I am pretty min/maxed if something needs to be grappled...
Or not... At level 11 I only have +29 as a bear, and a CR 12 basic model Purple worm has a grapple modifier of +40, although at level 12 I will get brown bear and my grapple modifier will go up to... +38 as a bear. With a bull's strength I would go up to purple worm level and if I somehow got my hands on an animal growth spell then that would be worth another +8! But grapple is a bit of an on/off sort of thing. A grapple monsters will generally do it better than me, and some folk will be completely immune to it. But one of these days I will be carrying a paladin under each arm and another in me teeth and it will be a good day!
Hmm, a wand of animal growth would cost forty two thousand gold pieces and have a caster level of fourteen...
P.S.
I have it on good authority that we could find an ancient red dragon, and its horde, at any time we choose to, so what is the earliest level we can confront it at?
And do we want to ask the DM to stat it out before we discuss battle strategies? For example, if we figure out a way for me to beat its +60 grapple modifier, and find a way to enter a grapple with a gargantuan creature, then the DM will have an interesting decision to make when they realise that ancient red dragons can cast Freedom of Movement as a sorcerer...
Here are the links:
Red DragonCR: 23, if we can't beat it before level 20 then we fail.
Breath weapon: 20D10 DC36, average damage of 110 fire.
If its lair is in a cave then we can't do much to avoid this, but at least it won't be flying and roasting us from a distance.
Spells: 15th level sorcerer, 24 charisma, can learn spells from the cleric, sorcerer, fire domain, Evil domain and, chaos domain lists. DC 17+spell level so long as it has no feats or spells...
Greater dispel could be some use for counterspelling, otherwise it is likely to, once again, fly and nuke us from orbit.
Attack: +44(4d6+14) +39 +39(2d8+7) +39 +39(2d6+7) +39(2d8+21). 20 foot reach with the bite, but with 10 dexterity it hopefully won't have more than 3 AoOs in a round. Counts as magic for DR.
The damage doesn't look that bad, but this is without feats, add in a dash of Multiattack, maybe some Power Attack, and a sprinkle of Divine Favour and you start to have an impressive serving...
At least nobody told the DM about that feat that lets sorcerers cast quickened spells...
Frightful presence: You must be [DC 34 will save] tall to play with mistress Red. The good news: it seems to only be shaken, so you can fight, just at -2. The bad news: I cannot find any reference to it being mind affecting or fear, which seems insane, so no immunity...
Meh, live with the -2, what is a little crippling between friends...
I will leave it at that for now, although they do have recommended feats and the defences need to be reviewed if we come up with a way to live long enough to attack it...