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A bugbear's long-limbed trait says

When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

Suppose the bugbear has multiple attacks on its attack actions and takes them without intervening movement (or triggered reactions/bonus actions). Does the bugbear's reach reset to 5ft for an instant between attacks, or should it be regarded as 10ft for the entire sequence?

Why does it matter?

As an example, consider a bugbear with multiple attacks and the grappler feat, which gives it advantage against a grappled opponent.

Now, if a bugbear grapples at 10ft range, it's normally pointless: it can perform the grapple (which is a special attack), but once it's established the bugbear's reach reverts to 5ft, the enemy is no longer within reach, and the grapple ends immediately.

However, with multiple attacks and the grappler feat, it could potentially get advantage on attacks subsequent to the grapple, before the grapple is lost after the last attack. But this only works if the 10ft range is maintained during the sequence of attacks. If it reverts in between attacks, even for a moment, we're back to grapples ending the instant they're established.

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2 Answers 2

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RAW, the trait technically does not increase "your" reach

The trait states, emphasis mine :

When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

Emphasis for the fact that what is increased is "your reach" only for this attack, and not your global reach. Meaning that if interpreted very close to the text itself, it is not your character's reach that is increased. Instead, the "reach" used for the attack, and only the attack, is increased.

Thus, any effect depending on your character's reach stat is not affected by this trait at any point, aside of any effect directly dependant on the attack that benefits from this range increase.

In that sense, even if the attacks of your sequence were to be perfectly following one another, your character's reach would technically be the same, meaning that the grapple would end directly after it started.

In terms of actually ruling this in a game, as a DM, I would definitely agree with Thomas Markov's answer and allow the grapple to hold for the duration of the attack sequence, as it seems a fairly original, if unoptimal, way to use attacks.

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    \$\begingroup\$ That's a really good point, actually. I was thinking in terms of time, but it's true that the restriction is really contextual rather than temporal. Although establishing the grapple is part of the attack, maintaining it is not, so I'd have to agree that the grapple is broken - even if the bugbear's "attack reach" never dropped to 5ft. \$\endgroup\$
    – pyrocrasty
    Jul 18, 2022 at 15:10
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    \$\begingroup\$ I'm downvoting this because attacks don't have reach, creatures do. The semantic argument does not overrule game mechanics here. \$\endgroup\$
    – order
    Jul 18, 2022 at 17:21
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    \$\begingroup\$ @order you are nitpicking on one sentence and do not explain what game mechanics are being overruled. - - - - - What's happening is that the bugbear's arms stretch and retract between attacks, very 40's cartoon-style and complete with coiling SFX. Imagine bugbears as the "Poppy Playtime" backpack hands. Yeah, that's my head canon bugbears now. \$\endgroup\$
    – Mindwin Remember Monica
    Jul 18, 2022 at 17:52
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    \$\begingroup\$ @order: Attacks do have reach. PHB p195: "Certain creatures ... have melee attacks with a greater reach than 5 feet...". Besides, Matthieu here is talking about reach for an attack, as described in the long-limbed trait description. \$\endgroup\$
    – pyrocrasty
    Jul 18, 2022 at 20:40
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    \$\begingroup\$ @pyrocrasty good catch, although it could be discussed since the PHB you mentionned concerns monster attacks, which work separately from the player's attack action. I think the edit I made should cover both whether an attack has reach or not, so I'll keep it that way for now. To be fair that question could be worth a separate post, I'll go make it right away. \$\endgroup\$
    – Matthieu
    Jul 18, 2022 at 20:45
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Long Limbed states that your reach is extended “when you make a melee attack”.

Long Limbed states:

When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.

Between attacks, you are not making a melee attack, so your reach is only five feet between attacks, and the grapple ends if the target is more than five feet away.

That said, if I’m the DM and you want to take a feat to do this, I’d allow it. Spending one of your attacks for a grapple to get advantage on the rest of the attacks is going to be a net negative in a lot of situations.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ The problem I'm having is that you could say you're always making a melee attack during the sequence. As soon as you've finished making one, you've already started making the next. So there's not actually any period of time in between when the reach would be 5ft. \$\endgroup\$
    – pyrocrasty
    Jul 18, 2022 at 9:23
  • \$\begingroup\$ I agree this isn't very useful (especially since it requires grappler, which is a really weak feat). I have no interest in doing it, I'm just trying to decide if it's possible. The Long Limbed text really isn't very precise. \$\endgroup\$
    – pyrocrasty
    Jul 18, 2022 at 9:26
  • \$\begingroup\$ @pyrocrasty That's simply not accurate. You can move between attacks, for example. Clearly you don't instantaneously teleport from here to there before making your second attack, so clearly there is some period of time between attacks during which you aren't making attacks. But as Thomas said, I'd certainly rule that you can maintain your grapple at least until the end of the attack action. \$\endgroup\$
    – Darth Pseudonym
    Jul 18, 2022 at 13:46
  • \$\begingroup\$ @DarthPseudonym: my comment is in the context of the question I asked. Notice that I specified that the sequence of attacks was not interrupted by movement, reactions or bonus actions. That condition is essential: if some non-attack behaviour occurs after the grapple, then of course the grapple breaks when that happens. \$\endgroup\$
    – pyrocrasty
    Jul 18, 2022 at 15:42
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    \$\begingroup\$ The point is that if you can move between attacks, then the attacks must have some time between them in which you can choose to move. Thus they must not be continuous or overlapping, but rather distinct events, and thus you'd lose your extended reach momentarily between each attack. \$\endgroup\$
    – Darth Pseudonym
    Jul 18, 2022 at 19:25

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