my main question is how you would rule fighting style: unarmed fighting and martial arts? can i use the dex from martial arts with the damage die increase of the fighting style together, and if so would i be able to use that with the bonus action unarmed strike from martial arts? i plan on only using unarmed strikes other than throwing daggers (when absolutely necessary).
does anyone see anything broken in allowing this to happen? I mean allowing the d8 for hits and the attack being based off dex doesn’t seem horrible to me.
While you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield, you can use DEX instead of STR for the attack and damage rolls, you can roll your Martial Arts damage die in place of the normal damage, and when you use the Attack action on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.
Fighting Style: Unarmed Fighting
Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6+1 on a hit. If you aren’t wielding any weapons or a shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8.
So:
The part about using the Martial Arts damage die is an option: you can use it, but you are under no obligation to use it. Since you have taken Unarmed Fighting, you will instead opt to roll 1d8+1.
Due to Martial Arts, you can use Dex instead of Strength. There is nothing in Unarmed Fighting that requires you to use Strength. Even a character who has Martial Arts could choose to use STR instead of DEX if they preferred.
When you use the Attack action, you can make a Bonus unarmed strike. There is nothing to prevent you doing so regardless of the attack modifier, or what kind of damage die you might roll if you hit. The unarmed strike will be affected by the same rules as above.
Monks are generally thought of as one of the weakest classes. Hard to make them over-powered.
Given that the example character is fighter-3/monk-1, I think the intent is just a single level of monk to get bonus action unarmed attack and dex based attacking. Which is... eh. Seems legal enough, but not particularly good. Usually the reason for something like an unarmed combat rune knight is grapple build hilarity, and you want strength primary to be good at that, and just take tavern brawler for bonus action grapple.
If you were a full fighter with two scimitars, you could have bumped dex by now to be doing (1d6+4)x2 which averages to 15 damage. Instead you are doing (1d8+3)x2 which averages to 15 damage. Next level, the full fighter would greatly surpass you thanks to Extra Attacks. Then the following level you would catch up and overtake by a little. This is fine. Working pretty much exactly as intended.
I'd suggest you pick up a bow at some point. If you come across a situation where you simply can't get close to an enemy, you're going to want something with more range than a dagger.
Here is a link for a character one of my players wants to play.
https://ddb.ac/characters/76779864/PPX4Bm
His and my question;
my main question is how you would rule fighting style: unarmed fighting and martial arts? can i use the dex from martial arts with the damage die increase of the fighting style together, and if so would i be able to use that with the bonus action unarmed strike from martial arts?
i plan on only using unarmed strikes other than throwing daggers (when absolutely necessary).
does anyone see anything broken in allowing this to happen? I mean allowing the d8 for hits and the attack being based off dex doesn’t seem horrible to me.
While you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren’t wearing armor or wielding a shield, you can use DEX instead of STR for the attack and damage rolls, you can roll your Martial Arts damage die in place of the normal damage, and when you use the Attack action on your turn, you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action.
Fighting Style: Unarmed Fighting
Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6+1 on a hit. If you aren’t wielding any weapons or a shield when you make the attack roll, the d6 becomes a d8.
So:
IMO, the Unarmed Fighting Style is a trap for Monks. It looks good… but quickly becomes useless by Tier-2.
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Monks are generally thought of as one of the weakest classes. Hard to make them over-powered.
Given that the example character is fighter-3/monk-1, I think the intent is just a single level of monk to get bonus action unarmed attack and dex based attacking. Which is... eh. Seems legal enough, but not particularly good. Usually the reason for something like an unarmed combat rune knight is grapple build hilarity, and you want strength primary to be good at that, and just take tavern brawler for bonus action grapple.
If you were a full fighter with two scimitars, you could have bumped dex by now to be doing (1d6+4)x2 which averages to 15 damage. Instead you are doing (1d8+3)x2 which averages to 15 damage. Next level, the full fighter would greatly surpass you thanks to Extra Attacks. Then the following level you would catch up and overtake by a little. This is fine. Working pretty much exactly as intended.
I'd suggest you pick up a bow at some point. If you come across a situation where you simply can't get close to an enemy, you're going to want something with more range than a dagger.
My homebrew subclasses (full list here)
(Artificer) Swordmage | Glasswright | (Barbarian) Path of the Savage Embrace
(Bard) College of Dance | (Fighter) Warlord | Cannoneer
(Monk) Way of the Elements | (Ranger) Blade Dancer
(Rogue) DaggerMaster | Inquisitor | (Sorcerer) Riftwalker | Spellfist
(Warlock) The Swarm