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stenver
2010-05-20, 01:55 PM
Do Superior unarmed strike and Monks belt stack for druid?

Curmudgeon
2010-05-20, 02:11 PM
No, these can't stack if you don't have any Monk levels. Superior Unarmed Strike gives you an unarmed damage progression that's got nothing to do with Monk levels. The Monk's Belt gives you the unarmed damage of a 5th level Monk, but doesn't give you any actual Monk levels. Unless you're Small size, you're better off with the Belt.

Reynard
2010-05-20, 02:16 PM
So, why can't they stack? If they have nothing to do with each other, then they should be able to.

deuxhero
2010-05-20, 02:18 PM
Yes, Monk's Belt strict RAW doesn't give you the always armed part of the monk abilites, IAS does.

Telonius
2010-05-20, 02:26 PM
Monk's Belt does not give you any actual Monk levels. So the clause in Superior Unarmed Strike about "unarmed damage as a monk four levels higher" doesn't apply - i.e. if you're a Fighter3, you don't get unarmed damage as though you were a Monk9, you get unarmed damage as though you were a Monk5.

However, it might still make (some) sense to use both if you're high enough level. If you're at least level 12, the damage gained from Superior Unarmed Strike exceeds the damage gained from Monk's Belt. (EDIT: But at that point there are probably a lot better options for feats than getting an average of 1 extra damage per hit.)

Curmudgeon
2010-05-20, 02:35 PM
So, why can't they stack? If they have nothing to do with each other, then they should be able to.
How can they stack? Each one gives you an unarmed damage figure that's either a function of character level (the feat) or your size (the item). You get the damage of whichever you use for your unarmed strikes; there's no addition involved.