Monks and Punching Daggers

[Brendan]

Recently, I had a discussion with a DM about the effect punching daggers would have on a monk. If they are ki focus weapons, then they can absorb the monk abilities, and monks are very adept at punching. adding a sharp object to the end of a fist should make it more painful to be hit. Should an additional d4 damage occur? Should it be d2, as it is only the sharp bit that is added, not the force? or should it have no effect at all, like my DM said, stating that "logic has no role in D&D"? I believed that it should be an additional d2 damage, and while this has little role in a fight, it means that poisons can be used, and so can magic weapon abilities. Also, this is purely hypothetical, but can one get masterwork fists?

[jmbrown]

"logic has no role in D&D"?

In regards to the monk, pretty much. Giving him an extra d4 of damage ontop his fists plus having the ability to actually enchant something isn't too game breaking considering he gets screwed in every other facet.

[SurlySeraph]

I'd add the d4. Punching daggers are quite effective weapons. You can't do some things you can do with real knives with them, but they're more intuitive to use, providing higher return for less training and lower return when you have more training.

But that's logic, and if your DM doesn't like it he's in charge.

Also, you can arguably get masterwork fists by wearing masterwork gauntlets. Some people think that gauntlets deal damage equal to an unarmed strike, and hence any enhancements applied to them apply to the wearer's unarmed strike, and their damage increases with the wearer's unarmed strike damage. On the other hand, RAW suggests and most DMs agree that this isn't the case, plus monks aren't proficient with gauntlets anyway. Of course, technically they're not proficient with their unarmed strikes either, but then you get into a loop of arguing about RAI vs. RAW and which is more ridiculous. Long story short: ask your DM.

[Thurbane]

I believe the Ward Cestus from AAEG (3.0) counts as unarmed strike, and can be enchanted.

[Xenogears]

Also, this is purely hypothetical, but can one get masterwork fists?

My entire body is of masterwork quality thank you very much.

[Cieyrin]

My entire body is of masterwork quality thank you very much.

TMI...yes this is totally meeting minimum post size, I swear!