[RPG] Does this lake event in the “Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden” adventure allow a grapple as an opportunity attack

dnd-5egrappleopportunity-attackreadied-actionrime-of-the-frostmaiden

There is an event in Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden (an official D&D 5e adventure by Wizards of the Coast) that seems to allow for a grapple attack as an opportunity attack. In the Lake Events table on p. 30, it lists the following result for a roll of 15 on the d20:

A knucklehead trout […] leaps out of the lake, makes a tail attack against one random character in the boat, and dives back into the frigid water. A character with a passive Wisdom (Perception) score of 13 or higher is not surprised by the fish and can use its reaction to make an opportunity attack against it or try to grapple the fish as it dives back into the water.

To me, this implies that the reaction is used to make an opportunity attack, but that attack can be substituted with the grapple special attack – which goes against the rules as written, which state that a grapple can only be done with the Attack action, not as an opportunity attack.

Now, if the character is before the fish on initiative, it could use the Ready action to ready an attack, then use that attack to grapple. But the text doesn't mention Ready, nor does it state that the fish has lost initiative to the grappling character, which would be required to Ready a grapple. If the fish is earlier on initiative, the character could react with an opportunity attack but could not have an action (to grapple) already Readied.

Does this imply that you can grapple with an opportunity attack, or is it just a case of specific beats general, applying only to this specific fish-slap encounter?

Or is it just alluding to the Ready action, in a roundabout way? (If it is the Ready action, it requires the character was not surprised, rolled higher initiative, and correctly deduced that the fish was going to use a split move to approach, attack, and then retreat.)

Note: This situation does not follow the rules provided earlier for fishing for knucklehead.

Best Answer

These rules are for that encounter, not general.

This is a great example of specific over general! The rules around that encounter for knuckleheads are specific and only relevant for that activity. They don't state anywhere that you can use this option in normal combat or outside of that encounter.

So slap a knucklehead and have some good eats.

Related Solutions

[RPG] Can you grapple a creature as an opportunity attack

As Miniman's answer points out, you cannot grapple as an opportunity attack because an opportunity attack does not give you an Attack action. However, your situation doesn't actually call for an opportunity attack. Instead, it sounds like you had readied an action. From Basic Rules page 72:

Sometimes you want to get the jump on a foe or wait for a particular circumstance before you act. To do so, you can take the Ready action on your turn so that you can act later in the round using your reaction.

First, you decide what perceivable circumstance will trigger your reaction. Then, you choose the action you will take in response to that trigger, or you choose to move up to your speed in response to it...

When the trigger occurs, you can either take your reaction right after the trigger finishes or ignore the trigger. Remember that you can take only one reaction per round.

When you ready an action, you declare that you intend to do something out of your turn in response to something specific happening. For example, you can ready an action by saying "If an enemy comes through that door, I will fire an arrow at them." If an enemy does come through the door, you can then immediately use the readied action and shoot them.

Therefore, if you state on your turn, "I want to grapple the gnome if he tries to get past me," and you have not taken another action on your turn, you would be able to grapple the gnome as he moves past you. If the gnome doesn't try to get by you, the action is wasted. You can also choose to ignore the trigger and take an attack of opportunity as your reaction instead.

Keep in mind that you must declare a Ready action on your turn. Ready actions are actions, like attacks or casting spells. If your turn had already passed when you declared you'd grapple the gnome, your DM would be right in ruling that you can only make an attack. However, if you declared it on your turn, and hadn't already attacked or acted, your DM should have allowed you to grab the gnome.

[RPG] Does the Goblin Boss’s Redirect Attack provoke an opportunity attack

Yes, if the second Goblin is not within the Reach of the thing making the opportunity attack

It seems a bit weird, however the criteria for triggering an opportunity attack are:

You are moving out of the reach of a hostile creature
This movement is from one of your Actions, Bonus Actions, Movement or Reaction
You have not taken the Disengage action
You are not Teleporting

For this question we can discount Point 4, as the Goblin Boss can't teleport.

We'll also ignore Disengaging for now.

For Point 2, the movement is by the Goblin Boss' Reaction, which fulfills that criteria

For Point 1, if the swapping with the second Goblin does not cause the Goblin Boss to leave the Reach of any hostile creature, it will not trigger an Opportunity attack. In the diagrams below, the first set of movement will not trigger an opportunity attack, while the second set will.

EG    ->    EB
B           G


EBG   ->    EGB

E - Enemy; 
G - Goblin; 
B - Goblin Boss

Note that wherever the second Goblin is moved from, it does not trigger an Opportunity attack from anything as its movement is forced by the Goblin Boss.

As for using Disengage (via Nimble Escape), it only stops OAs for the rest of your Turn, not the entire Round.

So, if someone had Readied an action to hit the Goblin Boss when the Boss did a specific thing, then the Goblin Boss did that thing on the Boss' turn, and in Reaction the Boss used Redirect Attack, that would not trigger an OA, wherever it moved, as it is still the Boss' Turn so Disengage is still in effect. But normally, Disengage would not help for this.