Monk Bonus Attack & Flurry of Blows

[Grayson01]

So does anyone have any ideas why the Monks Bonus attack and Flurry of Blows can onlt be made with Unarmed Strike and not with monk weapons?

[Freelance GM]

I think the intended idea was you make 1 attack with the weapon in your hand, and the rest are with other limbs- like kicks.

[RealCheese]

So does anyone have any ideas why the Monks Bonus attack and Flurry of Blows can onlt be made with Unarmed Strike and not with monk weapons?
Because a versatile quarterstaff is a monk weapon so that would allow the monk to make 3 d8+dex attacks by use of one ki or even make two d8+dex attacks without use of ki, every round. And that is too much at level 2.
Limiting you to unarmed attacks means that the level dependent damage die keeps your damage at appropriate levels, dependent on your level.
Remember though, I am pretty sure that wielding a magic monk weapon, you can add that weapons magical bonuses to any unarmed attack you make.

[Rezby]

Because a versatile quarterstaff is a monk weapon so that would allow the monk to make 3 d8+dex attacks by use of one ki or even make two d8+dex attacks without use of ki, every round. And that is too much at level 2.
Limiting you to unarmed attacks means that the level dependent damage die keeps your damage at appropriate levels, dependent on your level.
Remember though, I am pretty sure that wielding a magic monk weapon, you can add that weapons magical bonuses to any unarmed attack you make.

Compare to a variant human fighter with archery wielding a shield and a hand crossbow, at level 2: 2 d6+dex attacks, every round, with higher accuracy, with a third attack 1/rest. Once the fighter starts getting extra attacks, it skyrockets in damage compared to the monk.

tbh, I wouldn't argue if a DM told me that they'd rule that monk's bonus action flurries work with monk weapons.

[Person_Man]

So does anyone have any ideas why the Monks Bonus attack and Flurry of Blows can onlt be made with Unarmed Strike and not with monk weapons?

I assume its to limit combos with magic weapons. Everyone else in the game that's not a Fighter can only make 1 or 2 attacks per round with a weapon, plus one more if you can trigger an opportunity attack. The Fighter basically gets no other signature class abilities except for making lots of attacks with weapons.

[Eslin]

I assume its to limit combos with magic weapons. Everyone else in the game that's not a Fighter can only make 1 or 2 attacks per round with a weapon, plus one more if you can trigger an opportunity attack. The Fighter basically gets no other signature class abilities except for making lots of attacks with weapons.

On the other hand, a fighter gets 5 total attacks including their bonus attack, and monks have to pay every round if they want to make 4 attacks total. It works fine, they get those attacks very early on but it's apparently balanced by following the usual 1-5-11-17 progression - the only problem is not being able to get the bonus from their magic weapon for those attacks. I'd rule that whatever bonuses a magic weapon gives you should apply to your unarmed attacks to keep them even.

[Grayson01]

Thanks I had not thought about the implications of it with magic weapons. It has just been bugging me why not. Honestly if I was Dming and a player asked I would say yeah that's fine. I just couldn't think why would you limit it to just unarmedstrike when the monk weapons scale with unarmstrike anyway now.

[Tenmujiin]

Thanks I had not thought about the implications of it with magic weapons. It has just been bugging me why not. Honestly if I was Dming and a player asked I would say yeah that's fine. I just couldn't think why would you limit it to just unarmedstrike when the monk weapons scale with unarmstrike anyway now.

I saw it as the monk hitting once with his weapon (or twice at lv5) and once or twice with his other hand or his feet, from the charcter's perspective it would be about the same as dualweilding but they can spend some 'mystic energy' to hit faster than a normal person.

[oaken]

If this is a matter of fluff then I see no reasons why you couldn't say "I attack the kobold with my quarterstaff, and as the hit lands on its head I quickly swing the staff, hitting the kobold on the legs with the otherside of the weapon. The kobold loses its feet for a split of a second, and as it recovers I drive the tip of the quarterstaff on its chest."

You'd still roll an Unarmed Strike die to calculate the second and third attacks' damage though.

[Tenmujiin]

If this is a matter of fluff then I see no reasons why you couldn't say "I attack the kobold with my quarterstaff, and as the hit lands on its head I quickly swing the staff, hitting the kobold on the legs with the otherside of the weapon. The kobold loses its feet for a split of a second, and as it recovers I drive the tip of the quarterstaff on its chest."

You'd still roll an Unarmed Strike die to calculate the second and third attacks' damage though.

This is basically what I'm doing for the next charcter I roll up, he will be a monk using a shortsword doing unarmed strike damage with the extra attacks fluffed to be with the sword.

Edit: my last post was talking aboutthe generic fluff, no reason you can't change it though.

[Grayson01]

If this is a matter of fluff then I see no reasons why you couldn't say "I attack the kobold with my quarterstaff, and as the hit lands on its head I quickly swing the staff, hitting the kobold on the legs with the otherside of the weapon. The kobold loses its feet for a split of a second, and as it recovers I drive the tip of the quarterstaff on its chest."

You'd still roll an Unarmed Strike die to calculate the second and third attacks' damage though.

The Only problem is if you are not using a Bludg. Weapon like a Short Sword or a Spear because the Damage type's are not the same.

[Knaight]

The Only problem is if you are not using a Bludg. Weapon like a Short Sword or a Spear because the Damage type's are not the same.

With a spear fluffing it as lots of smacking people with the shaft works pretty well, though it's not exactly accurate spear use to be getting in several shaft hits per actual stab.

[oaken]

The Only problem is if you are not using a Bludg. Weapon like a Short Sword or a Spear because the Damage type's are not the same.

Honestly I don't think this is a problem as long as it's still as a physical damage type (bludgeoning, slashing, piercing) and the player doesn't have the option of changing it as convenient. I believe that most DMs would be ok with this change if agreed beforehand.

Or else you get creative to adapt it, as Knaight said. If using a shortsword, you could hit the enemy with the hilt.

[Frenth Alunril]

We ruled it as elbows feet and offhand punches.

Crouching tiger hidden dragon has lots of fights where swords didn't hit but people got nailed with kicks and elbows and inverted block counter strikes...

Look at Jackie Chan films for other examples of incidental damage.

But I think it's kinda based more on the Bruce Lee elbow-backhand-strike-elbow and reverse, hit you 8 times in two swings kinda hit mixed with the Kenshiro, Fist of the North Star, 1000 butterfly punches, "Omae mo, shinderu." Kinda head explodey thing.

Man! I love monks.

So one wepon hit just fits.