D&D (2024) Give unarmed strike grapple mastery? (And give it to monks)

[Stalker0]

My point was that unarmed Strikes should not be something you could practice and swap masteries as easily as a sword.

I mean lets be honest, its already "weird" that you can swap out a mastery for a bow and get a mastery with the longsword after a day of adjustment. We accept that this is just an "awesomeness factor" of being a badass fantasy fighter.

So under that scope, acquiring unarmed mastery is just as crazy (and therefore, not crazy at all).

 

[Minigiant]

I mean lets be honest, its already "weird" that you can swap out a mastery for a bow and get a mastery with the longsword after a day of adjustment. We accept that this is just an "awesomeness factor" of being a badass fantasy fighter.

So under that scope, acquiring unarmed mastery is just as crazy (and therefore, not crazy at all).

It is a bit crazy.

But to me, Unarmed Strike is special. It's harder. Harder to kill with. Harder to use. Harder to make a equal threat as a dagger.

There is a reason why there a class that focuses on Unarmed Strikes.

There is a reason why the fighter still has a weak Unarmed Strikes.

If Unarmed Strikes has a mastery then it should deal more than one damage.

 

[mellored]

My point was that unarmed Strikes should not be something you could practice and swap masteries as easily as a sword.

I disagree.

But not so much that I would have a problem with needing to be a monk or take a feat to punch+grapple.

I mean, I doubt most people would do unarmed mastery without a damage die anyways.

 

[Shardstone]

Unarmed Mastery would have been a lot more interesting for the monk than giving them weapon mastery.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Personally, No.
I would be happy to see grappling get some form of Mastery, and Unarmed strikes should definitely get some masteries for Fighters, Monks etc.
However, I don't think that an unarmed strike should automatically lead to a grapple, or that you need to make an unarmed strike to activate a mastery associated with grappling.

 

[mellored]

A few possible ideas:

• Automatically triggered but only on a crit.
• Automatically triggered but only if another condition is in play (such as prone).
• Max 1/round (to limit the amount of saving throws required).

How about...

If you hit a creature twice on your turn, it is Grappled.

 

[MostlyHarmless42]

How about...

If you hit a creature twice on your turn, it is Grappled.

My issue with that is that it wouldn't really help most builds until 5th level. If we're making it a mastery I'd ideally like it usable at level 1.

I'd suggest making it be: "If you hit a creature, you can use your bonus action to make it Grappled." It keeps the "autosuccess" factor and eliminates the saving throw on every attack, but still has a meaningful cost.

 

[mellored]

My issue with that is that it wouldn't really help most builds until 5th level. If we're making it a mastery I'd ideally like it usable at level 1.

I'd suggest making it be: "If you hit a creature, you can use your bonus action to make it Grappled." It keeps the "autosuccess" factor and eliminates the saving throw on every attack, but still has a meaningful cost.

Monk can make a bonus action unarmed attack at level 1.

So they can hit twice (with good rolls), and a using bonus action would hurt a lot of their stuff.

Other classes will need to wait until level 5. Which I am slightly sad about, but lots of people seem to want some niche protection.

 

[Clint_L]

My issue with that is that it wouldn't really help most builds until 5th level. If we're making it a mastery I'd ideally like it usable at level 1.

I'd suggest making it be: "If you hit a creature, you can use your bonus action to make it Grappled." It keeps the "autosuccess" factor and eliminates the saving throw on every attack, but still has a meaningful cost.

This would mean that monks, the class who are specifically designed to be good at unarmed combat, would be unable to benefit from the mastery for unarmed combat. Which would put it on par with other masteries and monks.

 

[ChameleonX]

This would mean that monks, the class who are specifically designed to be good at unarmed combat, would be unable to benefit from the mastery for unarmed combat. Which would put it on par with other masteries and monks.

Unless the Monk is given a feature that allows them to apply Weapon Mastery effects to their Unarmed Strikes...