Hi everyone, I have an Aarakocran Monk with a homebrew subclass. The first feature is that the martial die is automatically bumped up one size (d4 becomes d6, etc). The issue I have is that I can't bump it up and am having to resort to homebrewing new weapons. How could I do that?

Thanks!

You mean Unarmed Damage?  Monk bumps it up one die at level 1 from base damage of 1 to 1d4+Ability, then at level 5 it bumps up to 1d6+Ability and so on...  Works perfectly fine on my Monk.

I think what the OP means is that the homebrew subclass they are using has a feature where the Monk's Martial Arts Die is one size bigger than it would be for a typical Monk of that level, but the D&D Beyond Character Builder can't implement that mechanic. Is that correct?

Make a feat with this following:

”Modifier—>Damage” “Modifier Subtype—>Unarmed Attacks” “Die Count = 1” “Die Type = d6”

That should give you the unarmed die you are looking for, and then as you level up the regular Martial Arts die should take over.

Yes, that's exactly my problem! I'm going to try out the new feat as per IamSposta's advice and get back to you guys

Hi IamSposta, thanks for your very helpful advice!  The thing is that as per the MArtial Arts feature language :

"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."

So the Martial die applies not only to unarmed attacks but also to any monk weapon. The problem being that in the feat or class feature creator you can't chose either "monk weapons" or "monk weapons + unnarmed attacks", I would have to make a feat for every type of weapon that would qualify. Is there no way to automate this?

Once you get the character sheet to recognize the correct die for your Unarmed Strikes, just use the same die for everything until you hit 5th level when the class feature takes over again. 

Alright everyone, so here's what's not working.

When I edit my subclass feature, I can't change manually the martial dice. So I took your guys' advice and went to create a modifier on my feature.

I did :

”Modifier—>Damage” “Modifier Subtype—>Unarmed Attacks” “Die Count = 1” “Die Type = d6”

”Modifier—>Damage” “Modifier Subtype—>One Handed Melee Attacks” “Die Count = 1” “Die Type = d6”

”Modifier—>Damage” “Modifier Subtype—>Melee Weapon Attacks” “Die Count = 1” “Die Type = d6”

I wanted to make up enough of them so that it would roughly cover everything I have to use, and my DM would trust me not to apply it to anything it shouldn't be applied to. But the problem I found is that the optioins of things to modify was very limited!

(Acid - bludgeoning - cold - fire - force - lightning - longbow - melee weapon attacks - natural attacks - necrotic - one handed melee attacks - piercing - poison -psychic - raidiant - shortbow - slashing - thunder - unarmed attacks)

They didn't have any ranged weapons (for my Deflect missiles reaction which the martial die would have an effect on), or the options of "simple weapons" and "shortswords" so I could not make it as accurate as I needed. And even with the three I chose, it didn't reach all the way to Deflect Missiles which is annoying.

Even worse! When I went back to my character sheet to check it had changed, instead of saying "1d6 (martial die) + 4 (dex mod)", now it reads "1d4 +12", which, what?...

So, I'm a bit lost here... what am I doing wrong?

I’ve got a similar problem. It’s not changing it for any of my martial weapons. Unarmed attack changed just fine.

It doesn’t need to. You don’t have to roll the specific button for a specific weapon, you just need a d6 with the right bonuses. That’s all that matters.

I've spent 2 days trying to do this (get d6+Dex damages to use for unarmed strike for a Monk at level 3).  That's part of the Fists of Bone & Steel granted by Way of the Living Weapons Monk tradition I want to follow.   I've tried adding the modifier you describe for a feat, and all sorts of other places also, but so far no variation gives me anything I can "roll" on my DnD Beyond character sheet.  I saw below, and get it, that I don't have to alter the existing, built in, damage rolls.  I just need something -- anything -- with d6+dex damages to roll when I get an unarmed strike hit.  Feeling both dumb and frustrated.  Can you suggest what I'm missing?  Thanks.  

Quote from WaaGooBee >>

I've spent 2 days trying to do this (get d6+Dex damages to use for unarmed strike for a Monk at level 3).  That's part of the Fists of Bone & Steel granted by Way of the Living Weapons Monk tradition I want to follow.   I've tried adding the modifier you describe for a feat, and all sorts of other places also, but so far no variation gives me anything I can "roll" on my DnD Beyond character sheet.  I saw below, and get it, that I don't have to alter the existing, built in, damage rolls.  I just need something -- anything -- with d6+dex damages to roll when I get an unarmed strike hit.  Feeling both dumb and frustrated.  Can you suggest what I'm missing?  Thanks.  

 
You need to add an Action to your homebrew, check the “display as attack” box, and designate an “action type.” Like this:

Wow!  You're good.  Thank you so much.  I've now sort of successfully created a way to role damage for bludgeoning and slashing.  Tried to add piercing (which is permitted for my monk - who has claws - via the Way of Living Weapon) but that one still comes up as a d4.  Not a big deal, as I can roll with either of the others) but I'm wondering why.  Maybe because piercing isn't typical for an unarmed strike?  

But I do have a remaining problem.  These rolls now use the correct die, but are adding DEX twice (+6 rather than +3).  Any advice about why that's happening and how it can be adjusted?

Again, thank you so much for giving me this huge hand up in the homebrew game.

GOT IT -- just removed the DEX in the weapon and the formula reverts to +3.  I'm so excited to play now.  Thank you for the support.  (I'll likely be back :-))

Happy to help.

Quote from WaaGooBee >>

But I do have a remaining problem.  These rolls now use the correct die, but are adding DEX twice (+6 rather than +3).  Any advice about why that's happening and how it can be adjusted?

GOT IT -- just removed the DEX in the weapon and the formula reverts to +3.  I'm so excited to play now.  Thank you for the support.  (I'll likely be back :-))

I'm kind of curious if there's a way to reproduce this? I'm trying to get it so that a custom unarmed strike from a subclass adds the DEX bonus twice to the damage, but I haven't been successful. I tried adding the dex bonus on top of clicking the check "Affected by Martial Arts" but no dice.

I also tried looking up if there was a thread for it, but haven't found anything yet

It’ll only work for a Monk Subclass. Otherwise you need to add a separate Modifier.

Hmm, is there any way to add a modifier that only affects one thing though? Like having one unarmed strike that does 1d6 + 3 and a second that does 1d6 + 6? Or would that just need to be something that you customize in the character page by the player themselves

Quote from Sickle_Inc >>

Hmm, is there any way to add a modifier that only affects one thing though? Like having one unarmed strike that does 1d6 + 3 and a second that does 1d6 + 6? Or would that just need to be something that you customize in the character page by the player themselves

 
That would need to be something the player adjusts by customizing their character sheet.

I know I'm 3 years late, but this is mostly for anyone else that opens this thread in the future, make a Homebrew subclass and add a feature that replaces Deflect missiles then change the die using the level overrides option to change the die at every level that your martial arts die changes at.