u/fantastic_sounds_

In a fight I have planned, the players would find the Macguffin (in this case a book) first, before being confronted by two other factions who want to get their hands on it.

Instead of a basic fight to the death, I thought it would be cool if the objective was mainly to get a hold of the book, and I wanted it to kind of "bounce around" between characters during the fight (IE by swiping it or grabbing it from each other).

An NPC stealing if from another NPC I can handle just fine, but if the fight begins with the book in a players hands, I wanted a way to kind of kickstart this fight by an enemy at least trying to take it from them.

My first thought was telekinesis, but that's a level 5 spell, and this is a low enough level campaign that anyone who knows a level 5 spell would be able to wipe the floor with anyone else.

My second thought was misty step behind the player and simply try to grab it, but that seems like it would kind of be suicide for a caster.

Any way I could have a reasonable attempt to grab something from a player without it feeling like I'm forcing it from their hands? If they were to pass a strength check say, I would let them keep it. I just want to make the objective clear.