The description of the prone condition says:
- A prone creature's only movement option is to crawl, unless it stands up and thereby ends the condition.
- The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls.
- An attack roll against the creature has advantage if the attacker is within 5 feet of the creature. Otherwise, the attack roll has disadvantage.
The description of the restrained condition says:
- A restrained creature's speed becomes 0, and it can't benefit from any bonus to its speed.
- Attack rolls against the creature have advantage, and the creature's attack rolls have disadvantage.
- The creature has disadvantage on Dexterity saving throws.
A grapple is described as a replacement for an Attack action:
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. If you're able to make multiple attacks with the Attack action, this attack replaces one of them.
…but it doesn't say a grapple is an "attack roll".
Should we be interpreting attack rolls and Attack actions as separate things? Does that effectively mean that grapples (and other special melee attacks) get no advantage when trying to attack restrained or prone opponents?
Best Answer
Grapples don't involve attack rolls, so the prone and restrained conditions don't give enemies advantage on the ability check
Grapples are a special type of attack, but use an ability check in place of an attack roll. This is clear from the description of grappling in the rules - specifically, the paragraph after the one you quoted:
This distinction is reiterated in an official ruling in the Sage Advice Compendium:
The prone and restrained conditions specifically refer to "attack rolls" being affected. Ability checks, such as Strength (Athletics) checks or Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks, are totally unaffected by these conditions - barring DM fiat.
Rules designer Jeremy Crawford also unofficially confirmed this distinction in a 2015 tweet:
And again in a 2016 tweet that references the official Sage Advice Compendium ruling:
So no, a prone or restrained creature doesn't cause other creatures to have advantage on an attempt to grapple it.