I may have painted myself into a corner. I’m a first time DM running a campaign for a few friends. One of our characters is a monk. He managed to get himself captured by some goblins. After the rest of the team managed to negotiate his release in exchange for killing another NPC (Goblin hideout in LMoP) he asked if they had a weapon he could use. Off the top of my head I said one of the goblins threw him a “rusty Scimitar”. He’s been using it ever since. I now realize a Scimitar is NOT considered a monk weapon so technically he can’t use it. I get that he doesn’t get the proficiency bonus because he’s not proficient in those types of weapons and that’s what I’ve been doing. He’s still managed to use it with some success and has held onto it. I can’t exactly say you can’t use it anymore because that really wouldn’t make sense. So how do I run a character using a weapon he can’t technically use properly without punishing him for my mistake? Continue letting him use it without the proficiency bonus? And as a finesse weapon, does he still get to use his DEX even though it’s considered a non-monk weapon?
easy option would be to retcon it and switch it to a short sword, this would then qualify for a monk weapon.
other option is say its a butterfly sword (shaolin monk style of short sword) and keep it as is but it now counts as a monk weapon. In this instance where did the goblins get it? Who knows, maybe there is a body of a monk lying in a refuse pile or goblin latrine somewhere the party hadn't found.
A scimitar , bieing a weapon he is not proficient with, means he won't benefit from proficiency bonus and Martial Arts. He could either switch weapon, or if you all prefer that he keep his rusty goblinoid scimitar, you could always say he has become good enought over time with it to cause piercing damage as the slashing blade has become so dull and effectively treating it as a shortsword.
Tasha's introduced the "Dedicated Weapon" Optional Feature, whereby a Monk can select a single, specific non-monk weapon and then that one weapon is treated as a Monk weapon for that individual Monk. The only caveat you're going to run into is that the Monk still needs to be proficient with that weapon (I believe it's mostly meant for multiclassing).
A scimitar, mechanically speaking, is virtually identical to a shortsword, save that it deals slashing damage instead of piercing. Nothing about it makes it better than a shortsword for a monk, so I say there's no harm in just letting your player use a scimitar as their monk weapon.
I may have painted myself into a corner. I’m a first time DM running a campaign for a few friends. One of our characters is a monk. He managed to get himself captured by some goblins. After the rest of the team managed to negotiate his release in exchange for killing another NPC (Goblin hideout in LMoP) he asked if they had a weapon he could use. Off the top of my head I said one of the goblins threw him a “rusty Scimitar”. He’s been using it ever since. I now realize a Scimitar is NOT considered a monk weapon so technically he can’t use it. I get that he doesn’t get the proficiency bonus because he’s not proficient in those types of weapons and that’s what I’ve been doing. He’s still managed to use it with some success and has held onto it. I can’t exactly say you can’t use it anymore because that really wouldn’t make sense. So how do I run a character using a weapon he can’t technically use properly without punishing him for my mistake? Continue letting him use it without the proficiency bonus? And as a finesse weapon, does he still get to use his DEX even though it’s considered a non-monk weapon?
easy option would be to retcon it and switch it to a short sword, this would then qualify for a monk weapon.
other option is say its a butterfly sword (shaolin monk style of short sword) and keep it as is but it now counts as a monk weapon. In this instance where did the goblins get it? Who knows, maybe there is a body of a monk lying in a refuse pile or goblin latrine somewhere the party hadn't found.
I have to point out monks can use non-monk weapons just not as well as monk weapons.
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That’s what I was wondering. So allowing them to continue using the weapon but just without the proficiency bonus would be acceptable?
suppose so (honestly the big bummer is that does not work with martial arts)
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A scimitar , bieing a weapon he is not proficient with, means he won't benefit from proficiency bonus and Martial Arts. He could either switch weapon, or if you all prefer that he keep his rusty goblinoid scimitar, you could always say he has become good enought over time with it to cause piercing damage as the slashing blade has become so dull and effectively treating it as a shortsword.
Tasha's introduced the "Dedicated Weapon" Optional Feature, whereby a Monk can select a single, specific non-monk weapon and then that one weapon is treated as a Monk weapon for that individual Monk. The only caveat you're going to run into is that the Monk still needs to be proficient with that weapon (I believe it's mostly meant for multiclassing).
A scimitar, mechanically speaking, is virtually identical to a shortsword, save that it deals slashing damage instead of piercing. Nothing about it makes it better than a shortsword for a monk, so I say there's no harm in just letting your player use a scimitar as their monk weapon.
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