[RPG] Are there any rules on using a grappling hook in combat

combatdnd-5eequipmentimprovised-weaponry

I came up with the idea of a "grappling hook" (just a 30-foot length of rope, and a hook on the end – not sharp, just to hook onto things), and was wondering about its use in combat.

The tricky part is that my character is Dex-based, not Str. My character has 14 Dex and 10 Str. So its use would be to simply attempt to throw an enemy off balance, or impose disadvantage on their next roll, for example.

The use in this situation would have to be finesse-based, potentially, or the goal would be an opposed check vs. the target's Dex (and my Dex, hopefully).

Is there anything in the rules about something like this? Or is it entirely homebrew?

Best Answer

Anything you could do to an enemy with a grappling hook would probably require a strength check

As far as I know, there are no specific rules for using a grappling hook against an enemy in the way you describe, which means that you would be improvising an action, as described in the rule for actions in combat:

When you describe an action not detailed elsewhere in the rules, the DM tells you whether that action is possible and what kind of roll you need to make, if any, to determine success or failure.

The introduction to the DMG gives some guidance on how the DM should adjudicate improvised actions (note: because this is the DMG, "you" refers to the DM):

The rules don’t account for every possible situation that might arise during a typical D&D session. For example, a player might want his or her character to hurl a brazier full of hot coals into a monster’s face. How you determine the outcome of this action is up to you. You might tell the player to make a Strength check, while mentally setting the Difficulty Class (DC) at 15. If the Strength check is successful, you then determine how a face full of hot coals affects the monster. You might decide that it deals 1d4 fire damage and imposes disadvantage on the monster’s attack rolls until the end of its next turn. You roll the damage die (or let the player do it), and the game continues.

The example given is in fact very similar to what you're asking about: improvising the use of something that's not a weapon to interfere with an enemy in some way. You can reasonably expect the DM to either ask you for an attack roll (without proficiency) or some kind of ability check in order to use the grappling hook against an enemy in the way you describe, assuming they decide it's even possible.

Unfortunately for your character, if we look in the rules for the kind of things you could conceivably do to an enemy using a grappling hook, we see that they all require rolling some kind of strength check. The most likely candidates are grappling the creature, pulling it toward you, or tripping it to knock it prone. For grappling (emphasis added):

When you want to grab a creature or wrestle with it, you can use the Attack action to make a special melee attack, a grapple. [...] you try to seize the target by making a grapple check instead of an attack roll: a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use).

For pulling or tripping, the relevant attack is a shove (emphasis added):

Using the Attack action, you can make a special melee attack to shove a creature, either to knock it prone or push it away from you. [...] Instead of making an attack roll, you make a Strength (Athletics) check contested by the target's Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check (the target chooses the ability to use).

Of course, pulling isn't covered by this, but it's obviously mechanically similar to pushing, with the only difference being the direction of movement. It stands to reason that if pushing is strength-based, then pulling ought to be as well.

In summary, if you try to use of a grappling hook in combat to grab, pull, or trip an enemy, your DM may allow this and make a ruling about how to resolve the action. Based on the similarity to existing attack types that are defined in the rules (grapple and shove), it is mostly likely that your use of the grappling hook will require a strength check.

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