Unarmed Strikes not weapons

[KingSmitty]

I'm currently playing a monk/unarmed swordsage and my DM won't allow maneuvers that are keyed off of weapons. Anything like Burning Brand which says something like "your weapon turns into a burning brand" won't work by his interpretation, since it specifically calls out a weapon. Others that require weapons to be wielded are disallowed as well, but I can understand that. I can't wield fists.

is there anything i can do to allow some of these maneuvers to be allowed with UAS? To me it's just fluff changing whether my weapon or my fists are what i use these techniques with.

[Extra Anchovies]

From the SRD: (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm#unarmedStrike)

A monk’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.

Since you have monk levels, your unarmed strikes are manufactured weapons and natural weapons, both of which are, well, weapons. Your DM just doesn't know how the weapon rules work. If he won't let Burning Brand affect your unarmed strikes, he also has to not let it affect manufactured or natural weapons if he wants to be consistent in his rulings (and if he doesn't want to be consistent in his rulings he's a bad DM).

Also, I'm pretty sure having monk levels means you can "wield" your unarmed strikes, because wielding a weapon just means you're using something as a weapon, in this case your hands or whatever.

[KingSmitty]

From the SRD: (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/monk.htm#unarmedStrike)


Since you have monk levels, your unarmed strikes are manufactured weapons and natural weapons, both of which are, well, weapons. Your DM just doesn't know how the weapon rules work. If he won't let Burning Brand affect your unarmed strikes, he also has to not let it affect manufactured or natural weapons if he wants to be consistent in his rulings (and if he doesn't want to be consistent in his rulings he's a bad DM).

Also, I'm pretty sure having monk levels means you can "wield" your unarmed strikes, because wielding a weapon just means you're using something as a weapon, in this case your hands or whatever.


Im of the same camp. Perhaps on the ride to our next session i'll lecture him on Monk's UAS.

thank you for pointing that quote out for me, I totally forgot about that line!

Also, on page 46 in ToB...has anyone ever tried making their own maneuvers?

[Bronk]

Perhaps you could point out the PHB2's Fiery Fist and Fiery Ki Defense feats as examples of monks setting themselves on fire just fine.

[Necroticplague]

Even without the Monk UAS text, Magic Fang and Magic Weapon both show that an unarmed strike is a natural weapon.

[Chronos]

One could debate whether natural weapons count as "weapons" for this purpose, but manufactured weapons definitely do, and Monk's got you covered there.

[Telonius]

Just carry a mundane (or minimally-enchanted) weapon with you for the times that you need it to activate maneuvers. You can even hold it all the time if you need to; it doesn't prevent you from making an unarmed strike with any other part of your body. More importantly it gives the DM what he wants, and cuts down on friction. Make it a Quarterstaff and you can even trip and disarm better than you could with unarmed attacks.

[Bronk]

Just carry a mundane (or minimally-enchanted) weapon with you for the times that you need it to activate maneuvers. You can even hold it all the time if you need to; it doesn't prevent you from making an unarmed strike with any other part of your body. More importantly it gives the DM what he wants, and cuts down on friction. Make it a Quarterstaff and you can even trip and disarm better than you could with unarmed attacks.

If you do this, you might want to look at the Scorpion Kama from MIC as well.