Break a Grapple With Baleful Transposition

So the large monster has your friend in a grapple and he can't break friend?  What is a low-level wizard going to do?  How about trying Baleful Transposition?  This spell from page 23 of the Spell Compendium not only can cause two monsters to switch places, the monsters involved in the exchange cannot carry other creatures with them during the exchange; thus freeing your grappled comrade.

This spell is intended to swap an ally in danger with an enemy, placing the enemy in peril; but it can also be used to get your friend out of a grapple.

It only works on creatures of size Large or smaller.

Each creature involved in the exchange gets a Will save to prevent the swap.

But it still may be just the spell you were looking for.

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) 3.5 rules.

Do I Get Two Claw Attacks or Just One After a Move in D&D 3.5

The stat block for some monsters can leave us guessing the intent.  I sometimes find stat blocks that are not clear about what the monster will do with a single attack.  Specifically, if the monster's primary attack is its claws, and the creature has two claws, does the creature get two claw attacks when it makes a move action?  The short answer is no, and my explanation follows.

 

Look at the Tiger in the Monster Manual (Page 281) as an example.  The Monster Manual states that 'the Attack' is a Claw.  The Tiger's 'Full Attack' is 2 Claws and 1 Bite.

One source of ambiguity is the reference to the monster's primary attack.  A tiger is not penalized on its primary attack and its primary attack is 2 claws.  'Primary Attack' does not mean the attack a monster uses when they are not using the Full Attack action.  'Primary Attack' means those attacks which do not incur a -5 penalty because they are secondary attacks.

So when a tiger takes a move action as part of its turn, and then it attacks "once", it only gets a single claw attack.  It only rolls the d20 once to attack.

When a tiger is already next to its opponent and the tiger does a 'Full Attack' action the tiger can roll the d20 three times, once for each claw and once for the bite attack.  Since the claws are both part of the Primary Attack, the tigers attack roll is +9 for each claw (this is calculated from by adding the Base Attack of +4, adding the tiger's strength bonus of +6, and then subtracting 1 because the tiger is a large creature).  The tiger's bite attack is only at +4 because it is a secondary attack (this is calculated the same with the -5 penalty included for being a secondary attack).

Final note:  A creature with the MultiAttack Feat reduces the penalty on secondary attacks from -5 to -2.

Why Your Rogue Should Have Improved Initiative - D&D 3.5

I have played a rogue Halfling for years.  Her primary weapon is a crossbow which she uses to make ranged sneak attacks.  She also has great dexterity and improved initiative which causes her to be one of the first to act in each battle.  But only recently did I learn that I have overlooked one of her best attack opportunities. 

I was not aware of the rule that an attacker in the first round of combat can treat her opponent as flat footed if the opponent has not yet acted.  This trivial sounding advantage is a huge boon to characters with the sneak attack ability and ranged attacks and a great initiative.

To clarify, if my rogue, Gwynne, has an initiative of 25, and the monster has an initiative of 18, and another rogue in our party, Berigand, has an initiative of 16, then Gwynne, acting first, could fire her crossbow at the monster and if she hits she could apply her sneak attack damage if she was within range for a sneak attack.  She does not need to be flanking or invisible because the monster is flat-footed (in the first round only).  When the monster acts, it could attack Gwynne who is not flat-footed (because she has acted already), or it could attack Berigand who is flat-footed because he has not yet acted in the round.  Unless the monster has a sneak attack ability it probably doesn't have an advantage in attacking one rogue over the other.

So my recommendation for crossbow wielding rogues is that they take "Improved Initiative", and "Crossbow Sniper" which allows sneak attacks from up to 60' away (instead of the default range of 30').  But most important, don't forget that your opponent is flat-footed in the first round of combat if you have a higher initiative and are acting before they do!

This is explained in the Player's Handbook on page 133 under "How Combat Works".  Also on page 135 under "Initiative", and on page 137 under "Flat-Footed".