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Various abilities allow creatures to Grapple with more than one other creature. Some examples:

  • Mimics grapple with everyone that they hit with a Slam attack, automatically, unless they dissolve their Adhesive (Ex)
  • Creatures with the Grab ability can take -20 to not have the Grappled condition and potentially Grab other creature(s), even before their next turn
  • A creature Grappling with another might be Grappled by a 3rd and attempt to reverse that Grapple

When attempting to maintain (or reverse) a Grapple, are you able to roll for all Grappled creatures at once? Each Grappled creature as one action? Or are you only able to Grapple one (two/three if you have Greater and/or Rapid Grappler) and have to drop the others?

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The Mimic portion I include because they may wish to Grapple to move with or cause damage to creature(s) they already have in their Adhesive. \$\endgroup\$
    – Ifusaso
    Feb 28, 2019 at 21:47

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Maintaining a grapple is normally a standard action that affects a single target, as indicated by this sentence in the grapple rules:

If you do not release the grapple, you must continue to make a check each round, as a standard action, to maintain the hold.

Note how it says "the hold", singular. It does not say that doing this also maintains all other holds, so it doesn't.

Any grapples not maintained on any turn after the first automatically end, so normally you can only maintain a grapple against 1 target.

Greater Grapple and Rapid Grappler can increase the number of grapples you can maintain by expanding which action types can be used to maintain the grapple. Likewise, the Grabbing Master feat can increase the number of grapples you can maintain by letting you maintain 2 grapples per action spent (which also further cements the idea that you normally can only maintain 1 grapple per action). However, Grabbing Master doesn't let you start multiple grapples by itself, you need to already have something like Greater Grapple, the Grab special ability on a full-attack, or Snapping Turtle Clutch to be able to start a second grapple without losing the first.

Mimics do not lose grapples they fail to maintain (due to their Adhesive ability), but otherwise follow the same rules as above. That might indeed make it somewhat difficult/impossible for them to move after getting multiple creatures stuck, but that's why they can still release the adhesive themselves.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The Grappling Master feat does not say that it increases the number of grapples you can maintain: " When you are grabbing two opponents while using Grabbing Style, you can use your grapple to move or damage one or both opponents you are grappling, instead of just one." Neither does Grappling Style. So, either you already could grapple more than one creature, or we are missing something here. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Mar 1, 2019 at 16:43
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ShadowKras Well as far as I am aware, technically, nothing prevents you from starting/maintaining more than 1 grapple except action economy. I interpret Grabbing Master as "when maintaining a grapple and using it to move/damage an opponent you can maintain a second grapple as part of the same action and do the same to that grapple's target". Did you interpret it some other way? \$\endgroup\$
    – Elifia
    Mar 1, 2019 at 16:53
  • \$\begingroup\$ The feat doesnt allow you to grapple two opponents, neither it allows you to grapple as a move action, you are mixing it with Rapid Grappler. The feat, assuming you can grapple two opponents at the same time, that you can either move or damage them both at the same time. So, you take one standard action (or move, with rapid grappler), and may move two opponents instead of one. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Mar 1, 2019 at 17:21
  • \$\begingroup\$ @ShadowKras I think you're the one mixing things up. For starters, every time you mention Rapid Grappler you mean Greater Grapple instead. Second, I'm aware that Grabbing Master by itself doesn't allow you to grapple 2 opponents at once, but only due to logistical reasons rather than actual rules preventing it. That is, it's a standard action to start a new grapple, but it's also a standard action to maintain an old grapple, so if you spent your standard action on a new grapple then you cannot maintain the old one. However, there's dozens of ways to get around that (see next comment) \$\endgroup\$
    – Elifia
    Mar 1, 2019 at 18:08
  • \$\begingroup\$ Yes, I meant Greater Grappler, I was speaking from memory (despite the link). The point is that you are stating in your answer that the feat allows you to grapple two opponents, and it doesn't. \$\endgroup\$
    – ShadowKras
    Mar 1, 2019 at 18:10

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