Too powerful for things with something like “Improved Grab”. It works fine for normal situations, where the grabbed has a decent chance of escaping the grab every round, reducing the chances of being of ending up restrained. I’d also say that if you’re going to do this also make second the Escape attempt a Minor action. So: Move action when restrained (at least in this manner) and you’re only Grabbed, Minor Action (Sort of a continuation of the last action) to then Escape the Grab. -Or- offer a bonus for the attempt to escape the grab immediately following the escape from restrained (must be in the same round) (and perhaps both would be necessary to balance it…).

These changes could make the +50xp justifiable, but I think you’d need to look at the xp rewards for any creature with “Improved Grab Capabilities” at that point…

I’d suggest escaping from being restrained works as per grabbed. Make one escape and you’re back to being just grabbed, make another and you’re free.

The second grab uses its second hand to truly restrain the victim – at which point the zombie doesn’t have any attacks left (except for a potential bite attack, if it has any).

Can a player escape being restrained the same way as being grabbed/immobilized?

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If Grab==Restrained it would be too power for a single attack combined with a minor action to sustain.

I think the point, in this case, would be to keep a target in a flankable position. Plus, since the sustain is only a minor, you still attack them as well.

I think with the reduction in movement, Zombie Weakness, and Vulnerability to Radiant being tossed into the mix, the other advantages are probably not significant enough to justify the XP bonus… There are few player controlled Disease and Poison effects (A couple of poison, I don’t know of any Disease), so there’s little benefit to the creature there. A lot of creatures have Darkvision already, so there’ll be little change, plus characters are likely to have a light source, so creature darkvision won’t change the combat much. The Zombie Grab is a nice effect, but less powerful (at least by the book) than you initially thought. I think that once the weaknesses are balanced against the strengths, they come out about even… Still it’s only 50XP, so it’s not game breaking…

Reading Fromost’ comments, I realize that I have been playing the zombies’s grab as if it gave “restraining” instead of “immobilize” – I figured that being immobilized gave the other attackers combat advantage.

Now that it just immobilizes, I think I like the zombie monster a bit less…

I think the zombie template in this post is probably a better alternative than the “plain” zombie monster…

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Eric, that Zombie Character Class is beginning to look awfully tempting :D

Or maybe add a second grab check after the first, to advance the immobilised condition to restrained, which then needs *two* escape attempts to free from, like the old grappled -> pinned system from 3.5 ..?

Fromost refers to this part of the PHB at page 290, in the descriptino of grab:

Strength Attack: Make a Strength attack vs. Reflex.
Do not add any weapon modifiers. You must have at least one hand free to make a grab attempt.

Hit: The enemy is immobilized until it escapes or you end the grab. Your enemy can attempt to escape on its turn.

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