So lets talk about all the features that are relevant: As a note, since this is gated content, I am specifically leaving out anything that isn't relevant to the questions when talking about features.
"For 10 minutes, these spectral arms hover near your shoulders or surround your arms (your choice). You determine the arms’ appearance, and they vanish early if you are incapacitated or die. While the spectral arms are present, you gain the following benefits:
You can use the spectral arms to make unarmed strikes.
When you make an unarmed strike with the arms on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
When you enter your rage, you can transform, revealing the bestial power within you. Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you, and you add your Strength modifier to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with it, as normal.
"Claws. Each of your hands transforms into a claw, which you can use as a weapon if it’s empty. It deals 1d6 slashing damage on a hit. Once on each of your turns when you attack with a claw using the Attack action, you can make one additional claw attack as part of the same action."
if I am purely going RAW, as its written? The spectral arms aren't YOUR arms, you are summoning additional arms that you happen to control, but they aren't yours. Case in point, if someone tries to attack the spectral arms, you don't take damage.
Now, at level 11 monk your unarmed strikes are doing 1d8, while the claw attacks are doing 1d6. The claws very specifically simple melee weapons, and not unarmed attacks. So you wouldn't get your Monk weapon die with them. Assuming rage and flurry of blows, you could potentially have 5 attacks per turn. Two claw attacks(one during your normal 2 attack action, and one extra as defined by the feature), and 3 unarmed strikes (the second attack of your standard 2 attack action, and the ki point for flurry of blows for your two bonus action strikes). Claws would total out at 1d6+str+3 twice, and then your unarmed strikes at 1d8+str+3 three times OR 1d8+dex three times, your choice.
For fun, I'd allow it. It's a level 20 character, they're supposed to be fun. It's not game breaking at all, but the syngeries are weird. There's some complex rulings in there that could make it less fun than it seems.
So lets talk about all the features that are relevant: As a note, since this is gated content, I am specifically leaving out anything that isn't relevant to the questions when talking about features.
"For 10 minutes, these spectral arms hover near your shoulders or surround your arms (your choice). You determine the arms’ appearance, and they vanish early if you are incapacitated or die. While the spectral arms are present, you gain the following benefits:
You can use the spectral arms to make unarmed strikes.
When you make an unarmed strike with the arms on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
When you enter your rage, you can transform, revealing the bestial power within you. Until the rage ends, you manifest a natural weapon. It counts as a simple melee weapon for you, and you add your Strength modifier to the attack and damage rolls when you attack with it, as normal.
"Claws. Each of your hands transforms into a claw, which you can use as a weapon if it’s empty. It deals 1d6 slashing damage on a hit. Once on each of your turns when you attack with a claw using the Attack action, you can make one additional claw attack as part of the same action."
if I am purely going RAW, as its written? The spectral arms aren't YOUR arms, you are summoning additional arms that you happen to control, but they aren't yours. Case in point, if someone tries to attack the spectral arms, you don't take damage.
Now, at level 11 monk your unarmed strikes are doing 1d8, while the claw attacks are doing 1d6. The claws very specifically simple melee weapons, and not unarmed attacks. So you wouldn't get your Monk weapon die with them. Assuming rage and flurry of blows, you could potentially have 5 attacks per turn. Two claw attacks(one during your normal 2 attack action, and one extra as defined by the feature), and 3 unarmed strikes (the second attack of your standard 2 attack action, and the ki point for flurry of blows for your two bonus action strikes). Claws would total out at 1d6+str+3 twice, and then your unarmed strikes at 1d8+str+3 three times OR 1d8+dex three times, your choice.
For fun, I'd allow it. It's a level 20 character, they're supposed to be fun. It's not game breaking at all, but the syngeries are weird. There's some complex rulings in there that could make it less fun than it seems.
You only get 1 attack action. And the claws only work Once on your turn when you take the attack action. So you can attack once with claw plus the additional attack, at 1d6. And then with 1 Ki flurry of blows as bonus action for two attacks at 1d8. The claws would be at normal melee range. The FoB could be at +5’ reach using the astral arms and can use wisdom modifier to attack instead of dexterity. Claws would require strength to get benefits of rage.
edit: I misread your post and thought you were saying you had 2 attack actions. And didn’t realize the claw allowed you to take your extra attack so you have 3 as attack action. Then the two bonus action FoB attacks
Claws are natural weapons, so they do not make unarmed strikes. Many natural weapons can be used to make unarmed strikes, but they all specifically say so in their descriptions (Tabaxi claws, Minotaur horns, etc.). I think this fairly common pattern has lead people to think that attacks with natural weapons and unarmed strikes are equivalent, but they're not. Your astral arms can only make unarmed strikes (it's not actually stated that they can do anything else at all in terms of basic arm/hand functions like picking something up), and your claw attacks are not unarmed strikes.
Your claws do count as monk weapons though, since they are simple. So making an attack with them allows you to make one unarmed attack with your astral arms as a bonus action via Martial Arts, or two attacks if you FoB. But that's pretty much the only way they interact.
