Unarmed Strike Dmg

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  • A monk or any character with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat can deal lethal or nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes, at her option. The damage from an unarmed strike is considered weapon damage for the purposes of effects that give you a bonus on weapon damage rolls. An unarmed strike is always considered a light weapon.
  • Unarmed combat IS affected by the Dual Flurry Perk 6. Unarmed combat IS NOT affected by the Backstab, Assassin's Blade, or Armsman perks. Unarmed sneak attacks yield 2x damage, nothing more. That is the truth about unarmed combat in Skyrim. I like it because it gave me a new reason to keep playing Skyrim.

Nov 02, 2018  Instead of using a weapon to make a melee weapon attack, you can use an unarmed strike: a punch, kick, head-butt, or similar forceful blow (none of which count as weapons). On a hit, an unarmed strike deals bludgeoning damage equal to 1 + your Strength modifier. You are proficient with your unarmed strikes. Unarmed Strike Weapon. An unarmed strike can be dealt with any limb or appendage. Unarmed strikes deal nonlethal damage, and the damage from an unarmed strike is considered weapon damage for the purposes of effects that give you a bonus to weapon damage rolls. Unarmed Strike. A Medium character deals 1d3 points of nonlethal damage with an unarmed strike. A Small character deals 1d2 points of nonlethal damage. A monk or any character with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat can deal lethal or nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes, at her option. The damage from an unarmed strike is considered weapon damage for the purposes of effects that give you a bonus on weapon damage rolls.

Alignment

Any lawful.

Hit Die

d8.

Class Skills

The monk’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Balance (Dex), Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Escape Artist (Dex), Hide (Dex), Jump (Str), Knowledge (arcana) (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Listen (Wis), Move Silently (Dex), Perform (Cha), Profession (Wis), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis), Swim (Str), and Tumble (Dex).

Skill Points at 1st Level

(4 + Int modifier) ×4. Dmg ctx beta 500.

Skill Points at Each Additional Level

4 + Int modifier.

Table: The Monk
LevelBase
Attack Bonus
Fort
Save
Ref
Save
Will
Save
SpecialFlurry of Blows
Attack Bonus
Unarmed
Damage1
AC
Bonus
Unarmored
Speed Bonus
  1. The value shown is for Medium monks. See Table: Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage for Small or Large monks.
1st+0+2+2+2Bonus feat, flurry of blows, unarmed strike-2/-21d6+0+0 ft.
2nd+1+3+3+3Bonus feat, evasion-1/-11d6+0+0 ft.
3rd+2+3+3+3Still mind+0/+01d6+0+10 ft.
4th+3+4+4+4Ki strike (magic), slow fall 20 ft.+1/+11d8+0+10 ft.
5th+3+4+4+4Purity of body+2/+21d8+1+10 ft.
6th+4+5+5+5Bonus feat, slow fall 30 ft.+3/+31d8+1+20 ft.
7th+5+5+5+5Wholeness of body+4/+41d8+1+20 ft.
8th+6/+1+6+6+6Slow fall 40 ft.+5/+5/+01d10+1+20 ft.
9th+6/+1+6+6+6Improved evasion+6/+6/+11d10+1+30 ft.
10th+7/+2+7+7+7Ki strike (lawful), slow fall 50 ft.+7/+7/+21d10+2+30 ft.
11th+8/+3+7+7+7Diamond body, greater flurry+8/+8/+8/+31d10+2+30 ft.
12th+9/+4+8+8+8Abundant step, slow fall 60 ft.+9/+9/+9/+42d6+2+40 ft.
13th+9/+4+8+8+8Diamond soul+9/+9/+9/+42d6+2+40 ft.
14th+10/+5+9+9+9Slow fall 70 ft.+10/+10/+10/+52d6+2+40 ft.
15th+11/+6/+1+9+9+9Quivering palm+11/+11/+11/+6/+12d6+3+50 ft.
16th+12/+7/+2+10+10+10Ki strike (adamantine), slow fall 80 ft.+12/+12/+12/+7/+22d8+3+50 ft.
17th+12/+7/+2+10+10+10Timeless body, tongue of the sun and moon+12/+12/+12/+7/+22d8+3+50 ft.
18th+13/+8/+3+11+11+11Slow fall 90 ft.+13/+13/+13/+8/+32d8+3+60 ft.
19th+14/+9/+4+11+11+11Empty body+14/+14/+14/+9/+42d8+3+60 ft.
20th+15/+10/+5+12+12+12Perfect self, slow fall any distance+15/+15/+15/+10/+52d10+4+60 ft.

