Unnarmed Strike

[Loki Eremes]

and here i go again xDD

I was making my Monk-Wizard build and looking for a way to increase my Unnarmed Strike damage.

As far as i reached, With a monk's belt and Superior unnarmed strike, i deal 2d8 with it.
But
i have 16 as my STR stat.
that would be 2d8 +3 +1 (ki strike). Around 12 damage each strike........at lvl 12.

do the math. that sucks at that lvl.

Cause this PC is also a Wizard, im using Carmendine Monk for the purpose of using INT instead of WIS.

No matter how much i search. i dont know how to increase Unnarmed strike damage.


HELP PLEASE! T-T

[Pharaoh's Fist]

The Improved Natural Attack feat might work.

[Fluffles]

Monk's Belt. Deal damage as a monk 4 levels higher than you already are.

Also: get some spiked gauntlets, enchant them to be +1 Flaming Shocking Frost Acidic Thundering Spiked guantlets.

Taadaa!

[Mongoose87]

Grab yourself an Necklace (Amulet?) of Natural Attacks(Weapons?), from Savage Species, and put collision on it.

[BRC]

If you want to deal lots of melee damage at 12th level, be a Rogue, or Fighter, or Barbarian.

Don't be afraid to let your monkitude and Wizardness work together. Buff yourself up, use Enlarge Person, cast Magic Weapon on your fists (Monk's unarmed strikes are explicitly mentioned in the spell description as being viable targets), see if your DM will let you combine Unarmed strikes and Touch Spells.

[ghashxx]

obligatory "unarmed swordsage variant" reference.

[Tavar]

see if your DM will let you combine Unarmed strikes and Touch Spells.

I believe that this already works: any time you make a touch attack you could make an unarmed strike instead.

obligatory "unarmed swordsage variant" reference.

Not really relevant. It wouldn't improve his unarmed strike damage, and the feat that ties everything together wouldn't work.

[Loki Eremes]

obligatory "unarmed swordsage variant" reference.

Where is that?

[Mongoose87]

Where is that?

In the Tome of Battle, with the regular Swordsage.

[BRC]

Where is that?

Tome of Battle. But it's not answering your question. Every time somebody mentions playing a monk, thinking about playing a monk, having played a monk, hearing about somebody playing a monk, or getting within 30 feet of somebody playing a monk, somebody inevitably says "You should use the Unarmed Swordsage variant instead"

[Fluffles]

that's because it's better :D

[Starbuck_II]

and here i go again xDD

I was making my Monk-Wizard build and looking for a way to increase my Unnarmed Strike damage.

As far as i reached, With a monk's belt and Superior unnarmed strike, i deal 2d8 with it.
But
i have 16 as my STR stat.
that would be 2d8 +3 +1 (ki strike). Around 12 damage each strike........at lvl 12.

do the math. that sucks at that lvl.

Cause this PC is also a Wizard, im using Carmendine Monk for the purpose of using INT instead of WIS.

No matter how much i search. i dont know how to increase Unnarmed strike damage.


HELP PLEASE! T-T

Do you have Races of Dragon:? Cast Whallop! Increase damage of blunt weapon (like unarmed strike) by 1 size in damage. Use it.

[Boci]

Tome of Battle. But it's not answering your question. Every time somebody mentions playing a monk, thinking about playing a monk, having played a monk, hearing about somebody playing a monk, or getting within 30 feet of somebody playing a monk, somebody inevitably says "You should use the Unarmed Swordsage variant instead"

Because its widly assumed to be an imoprovement and the manouvers will fix his problem of damage. We just suggest it, the OP doesn't have to take it.

[DragoonWraith]

And it does not seem unreasonable to ask a DM to allow Carmendine Monk to work with Unarmed Swordsage, either, for that matter.

[Loki Eremes]

The problem is that my DM hates Tome of Battle.

Allowing some feats from there is not a mayor problem, but please stay away from basic classes and PrC xD



Something else: How would Improved Natural Attack work on a monk dealing 2d8?

[ghashxx]

The problem is that my DM hates Tome of Battle.

Allowing some feats from there is not a mayor problem, but please stay away from basic classes and PrC xD



Something else: How would Improved Natural Attack work on a monk dealing 2d8?

ToB gets that a lot, oh well. But for improved natural attack, I'm not certain if it works. The entire point of improved unarmed fighting is that it turns what would be your "natural attacks" into acting like you're armed. This is something that I don't mess with much, but I don't think monk fists count as natural attacks by RAW. Though I'm only maybe 75% certain about that.

[Boci]

The problem is that my DM hates Tome of Battle.

Any chance of persuading him otherwise?

Something else: How would Improved Natural Attack work on a monk dealing 2d8?

I think it increases it to 2d10.

[Douglas]

Monk/Wizard? You are using Enlightened Fist from Complete Arcane, right? It's specifically designed for that exact combination and makes it significantly less bad.

