Can a monk take Improved Natural Attack? - Official answer

[reveal]

From the new Dragon mag #336, page 94, "Official Answers to your Questions"

Can a monk take Improved Natural Attack (Monster Manual, page 304) to improve his unarmed strike?

Yes. As stated on page 41 of the Player's Handbook, a monk's unarmed strike "is treated as both a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either," which includes feats such as Improved Natural Attack.

Barring multiclassing, the earliest a monk could take this feat would be at 6th level (due to the base attack bonus prerequisite), at which point her unarmed strike damage would improve from 1d8 to 2d6 (which represents an average increase of +2.5 points of damage). The same monk at 20th level would deal 3d8 points of damage with her unarmed strike.

Well, there ya have it folks. The official answer. Whether or not you agree with it (I do and have argued this before using the Sage's same logic presented here), it is now official. Hopefully the question will now die its well deserved death.

 

[Infiniti2000]

It may be "official", but it's not RAW.

This question will not die until they issue errata.

 

[reveal]

It may be "official", but it's not RAW.

This question will not die until they issue errata.

Oh good lord, can't you people ever be satisfied. You get the official answer and you're still nit-picking?

 

[FEADIN]

It may be "official", but it's not RAW.

This question will not die until they issue errata.

No need for errata, errata is about errors and there is none.

IMPROVED NATURAL ATTACK [GENERAL]
Prerequisite: Natural weapon, base attack bonus +4.
Benefit: Choose one of the creature’s natural attack forms. The damage for this natural weapon increases by one step, as if the creature’s size had increased by one category: 1d2, 1d3, 1d4, 1d6, 1d8, 2d6, 3d6, 4d6, 6d6, 8d6, 12d6.
A weapon or attack that deals 1d10 points of damage increases as follows: 1d10, 2d8, 3d8, 4d8, 6d8, 8d8, 12d8.

.....A monk’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons

 

[Artoomis]

It may be "official", but it's not RAW.

This question will not die until they issue errata.

No... it's interpretation needed, not errata. The underpinning question is whether feats are the same as "...spells and effects that enhance or improve..." in this and that's now been answered, it seems.

The RAW in no way makes it clear whether a "feat" counts as an "effect" for this purpose. I've always argued that it does, others have disagreed, both sides supported by RAW, but but not clearly. Now there is a ruling. I'd like to see this make the FAQ, as Dragon magazine is not subscribed to by all.

 

[Caliban]

I actually don't have any real problem with this ruling in 3.5.

If I remember correctly, in 3.0 you could take the feat multiple times.

 

[Scion]

I have never really understood why people say that it 'doesnt' work. Both by the wording and with balance in mind it seems fine to me.

As a not incredibly useful, but interesting, example from the srd:

IMPROVED SPELL RESISTANCE [EPIC]
Prerequisite: Must have spell resistance from a feat, class feature, or other permanent effect.
Benefit: The character’s spell resistance increases by +2.
Special: A character can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Which clearly states that a feat is an effect

 

[Crothian]

Ya, nothing wrong or unbalancing about this.

 

[Stalker0]

I mean come on its the monk....when's the last time you heard about a broken monk

 

[Crothian]

I mean come on its the monk....when's the last time you heard about a broken monk

its not about the last time I've heard about it, round here people can complain about the broken commoner. All I care about is that it works fine at my table.