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the monk.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency

Monks are proficient with club, crossbow (light or heavy), dagger, handaxe, javelin, kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, siangham, and sling.

Monks are not proficient with any armor or shields

When wearing armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a monk loses her AC bonus, as well as her fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.

AC Bonus (Ex)

When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds her Wisdom bonus (if any) to her AC. In addition, a monk gains a +1 bonus to AC at 5th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every five monk levels thereafter (+2 at 10th, +3 at 15th, and +4 at 20th level).

These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the monk is flat-footed. She loses these bonuses when she is immobilized or helpless, when she wears any armor, when she carries a shield, or when she carries a medium or heavy load.

Flurry of Blows (Ex)

When unarmored, a monk may strike with a flurry of blows at the expense of accuracy. When doing so, she may make one extra attack in a round at her highest base attack bonus, but this attack takes a -2 penalty, as does each other attack made that round. The resulting modified base attack bonuses are shown in the Flurry of Blows Attack Bonus column on Table: The Monk. This penalty applies for 1 round, so it also affects attacks of opportunity the monk might make before her next action. When a monk reaches 5th level, the penalty lessens to -1, and at 9th level it disappears. A monk must use a full attack action to strike with a flurry of blows.

When using flurry of blows, a monk may attack only with unarmed strikes or with special monk weapons (kama, nunchaku, quarterstaff, sai, shuriken, and siangham). She may attack with unarmed strikes and special monk weapons interchangeably as desired. When using weapons as part of a flurry of blows, a monk applies her Strength bonus (not Str bonus × 1½ or ×½) to her damage rolls for all successful attacks, whether she wields a weapon in one or both hands. The monk can’t use any weapon other than a special monk weapon as part of a flurry of blows.

In the case of the quarterstaff, each end counts as a separate weapon for the purpose of using the flurry of blows ability. Even though the quarterstaff requires two hands to use, a monk may still intersperse unarmed strikes with quarterstaff strikes, assuming that she has enough attacks in her flurry of blows routine to do so.

Greater Flurry

When a monk reaches 11th level, her flurry of blows ability improves. In addition to the standard single extra attack she gets from flurry of blows, she gets a second extra attack at her full base attack bonus.

Table: Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage
LevelDamage
(Small Monk)
Damage
(Large Monk)
1st-3rd1d41d8
4th-7th1d62d6
8th-11th1d82d8
12th-15th1d103d6
16th-19th2d63d8
20th2d84d8
Unarmed Strike

At 1st level, a monk gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A monk’s attacks may be with either fist interchangeably or even from elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a monk may even make unarmed strikes with her hands full. There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed. A monk may thus apply her full Strength bonus on damage rolls for all her unarmed strikes.

Usually a monk’s unarmed strikes deal lethal damage, but she can choose to deal nonlethal damage instead with no penalty on her attack roll. She has the same choice to deal lethal or nonlethal damage while grappling.

A monk’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

A monk also deals more damage with her unarmed strikes than a normal person would, as shown on Table: The Monk. The unarmed damage on Table: The Monk is for Medium monks. A Small monk deals less damage than the amount given there with her unarmed attacks, while a Large monk deals more damage; see Table: Small or Large Monk Unarmed Damage.

Bonus Feat

At 1st level, a monk may select either Improved Grapple or Stunning Fist as a bonus feat. At 2nd level, she may select either Combat Reflexes or Deflect Arrows as a bonus feat. At 6th level, she may select either Improved Disarm or Improved Trip as a bonus feat. A monk need not have any of the prerequisites normally required for these feats to select them.