Cast Greater Mighty Wallop (Races of the Dragon) on yourself. Before long your Medium sized fists will be doing Colossal sized damage.

Something else: How would Improved Natural Attack work on a monk dealing 2d8?

Look on the weapon size chart for the medium size entry with damage dice of the same size and as close to the same number of them as possible. In this case, that is 1d8. Since your base damage is double that, increasing size follows double the progression in that line. One size increase boosts you to 4d6. Four size increases, such as from Greater Mighty Wallop with caster level 16, would boost your damage to 12d6.

[Loki Eremes]

Any chance of persuading him otherwise?

i...dont think so...

[Keld Denar]

Yea, Races of the Dragon has Mighty Wallop and Greater Mighty Wallop. GMW is 3rd level and lasts for HOURS per level, and increases size by 1 per 4 levels. That means at CL8, it lasts most of your adventuring day with 1 cast, and increases your UAS damage by 2 sizes. 2d8 becomes 4d8. Thats a pretty impressive increase of 9 damage per hit for 1 spell.

[SurlySeraph]

A nice cheap way to increase unarmed damage for an Enlightened Fist is the Chill Touch spell. Adds +1d6 negative energy damage and a small chance of Str drain to a number of subsequent attacks you make up to your caster level. A trick I like is getting the Fell Drain metamagic feat, which makes a spell deal a negative level to whatever targets it deals damage to. If you add in metamagic cost reducers like Metamagic School Focus, you can do a negative level per punch for a 1st or 2nd level spell slot. Adding in Fell Frighten (similar, an automatic fear effect) may be more optimal, since it'll reduce your opponent's saves against your subsequent spells.

Since your DM allows Tome of Battle, you may want to take the Snap Kick feat, which gives you an extra unarmed attack whenever you attack, at the cost of a -2 penalty to hit. If you have a good to-hit bonus already, it can be worth it.

Enlarge Self gives you a quick and easy boost to damage.

[PinkysBrain]

I was making my Monk-Wizard build

Just for reference ... what build? Monk 1/wizard 4/Enlightened fist 10/abjurant champion 5 is probably the most monk'ish of the monk/wizard gish builds BTW.

Greater Mighty Wallop and polymorph are your best bet.

Bones of Li Peng from Weapons of Legacy can give you an extra +5 monk levels for unarmed damage (penalties are nasty though).

[jindra34]

Also from Tob is superior unarmed strike. And if you have access to Dragon magic there is a variant option there that allows you to add +d6s of one type of energy damage to you unarmed strikes.

[Loki Eremes]

****....
you made me love Greater Mighty Wallop xD

my unnarmed strike now is 6d6. 12 hours a day.

[Douglas]

2d8 -> 6d6 for 12 hours? Either I'm missing something or your math is wrong.

If your caster level is 12, GMW gives 3 size increases, which boosts 2d8 to 8d6. If your caster level is 6 and you're casting it twice, that's only 1 size increase for 4d6.

The only way you could get 6d6 for 12 hours is two castings at caster level 6 and combining it with Improved Natural Attack.

Oh, and if your caster level is only 6 when you're level 12, you're doing it wrong.

Now if you combine caster level 12 Greater Mighty Wallop with Improved Natural Attack, then your unarmed strike will be doing 12d6 damage.

BTW, you can get Improved Natural Attack plus some other benefits without spending a feat by buying a Fanged Ring from Dragon Magic (page 101).

[Loki Eremes]

2d8 -> 6d6 for 12 hours? Either I'm missing something or your math is wrong.

If your caster level is 12, GMW gives 3 size increases, which boosts 2d8 to 8d6. If your caster level is 6 and you're casting it twice, that's only 1 size increase for 4d6.

The only way you could get 6d6 for 12 hours is two castings at caster level 6 and combining it with Improved Natural Attack.

Oh, and if your caster level is only 6 when you're level 12, you're doing it wrong.

Now if you combine caster level 12 Greater Mighty Wallop with Improved Natural Attack, then your unarmed strike will be doing 12d6 damage.

BTW, you can get Improved Natural Attack plus some other benefits without spending a feat by buying a Fanged Ring from Dragon Magic (page 101).

yup i got it wrong, its 6d8.
my caster lvl is 9, plus practiced spellcaster, at lvl 12, so
1 hour per caster lvl = 12 hours

thx por correcting me

[Douglas]

yup i got it wrong, its 6d8.

That should be 8d6.

[Loki Eremes]

That should be 8d6.

mmmm not according to "table 2-2 increasing weapon damage by size" on page 29 in DMG

[Douglas]

Huh. I was going by the table in the PHB and SRD, which requires extrapolation from the row for 1d8. I'd forgotten the DMG had a different table that went higher for base damage.

[Thurbane]

Person_Man's excellent guide...