D&D 5E Unarmed strike finesse house rule

[Ahglock]

Any unforeseen issues with making unarmed strike a finesse weapon. A player would like to combine unarmed attacks with sneak attack and even combined with monk I can't see any balance problem. And it does simulate the cool sneak up and snap the goons neck seen in countless action movies. I
kind of think it always should have been but oh well I can house rule things.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I don't think there is a balance reason for unarmed strikes not to be finesse weapons, just the simplicity of the matter - so go for it, house-rule, and let everyone know if anything weird happens as a result.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

I personally wouldn't, but that is because I removed the need for finesse weapons for sneak attack to start with.

 

[Xeviat]

Since only the monk does any real damage with unarmed attacks, the rogue/monk is going to be the only one who benefits from this. They're going to benefit from this just as much as a dual shortsword Fighter will from picking up Rogue levels: quite a lot, but at the cost of delaying other features.

I don't think it's a problem. Rogue levels are pretty tempting for a lot of builds; I have a Rogue 3/Paladin X I'm looking forward to playing, and I'm more than willing to give up a spell slot here and there and delay my extra attack/greater smite for the constant +2d6 damage chance per round. Monks have a lot of attack rolls, but currently their extra rolls don't count for finesse. A TWFing fighter has the same number of base attacks as a Monk up until level 11; the monk gets an extra attack from Ki, but a Battle master gets extra damage+effect from Superiority Dice, so I think they're rea

 

[FarBeyondC]

Any unforeseen issues with making unarmed strike a finesse weapon. A player would like to combine unarmed attacks with sneak attack and even combined with monk I can't see any balance problem. And it does simulate the cool sneak up and snap the goons neck seen in countless action movies. I
kind of think it always should have been but oh well I can house rule things.

If the player wants to use unarmed attacks with sneak attack, you could just change sneak attack to work with unarmed attacks as well (or just that player's unarmed attacks, if you wanted to be more restrictive with it).

As far as unforeseen issues, making unarmed strike a weapon (at least, without restrictions) means it now technically qualifies for a bunch of things like silvering, Magic Weapon, etc. If that's not a problem for you (some people think doing such is silly, but I'm not among them), then go ahead; I'm assuming using Dex to attack with the unarmed strike is important for the player as well?

 

[SkidAce]

A first level monk's core ability is to use dex in place of strength.

You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons.

If you make unarmed strike finesse for everybody, then their is no difference between their combat and a non-monk/martial artist. (well except the d4).

In my campaign, martial arts has a big flavor/lore background impact. If a players wants their character to use dex for unarmed strikes, they can either take a level of monk (standard) or a martial art feat (custom).

This has the effect of still separating "non" trained from trained hand to hand combatants, but allowing the player to make meaningful choices.

 

[famousringo]

A first level monk's core ability is to use dex in place of strength.



If you make unarmed strike finesse for everybody, then their is no difference between their combat and a non-monk/martial artist. (well except the d4).

In my campaign, martial arts has a big flavor/lore background impact. If a players wants their character to use dex for unarmed strikes, they can either take a level of monk (standard) or a martial art feat (custom).

This has the effect of still separating "non" trained from trained hand to hand combatants, but allowing the player to make meaningful choices.

I agree with this, but you still need to houserule that monk unarmed strikes have the Finesse attribute if you want to allow people to sneak attack with them. Although monk unarmed strikes functionally have Finesse, it seems to have been a deliberate choice not to use the word 'Finesse'. No idea why the designers would think this might be a problem, but they always seem to err on the side of restricting what monks can do.

Alternatively, you could bundle a few monk abilities into a feat that includes unarmed Finesse, pretty much targeted at rogues who want heartstopping pressure points.

 

[Ahglock]

I don't tie that monk ability into a cool monk feature. It just opens some builds and if it doesn't really effect balance that should be the default anyways. Unarmed attacks as less effective than daggers even at d4 since you can't throw your fist 20 feet.(outside a cool monk ability)

In this case it's a rogue with tavern brawler which is the default marital art feat in the game despite its name it can easily be described as a martial art.

Just curious what does this custom martial art bring to the game that tavern brawler doesn't?

 

[Satyrn]

What you got is fine, but you can narrow the rule down to saying "a sneak attack can be made with finesse weapons and unarmed strikes"

It's the smallest modification you could make to get the result you want, which means there can be no unintended side effects (not that I think there are any that could matter)

 

[famousringo]

I don't tie that monk ability into a cool monk feature. It just opens some builds and if it doesn't really effect balance that should be the default anyways. Unarmed attacks as less effective than daggers even at d4 since you can't throw your fist 20 feet.(outside a cool monk ability)

In this case it's a rogue with tavern brawler which is the default marital art feat in the game despite its name it can easily be described as a martial art.

Just curious what does this custom martial art bring to the game that tavern brawler doesn't?

You're right that there are smaller, simpler rule adjustments to allow unarmed sneak attacks.

I was thinking it might be fun to make a monk equivalent to Martial Adept. Grant a ki point, gain access to some of the monk uses for that ki point. A single use of Stunning Strike per short rest would work well thematically with the pressure point assassin idea, though it is perhaps too strong to combine so easily with Sneak Attack.