Breaking Out of Entagles And Grabs

[Acroyear II]

I'd like to get the opinions of you players out there about how you handle the difference between breaking free of an Entangle versus breaking free from a Grab.

 

As per page 283 of FREd, it states for characters attempting to break free from an Entangle, if they do twice the remaining BODY of the Entangle or more, the character immediately has a Full Phase in which to act. If the character rolls just enough BODY or the exact amount of BODY to free himself of the Entangle, he may immediately take a Half Phase action.

 

On the same page the rules for breaking free of a Grab read that if a Grabbed character rolls twice as much BODY on his STR Roll as the BODY rolled for the Grabber's STR Roll, the Grabbed character immediately has a Full Phase in which to act. However, if the Grabbed character rolls rolls just only enough BODY than the Grabber's BODY rolled, then he is free, but can take no more actions that Phase.

 

Why is it that when breaking free of an Entangle (but with not twice the BODY rolled) that a character receives a free Half Phase, but when doing basically the same thing when breaking free of a Grab, the character does not receive a free Half Phase in which to act?

 

Also, why is it that the characters breaking free receive ANY free Phases (whether Full or Half) when basically they are using an Attack Action to break free, and as such, that Action should end their Phase. Is this rule suppose to simulate a type of "Casual Strength" when breaking out of Entangles and Grabs?

 

Can someone explain this to me, so that I can in turn, rationlize it to my players.

[lemming]

Re: Breaking Out of Entagles And Grabs

 

News to me take it was Full Phase or Nothing after breaking free of a grab. It's Full or 1/2 in my game.

 

As to why anything is allowed. Well, it could result in a very static combat at that point.

 

The getting a full phase is to allow the strong to just shrug off the weak. Much like how Casual STR was allowed vs. Entangles so that the Toilet Paper entangle couldn't be used.

[Solomon]

Re: Breaking Out of Entagles And Grabs

 

Characters being able to act after breaking free of a very weak Grab or Entangle makes sense from both an in-game and an in-story point of view.

 

From an in-story point of view, you can't keep Grond occupied just by throwing a common fishing net at him. He'd tear through it as if it was paper.

 

The above is also an in-game rationale. A weak AoE Entagle would tie up whole teams of villains if they coudn't act after breaking free.

 

As for Grabs being essentially harder to break free than Entagles, consider that a Grab is more of a resource-drain for the attacking character than an equivalent Entagle: you usually can't move away from the grabbed opponent, you need free limbs, you are at a CV penalty.