Non Monk Barehander Technical Qs

[Chalkarts]

I'm probably missing it or not putting it together in my head properly but,

Q1: Are fists considered Melee weapons and do the rules for dual wielding melee weapons apply to fisticuffs?

Q2: What ways can a fighter achieve a punch that can hit magical critters?

I love the idea of a bare knuckle beatdown fighter but the rules seem to be resistant to the idea.

[UnintensifiedFa]

1) I believe they are considered melee weapons for the purposes of the clause “melee weapon attack” and while it can be vague I would allow for dual wielding rules to apply. (They are literally the lighters weapon in the game)

2) Fighter works best for this IMO, you get the best stats, (lots of asis) and a lot of attacks (3 at level 11)
I recommend tavern brawler. 1 level in barbarian can be pretty good too. But definitely at least fighter 11.

[JNAProductions]

I'm probably missing it or not putting it together in my head properly but,

Q1: Are fists considered Melee weapons and do the rules for dual wielding melee weapons apply to fisticuffs?

Q2: What ways can a fighter achieve a punch that can hit magical critters?

I love the idea of a bare knuckle beatdown fighter but the rules seem to be resistant to the idea.

1) I'm not entirely clear on whether they're considered melee weapons, but they are NOT Light Weapons. Meaning you need the Dual Wielder feat to TWF with them. It's dumb, and as a DM I'd let you TWF without the feat, but them's the rules.

2) Nothing by RAW, outside one random magic item in Hoard of the Dragon Queen. However, ask your DM for magic fist-wraps. Most DMs won't have an issue supporting that.

[GreyBlack]

Per the weapons table, unarmed strikes deal 1 bludgeoning damage, and do not have the Light tag next to it. Ergo, I'm inclined to say that they are not "light" weapons for the purpose of dual wielding.

Which is dumb and stupid, but if you've ever seen someone who isn't proficient in unarmed strikes try to punch someone IRL, it makes so much sense.

[JackPhoenix]

1): Unarmed strike isn't a weapon, melee or otherwise. It has no interaction with TWF rules (which require you to use two different (light) melee weapons)
2): Fighter (or anyone else) can hit magical critters with unarmed strikes just fine. If they do have resistance or immunity to damage from non-magical bludgeoning attacks, the only option for non-monks to get their unarmed strikes to count as magical is Insignia of Claws from HotDQ. Alter Self to give yourself natural weapon also works, but those aren't fists, technically.

[Reevh]

In my current campaign, we fought some Kuo-toa recently, one of which had electrical damage to its fist attacks. The DM wanted to give us a little something for the fight, but nothing too crazy, so he decided that the Kuo-toa was wearing "handwraps of the eel," which added 1d6 lightning damage to its unarmed attacks. Our barbarian liked the idea so much that he's going to build his whole character around these going forward, taking the tavern brawler feat and some gauntlets of ogre power, and he's going to run around punching kneecaps (halfling) for 1d4+4+1d6+(rage modifier) damage per attack. Only the 1d6 will be magical damage against those opponents, so he'll probably keep a magic weapon as backup, but he just loves the idea of a halfling raging barbarian running around the battlefield punching kneecaps.