D&D 5E Alter Self- Natural Weapons

[trentonjoe]

Natural Weapons. You grow claws, fangs, spines,
horns, or a different natural w eapon of your choice. Your
unarm ed strikes deal 1d6 bludgeoning, piercing, or
slashing damage, as appropriate to the natural weapon
you chose, and you are proficient with your unarmed
strikes. Finally, the natural weapon is m agic and you
have a +1 bonus to the attack and damage rolls you
make using it.


Do these unarmed strikes have to use STR to modify the attack bonus? Can they use dex?

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

Melee weapon attacks use Strength unless the weapon used has the finesse property, or another feature specifies that a different ability score can be used (i.e. monk martial arts feature, or the details of the shillelagh spell).

 

[jaelis]

So: yes they use Str, and no you can't use Dex.

Unless you convince your DM otherwise

 

[Corwin]

To put it in different words, it still uses all the same rule for your otherwise normal unarmed attacks. They just now do 1d6 instead of '1'. That's it. So you use the same ability score you would use without the spell (generally Strength, but there are exceptions).

 

[trentonjoe]

To put it in different words, it still uses all the same rule for your otherwise normal unarmed attacks. They just now do 1d6 instead of '1'. That's it. So you use the same ability score you would use without the spell (generally Strength, but there are exceptions).

What are the exceptions?


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[Cap'n Kobold]

What are the exceptions?

For Unarmed strikes? Monks.

There are a few races that have existing natural weapons that they can use dex with. They are specifically called out as doing so in their rules.

 

[Corwin]

For Unarmed strikes? Monks.

The main one, yeah. Ironically, also the least benefiting of the spell's feature in question.

 

[trentonjoe]

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

 

[trentonjoe]

Follow up, question. Booming Blade would work with this right?

NAtural weapons are still weapons, right?

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Follow up, question. Booming Blade would work with this right?

NAtural weapons are still weapons, right?

I'm not actually sure. Bear in mind that this is an Unarmed Strike, not a weapon.

Check the wording of the spell. If it requires a weapon, you can't use it. If it just requires a melee attack or melee weapon attack, you can.