Typically if your weapon does better damage (d8 punch vs d6 claws), you will want to do something like punch, claw, claw for your extra attacks and then you can punch once or twice with your BA.
I think the argument here centers on whether or not the arms are "your" arms and whether or not they can have hands. I would argue that they in fact are "yours" because it is Your astral self - ergo Your astral arms, which, appearing however you'd like, could certainly have hands - which according to the Beast barbarian then turn into Claws because it only specifies that they be Your hands. I think there's even an argument that Mage Hand is one of Your hands and could be used to make a beast claw attack.
I think there's even an argument that Mage Hand is one of Your hands and could be used to make a beast claw attack.
It's possible to make that argument, but that argument is wrong because mage hand explicitly can't be used to make attacks. And as was already pointed out, the spectral arms summoned by the astral monk are an extra pair of arms that they can use, not the character's arms, and are therefore invalid for the Beastbarian's claws.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
What about the astral self ability that substitutes strength or dex with wisdom? Wouldn't that apply to all the attack/dmg rolls?
That would not apply to claw attack because it specifically says that it applies to attacks made with the summoned arms, which cannot gain the claw properties.
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If there was a character that was say 11 astral self monk/ 9 beast barbarian, how would their features interact. Namely:
So lets talk about all the features that are relevant: As a note, since this is gated content, I am specifically leaving out anything that isn't relevant to the questions when talking about features.
if I am purely going RAW, as its written? The spectral arms aren't YOUR arms, you are summoning additional arms that you happen to control, but they aren't yours. Case in point, if someone tries to attack the spectral arms, you don't take damage.
Now, at level 11 monk your unarmed strikes are doing 1d8, while the claw attacks are doing 1d6. The claws very specifically simple melee weapons, and not unarmed attacks. So you wouldn't get your Monk weapon die with them. Assuming rage and flurry of blows, you could potentially have 5 attacks per turn. Two claw attacks(one during your normal 2 attack action, and one extra as defined by the feature), and 3 unarmed strikes (the second attack of your standard 2 attack action, and the ki point for flurry of blows for your two bonus action strikes). Claws would total out at 1d6+str+3 twice, and then your unarmed strikes at 1d8+str+3 three times OR 1d8+dex three times, your choice.
For fun, I'd allow it. It's a level 20 character, they're supposed to be fun. It's not game breaking at all, but the syngeries are weird. There's some complex rulings in there that could make it less fun than it seems.
You only get 1 attack action. And the claws only work Once on your turn when you take the attack action. So you can attack once with claw plus the additional attack, at 1d6. And then with 1 Ki flurry of blows as bonus action for two attacks at 1d8. The claws would be at normal melee range. The FoB could be at +5’ reach using the astral arms and can use wisdom modifier to attack instead of dexterity. Claws would require strength to get benefits of rage.
edit: I misread your post and thought you were saying you had 2 attack actions. And didn’t realize the claw allowed you to take your extra attack so you have 3 as attack action. Then the two bonus action FoB attacks
EZD6 by DM Scotty
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/397599/EZD6-Core-Rulebook?
Claws are natural weapons, so they do not make unarmed strikes. Many natural weapons can be used to make unarmed strikes, but they all specifically say so in their descriptions (Tabaxi claws, Minotaur horns, etc.). I think this fairly common pattern has lead people to think that attacks with natural weapons and unarmed strikes are equivalent, but they're not. Your astral arms can only make unarmed strikes (it's not actually stated that they can do anything else at all in terms of basic arm/hand functions like picking something up), and your claw attacks are not unarmed strikes.
Your claws do count as monk weapons though, since they are simple. So making an attack with them allows you to make one unarmed attack with your astral arms as a bonus action via Martial Arts, or two attacks if you FoB. But that's pretty much the only way they interact.
Typically if your weapon does better damage (d8 punch vs d6 claws), you will want to do something like punch, claw, claw for your extra attacks and then you can punch once or twice with your BA.
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
I realize I'm resurrecting an old thread.
I think the argument here centers on whether or not the arms are "your" arms and whether or not they can have hands. I would argue that they in fact are "yours" because it is Your astral self - ergo Your astral arms, which, appearing however you'd like, could certainly have hands - which according to the Beast barbarian then turn into Claws because it only specifies that they be Your hands. I think there's even an argument that Mage Hand is one of Your hands and could be used to make a beast claw attack.
It's possible to make that argument, but that argument is wrong because mage hand explicitly can't be used to make attacks. And as was already pointed out, the spectral arms summoned by the astral monk are an extra pair of arms that they can use, not the character's arms, and are therefore invalid for the Beastbarian's claws.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
What about the astral self ability that substitutes strength or dex with wisdom? Wouldn't that apply to all the attack/dmg rolls?
That would not apply to claw attack because it specifically says that it applies to attacks made with the summoned arms, which cannot gain the claw properties.