I’ve tried looking this up for myself, but I’m not quite sure what words I should be using to describe the problem. Basically I want to have one bone be fixed in place, while the rest in the chain respond to inverse kinematics. How would I go about approaching that? Thanks!

EDIT: I found the answer on the docs. Here it is for anyone who finds this later (Blender v 3.6.1)

Locking Bones

You can prevent a bone from being transformed in Edit Mode in several ways:

  • All bones can be locked clicking on the Lock checkbox of their Transform panel in the Bones tab
  • Press Shift-W Toggle Bone Options ‣ Locked
  • Select Armature ‣ Bone Settings ‣ Toggle a Setting.

If the root of a locked bone is connected to the tip of an unlocked bone, it will not be locked, i.e. you will be able to move it to your liking. This means that in a chain of connected bones, when you lock one bone, you only really lock its tip. With unconnected bones, the locking is effective on both joints of the bone.