Evasion (Ex)

At 2nd level or higher if a monk makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, she instead takes no damage. Evasion can be used only if a monk is wearing light armor or no armor. A helpless monk does not gain the benefit of evasion.

Fast Movement (Ex)

At 3rd level, a monk gains an enhancement bonus to her speed, as shown on Table: The Monk. A monk in armor or carrying a medium or heavy load loses this extra speed.

Still Mind (Ex)

Pathfinder Improved Unarmed Strike Damage

A monk of 3rd level or higher gains a +2 bonus on saving throws against spells and effects from the school of enchantment.

Ki Strike (Su)

At 4th level, a monk’s unarmed attacks are empowered with ki. Her unarmed attacks are treated as magic weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. Ki strike improves with the character’s monk level. At 10th level, her unarmed attacks are also treated as lawful weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction. At 16th level, her unarmed attacks are treated as adamantine weapons for the purpose of dealing damage to creatures with damage reduction and bypassing hardness.

Slow Fall (Ex)
Unarmed

At 4th level or higher, a monk within arm’s reach of a wall can use it to slow her descent. When first using this ability, she takes damage as if the fall were 20 feet shorter than it actually is. The monk’s ability to slow her fall (that is, to reduce the effective distance of the fall when next to a wall) improves with her monk level until at 20th level she can use a nearby wall to slow her descent and fall any distance without harm.

Purity of Body (Ex)

At 5th level, a monk gains immunity to all diseases except for supernatural and magical diseases.

Wholeness of Body (Su)

At 7th level or higher, a monk can heal her own wounds. She can heal a number of hit points of damage equal to twice her current monk level each day, and she can spread this healing out among several uses.

Damage
Improved Evasion (Ex)

At 9th level, a monk’s evasion ability improves. She still takes no damage on a successful Reflex saving throw against attacks, but henceforth she takes only half damage on a failed save. A helpless monk does not gain the benefit of improved evasion.

Diamond Body (Su)

At 11th level, a monk gains immunity to poisons of all kinds.

Abundant Step (Su)

At 12th level or higher, a monk can slip magically between spaces, as if using the spell dimension door, once per day. Her caster level for this effect is one-half her monk level (rounded down).

Diamond Soul (Ex)

At 13th level, a monk gains spell resistance equal to her current monk level + 10. In order to affect the monk with a spell, a spellcaster must get a result on a caster level check (1d20 + caster level) that equals or exceeds the monk’s spell resistance.

Quivering Palm (Su)

Starting at 15th level, a monk can set up vibrations within the body of another creature that can thereafter be fatal if the monk so desires. She can use this quivering palm attack once a week, and she must announce her intent before making her attack roll. Constructs, oozes, plants, undead, incorporeal creatures, and creatures immune to critical hits cannot be affected. Otherwise, if the monk strikes successfully and the target takes damage from the blow, the quivering palm attack succeeds. Thereafter the monk can try to slay the victim at any later time, as long as the attempt is made within a number of days equal to her monk level. To make such an attempt, the monk merely wills the target to die (a free action), and unless the target makes a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + ½ the monk’s level + the monk’s Wis modifier), it dies. If the saving throw is successful, the target is no longer in danger from that particular quivering palm attack, but it may still be affected by another one at a later time.

Timeless Body (Ex)

Upon attaining 17th level, a monk no longer takes penalties to her ability scores for aging and cannot be magically aged. Any such penalties that she has already taken, however, remain in place. Bonuses still accrue, and the monk still dies of old age when her time is up.

Tongue of the Sun and Moon (Ex)

A monk of 17th level or higher can speak with any living creature.

Empty Body (Su)

At 19th level, a monk gains the ability to assume an ethereal state for 1 round per monk level per day, as though using the spell etherealness. She may go ethereal on a number of different occasions during any single day, as long as the total number of rounds spent in an ethereal state does not exceed her monk level.

Perfect Self

At 20th level, a monk becomes a magical creature. She is forevermore treated as an outsider rather than as a humanoid (or whatever the monk’s creature type was) for the purpose of spells and magical effects. Additionally, the monk gains damage reduction 10/magic, which allows her to ignore the first 10 points of damage from any attack made by a nonmagical weapon or by any natural attack made by a creature that doesn’t have similar damage reduction. Unlike other outsiders, the monk can still be brought back from the dead as if she were a member of her previous creature type.

