D&D 5E Question: Am I treating this situation correctly?

[DMCF]

Thanks for the responses guys. Lots of good advice for future encounters. I met the player as a player in my Wed night encounters game. I knew he was a meta lawyer but like I said he's a nice guy on the whole. I also know he's high strung. I figure if Im sharing an interest with someone I can at least see if they are cool enough to yield as all friends do from time to time.

After the game he did apologize. Today after our encounter he asked the GM to help us with the ruling. The GM ruled in my favor and he accepted it. This was before I told him what I had planned. I prefaced saying that I would bend rules for flavor (pointed out some examples he saw first hand). I told him my plan and he really liked it. Not only that since he was MCing into nature cleric we turned it into his crafting ability by petrifying X shards of wood, troll teeth etc. Per rest so he would have limited use.

Pretty happy with the outcome. The other GM and players who stayed after thought it was super cool. I think they might be jealous and want to join my game hahaha!

 

[SirAntoine]

It's up to you. If you feel the dart should be considered a monk weapon, make it so!

 

[Kikuras]

Sometimes, However, IT happens.

In the heat of the moment things don't always go they way we'd like, as a player or a DM. I've been in fit mode before (usually because the rules explicitly say my character can do something, but the DM doesn't like it so says I can't), though I've learned to keep my mouth shut and rage when I'm in private, then deal with the issue later. Don't go too hard on him, he thought he was clear on the rules, hell, even I missed it.

As so many have pointed out before, while the dart doesn't work like he wanted, the dagger does, and the only difference (really) is weight and cost. No doubt he would have created his character throwing daggers instead of darts had he caught the distinction in the rules. I'd allow him to make the switch on paper and keep the flavor. Penalizing him because of a minor paperwork error seems excessive. If you want to take the flavor away and insist that he's throwing daggers, you can, but that also seems a bit nit-picky.

 

[BoldItalic]

You should read the chart on page 41 of the DMG. It has the names for every weapon in a wuxia setting: shurikens are the equivalent of darts.

So it is. Thank you, I'd missed that.

 

[BoldItalic]

Thanks for the responses guys. Lots of good advice for future encounters. I met the player as a player in my Wed night encounters game. I knew he was a meta lawyer but like I said he's a nice guy on the whole. I also know he's high strung. I figure if Im sharing an interest with someone I can at least see if they are cool enough to yield as all friends do from time to time.

After the game he did apologize. Today after our encounter he asked the GM to help us with the ruling. The GM ruled in my favor and he accepted it. This was before I told him what I had planned. I prefaced saying that I would bend rules for flavor (pointed out some examples he saw first hand). I told him my plan and he really liked it. Not only that since he was MCing into nature cleric we turned it into his crafting ability by petrifying X shards of wood, troll teeth etc. Per rest so he would have limited use.

Pretty happy with the outcome. The other GM and players who stayed after thought it was super cool. I think they might be jealous and want to join my game hahaha!

Sounds like a good outcome. Well done

 

[SkidAce]

Calling a dart or any other ranged weapon a "monk" weapon would allow you to switch out the damage die when attacking, turning a d4 dart into a d10 dart at 17th level.

 

[Sage Genesis]

Calling a dart or any other ranged weapon a "monk" weapon would allow you to switch out the damage die when attacking, turning a d4 dart into a d10 dart at 17th level.

Since you can do the same already by throwing daggers, what's the problem with this?

 

[SkidAce]

Just commenting because someone said a d4 was a d4.

No worries.

 

[Paraxis]

Calling a dart or any other ranged weapon a "monk" weapon would allow you to switch out the damage die when attacking, turning a d4 dart into a d10 dart at 17th level.

Right but as it sits currently you can do the same with a dagger.

By the rules darts are not monk weapons, but

Dagger 2 gp 1d4 piercing 1 lb. Finesse, light, thrown (range 20/60)-melee weapon
Dart 5 cp 1d4 piercing 1/4 lb. Finesse, thrown (range 20/60)-ranged weapon

Both have the same range, both can be used by multiclass monks to sneak attack.
The two things I can think of that work with dart but not dagger are archery fighting style and the -5/+10 damage for sharpshooter feat, maybe that is enough of a reason to not allow darts as monk weapons.

So maybe that is it daggers are cool and can be the monk thrown weapon, but if darts were allowed you would be able to use sharpshooter. Right now no monk weapons can not take advantage of either -5/+10 feat.

 

[DEFCON 1]

Since you can do the same already by throwing daggers, what's the problem with this?

Yeah, it seems like the real issue here is the intention of what they meant when they said monk weapons were shortswords and simple melee weapons-- did they intend monk weapons to be those weapons used in melee?

You would think that would HAVE to be what they meant... otherwise you'd get this exact situation where there are five Simple Melee Weapons with the Thrown property, all of which technically fall within the 'Monk Weapons' category (and thus all go up in Martial Arts damage die) that can be thrown with the Attack action, followed up by an Unarmed Strike. So we then do question why they don't include the other two weapons the Monk is proficient in (the two Simple Ranged Weapons that don't have the two-handed property-- i.e. the dart and sling) in that Monk Weapon category? The only advantage the dart gets over dagger is cost and weight (neither of which I'd consider game-breaking), and the only advantage sling gets over handaxe or spear is range (which I also wouldn't consider game-breaking because how often are you going to fire your sling the 60-120 feet the sling gets in distance over the other two while still remaining within moving/striking distance of another enemy to use that bonus action unarmed strike?)

Seems to me... the only intention that makes sense for not including dart and sling in with the Monk Weapon category is if that category was only meant to be for weapons used in melee (attack with the weapon to someone adjacent to you, followed up by a punch or kick.) Otherwise, the exclusion of the dart and sling seems a little tenuous and unnecessary.

*EDIT* Paraxis does bring up the good point about Archery style and the Sharpshooter feat, where perhaps WotC felt they were okay with throwing a d10 dagger and then following up with an unarmed strike, but did not want the same to occur with a d10 dart plus the extra 10 damage due to Sharpshooter. That could definitely be a possibility I hadn't thought of.