

For example, Euserio the Bold is behind the evil wizard Warjo and decides to grab Warjo’s wand of lightning. There’s no attack of opportunity, since the hero wasn’t threatened by Warjo. The DM rules that there is no penalty to Euserio’s attempt, since Warjo has the wand in his hand and isn’t paying Euserio any attention. Euserio and Warjo make the opposed roll, Euserio against AC 0, Warjo against AC 4. Euserio’s THAC0 is a 16, while poor Warjo’s is still a 20. Euserio scores a hit with a roll of 18, while Warjo rolls a 12 and misses, so Euserio gets his hands on the wand.

Once the grabbing character succeeds in grasping the item, the opponents must wrestle for control of it using opposed Strength checks. If a character only grabs (or was originally holding) the item with one hand, then his Strength is reduced by 3 points.

Continuing our example, Euserio and Warjo now struggle for control of the wand, making opposing Strength checks. Euserio’s 17 Strength is reduced to an effective 14 because he only got one hand on the wand, and Warjo’s 13 becomes a 10. Euserio makes his Strength check with a 6, but Warjo rolls a 9 and wins, jerking the wand away! Wonder what he’ll do with it next round?

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