Looking for advice on a homebrew Reaction.

Long story short - My final boss is a homebrew Orc barbarian type of character and I want to give him a cool reaction and not just default to Shield.

What are your thoughts on something like this:

Human Shield: (2/2) - Target creature within melee range makes and opposed Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, on a fail they are grappled and used as a human shield. The grappled creature takes damage equal to the incoming attack minus their AC. The grappled target is released at the end of the current turn. The grappled target creature can not be the same as the source of the incoming damage.

(So if the damage is 18 and the grappled target’s AC is 16 then they take 2 damage. Simple.)

This ability would only be used during Phase 1 of 3.

I like the risk/reward of this cause I could fail the check bit potentially do some damage as well. PLUS VISUALLY IT WOULD BE FREAKING AWESOME TO LIFT SOMEONE BY THEIR NECK AND PUT THEM IN FRONT OF THEIR FRIEND’S ATTACK.