The unarmed fighting style is a trap for monks. Better to just use a Quarterstaff. Most of the perks one gets from that feat are things the monk will eventually get on their own anyway, and the rest rely on a moderate-high Strength, which most Monks aren’t built for. Better to take the thrown weapon fighting style and have a half decent ranged attack option.
True but it depends on the campaign. level 11 is long wait for 1d8 damage. I suppose it might balance out if the Monk has high dex bonus for damage.
But a d8 damage dice is not actually particularly stronger than a d6. It's 1 point of damage on average. Sure it'd be nice to have, but the trade off for Monks isn't worth it; you already want to get at least a +2 in both DEX and WIS for AC and features, and ideally at least +1 in CON to give a little staying power if you draw aggro. Unarmed Fighting Style is separate from Martial Arts, so you can't use DEX with it, so you'd then need to get STR up as well. If you want to be an Unarmed STR, use a Fighter or Barbarian as the base template.
Why can’t you use Dex with it? All it does is change the unarmed strike damage calculation (d6/d8 instead of flat 1) that has always used STR (like all melee attacks do). And just like the finesse property that allows you to use Dex instead of STR for those melee weapons, martial arts does the same for unarmed strikes. Martial arts and finesse are the specific that beats general rule.
The unarmed fighting style is a trap for monks. Better to just use a Quarterstaff. Most of the perks one gets from that feat are things the monk will eventually get on their own anyway, and the rest rely on a moderate-high Strength, which most Monks aren’t built for. Better to take the thrown weapon fighting style and have a half decent ranged attack option.
True but it depends on the campaign. level 11 is long wait for 1d8 damage. I suppose it might balance out if the Monk has high dex bonus for damage.
But a d8 damage dice is not actually particularly stronger than a d6. It's 1 point of damage on average. Sure it'd be nice to have, but the trade off for Monks isn't worth it; you already want to get at least a +2 in both DEX and WIS for AC and features, and ideally at least +1 in CON to give a little staying power if you draw aggro. Unarmed Fighting Style is separate from Martial Arts, so you can't use DEX with it, so you'd then need to get STR up as well. If you want to be an Unarmed STR, use a Fighter or Barbarian as the base template.
Why can’t you use Dex with it? All it does is change the unarmed strike damage calculation (d6/d8 instead of flat 1) that has always used STR (like all melee attacks do). And just like the finesse property that allows you to use Dex instead of STR for those melee weapons, martial arts does the same for unarmed strikes. Martial arts and finesse are the specific that beats general rule.
On review that was my bad; I thought the DEX part was tied to making the Unarmed Attack with the Martial Arts die. Still not worth it imo; you get d6 the level after you get a feat; you're gaining a variable boost of 1 point on one and change attacks if you use a quarterstaff, slightly more if you go full unarmed, but you're giving up an ASI that could get a guaranteed +1 to damage on top of to hit, AC, and DEX saves.
DDB accepts Dex bonuses for Fighting Initiate - Unarmed Fighting.
Probably because the rule for Monks state that they can use Dex or Str for unarmed attacks. The same way in which tortles and tabaxi get Monk bonuses on their natural weaponry.
Why can’t you use Dex with it? All it does is change the unarmed strike damage calculation (d6/d8 instead of flat 1) that has always used STR (like all melee attacks do). And just like the finesse property that allows you to use Dex instead of STR for those melee weapons, martial arts does the same for unarmed strikes. Martial arts and finesse are the specific that beats general rule.
On review that was my bad; I thought the DEX part was tied to making the Unarmed Attack with the Martial Arts die. Still not worth it imo; you get d6 the level after you get a feat; you're gaining a variable boost of 1 point on one and change attacks if you use a quarterstaff, slightly more if you go full unarmed, but you're giving up an ASI that could get a guaranteed +1 to damage on top of to hit, AC, and DEX saves.
DDB accepts Dex bonuses for Fighting Initiate - Unarmed Fighting.
Probably because the rule for Monks state that they can use Dex or Str for unarmed attacks. The same way in which tortles and tabaxi get Monk bonuses on their natural weaponry.
Interesting.
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