This question follows from this question: What Are The Minimum Stats To Cause Fall Damage When Grappling Plus Jumping?
In my answer to that question, I came up with the following minimum stats to pull off a jumping grapple:
Strength: 10 (standing long jump of 1.5')
Height: 5'8"
Movement Used: 6' (1.5' of jump height * 2 for jump * 2 for grapple)
With these stats, you can pull off the following series of moves:
Grapple someone with your attack action
Jump with your movement, burning 6' from your normal movement of 30'
During the jump, you can lift the grappled opponent above your head, bringing them up to the height of the jump plus 1.5 times your height
You and your opponent fall to the ground, you maintain the grapple
If you have the minimum stats and you were successful up to this point, then:
- You've brought your grappled opponent 10' in the air
- You've jumped 1.5' yourself
- Your opponent will have suffered 1d6 fall damage and landed prone, still grappled
- You've landed still standing up
NOTE: The grapple is maintained after the landing! This seems to be a point of confusion. There are only four ways to break a grapple:
- You end it willingly, ignoring the action economy
- The grappled target uses an action to break from the grapple
- The grappler becomes incapacitated
- The grappler is forcefully separated from their target beyond the grappler's reach, as with Thunderwave
Falling prone from a suplex fulfills none of these conditions, and so the grapple is maintained. Below are the passages from RAW that support this.
PHB pg. 195
Grappling
If you succeed, you subject the target to the grappled condition (see appendix A). The condition specifies the things that end it, and you can release the target whenever you like (no action required).
Escaping a Grapple. A grappled creature can use its action to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check contested by your Strength (Athletics) check.
PHB pg. 290
Grappled
- The condition ends if the grappler is incapacitated
- The condition also ends if an effect removes the grappled creature from the reach of the grappler or grappling effect, such as when a creature is hurled away by the thunderwave spell.
The fact you can jump and lift the grappled target with you is RAW, as in the following passage:
PHB pg. 195
Moving a Grappled Creature.
When you move, you can drag or carry the grappled creature with you, but your speed is halved, unless the creature is two or more sizes smaller than you.
And you will be able to lift a grappled creature according to the rules governing lifting.
PHB pg. 176
Push, Drag, or Lift.
You can push, drag, or lift a weight in pounds up to twice your carrying capacity (or 30 times your Strength score). While pushing or dragging weight in excess of your carrying capacity, your speed drops to 5 feet.
Assuming your Strength score actually meets the required carrying capacity (you can lift 300lbs at 10 Strength, but your carrying capacity is 150lbs), then your speed does not drop to 5' and you can perform a standing high jump.
If the target is heavier than your lifting capacity, then for argument's sake, let's say you had a higher Strength score that lets you pull off this move.
If you are successful up to this point, you can attempt to lift the grappled opponent above your head up to the jump height plus 1.5 times your height.
PHB pg. 182
High Jump
You can extend your arms half your height above yourself during the jump. Thus, you can reach above you a distance equal to the height of the jump plus 1 1/2 times your height.
The midjump lift may need a Strength (Athletics) check. This check can be done as part of your movement, as implied in the following passage:
PHB pg. 175
Athletics
Your Strength (Athletics) check covers difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming. Examples include the following activities:
- You try to jump an unusually long distance or pull off a stunt midjump.
The Spam Part
A midjump stunt is implied that it is done as part of your movement, not your action. If that is true, doing the sequence of steps I laid out above, you will have eaten up only 6' of your movement per suplex, out of presumably a 30' total. A character who can move 30' can repeat this five times, potentially inflicting 5d6 fall damage if they spam it.
Note this is possible at level 1. Damage doesn't scale, though.
The Question
Can you do this process more than once until you run out of movement, on the same turn?
A case can be made that the ability check midjump can be ruled as an action. But is that ruling RAW?