Superior Unarmed Strike and Monk's Belt

[Grod_The_Giant]

Do they stack? Both appear to be untyped bonuses, which suggests yes, but if they do stack, it's a hell of a big bonus...

[SamBurke]

Do they stack? Both appear to be untyped bonuses, which suggests yes, but if they do stack, it's a hell of a big bonus...

But it's a monk. NO ONE gets a bonus out of being a monk. :small tongue:

I'd say yes, personally.

[Hirax]

According to the FAQ they don't. But throw monks a bone and just let them stack in your games.

[Douglas]

There have been quite a few arguments about this on this board over the years. I've been in a lot of them.

A definitive answer really requires some additional wording that is at best implied, and there are some wildly differing opinions on what the implied wording is.

My opinion is that the feat and belt should both be read as giving you the unarmed damage of a monk X levels higher than without the item/feat (bold is the implied wording), which would make them stack. The generally opposing view, which I do not agree with, is that the standard assumption should be "unarmed damage of a monk X levels higher than your actual Monk level" (again, bold is the implied wording), which would make them not stack.

[Curmudgeon]

Each one of them uses an unstated referent, which resolves most simply as relative to your actual Monk levels. That's why they overlap rather than stack.

If you do decide to allow them to stack, realize you're just providing an incentive for actual Monks to opt out of the class early. (And make sure that stacking is a benefit exclusively for Monk levels, otherwise you'll be screwing over the poor class even more. I've seen people ignore the entirely separate unarmed damage benefits of Superior Unarmed Strike for non-Monks when they can twist things to their advantage for non-Monk characters.)

[Hirax]

There's already enough incentive to leave monk early, I think that ship is far from the harbor.