Ex-Monks

A monk who becomes nonlawful cannot gain new levels as a monk but retains all monk abilities.

Like a member of any other class, a monk may be a multiclass character, but multiclass monks face a special restriction. A monk who gains a new class or (if already multiclass) raises another class by a level may never again raise her monk level, though she retains all her monk abilities.

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This is an interestign discussion on Sage Advice on Facebook. If you like you can also post a question there.

I’m not sure if this is how or where to submit the question, but I could not find anywhere on the webpage to ask a new question, and this won’t fit on Twitter. So, monk martial arts says three things:

1) The monk gets to use Dex instead of Str for unarmed strikes and monk weapons. This is clearly a SUBSTITUTION and thus applies in any case where Str would have created a bonus.

2) You CAN (but do not have to) roll the martial arts damage dice instead of the normal 1 dmg for unarmed strikes or the normal damage for the monk weapon. This is an optional substitution, and I note it does not say roll the martial arts damage dice plus the dex/str bonus.

3) When a monk makes an unarmed strike or monk weapon attack, the monk may make an unarmed strike attack as a bonus action.

So, thus far, if my level 3 monk kicks someone, the monk gets to do a d4 instead of 1 damage due to Rule 2 above. Further, my monk can add either Str or Dex bonus to the attack, whichever is better due to Rule 1. Finally, the monk can add the Str or Dex bonus to damage as well, also due to Rule 1. The question arises with the bonus attack supplied by Rule 3.

Two-weapon fighting (p. 195) says that when you attack with a light weapon, you can attack with another light weapon but without the damage bonus from the ability modifier. The only way to get that modifier is if you have the fighter-type dual weapon style.

So, when my level three monk goes to make his follow-up unarmored strike allowed by rule three, does she get to add her Dex to the strike’s damage like she does with the first attack? (There are two ways of seeing this: You can see it as the monk getting the dual weapon style for unarmed strikes without the book saying so explicitly, or you can see it as the loss of the ability modifier from the two-weapon rule only applying to WEAPONS.) Or does the fist used in an unarmed strike count as a melee weapon, and thus the monk does not get the ability damage bonus on the bonus action attack?

Follow-up: If the two-weapon rule is limited only to weapons and not fists, does that mean that Joe Fighter (level 1) who most certainly has two fists, can choose to attack in a given round with each of them just like if he were holding two shortswords, but then, because fists don’t have the two-weapon-bonus-attack-loss-of-ability-bonus-damage rule, does he also get to add his Str to the damage for both punches? In other words, if fists are weapons, does that mean everyone can a) dual wield fists and b) get the appropriate ability damage bonus to both punches?

I know this was long, sorry about that. Thanks.
Strong MoDan
Don’t worry about lenght of your questions, this is the right place.
I hope to give you the right answer, otherwise I encourage people to give you “the sage advice”.
I start your answer with PHB p.7 golden rule: “Specific Beats General”
In this case “Specific” is Martial Arts description in PHB p.78 that beats “General” Two-weapon fighting combat rule PHB p.195.
Unarmed strike is not considered a light weapon as Master Mike write:


is an attack that you can make in a bonus action, so Yes you can add dex or str as first attack.
Is like fighetr extra attack but fighter can make it in the attack action while monk can do it in bonus action.
About Joe fighter, yes he has 2 fists and two feet and an hard head too but all this parts are not considered multiple weapons but just unarmed strike (PHB p.149 table) that Joe can use normally once in a turn.
Take a look to Master Jeremy answer https://www.sageadvice.eu/2014/09/25/unarmed-kick-elbow-head/
Finally my advice is to read some advice about Unarmed combat https://www.sageadvice.eu/?s=unarmed
“Namo Mituo Fo”

Latest Update:

Unarmed Strike Damage

@kam2112Is a monks unarmed strike considered a melee weapon attack?
believe yes

Dnd 5e Unarmed Strike Damage Monk

— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) May 17, 2015