half-fiend monk unarmed attacks

[herb1347]

hello

does a half-fiend monk claw attacks take the place of or are they an addition to her unarmed attacks?

thanks herb

 

[Epametheus]

You may use claw/claw/bite or the monk's attack routine.

However, unless I'm misinterpreting something, the claw/claw/bite would deal the monk's unarmed strike damage. Giving the half-fiend an edge over monks who can't manage 3 or more attacks per round. Unfortunately, Sowrd and Fist just goes into monk damage for tiny to colossal creatures and doesn't talk at all about how monks who already have natural attacks work. So I'm not entirely sure of my answer.

 

[kreynolds]

does a half-fiend monk claw attacks take the place of or are they an addition to her unarmed attacks?

From the FAQ...

As pointed out before, creatures with monk levels can combine their natural weapons and their monk unarmed attacks in any way they see fit. For example, the monk could
use either its slam damage rating or its monk unarmed damage rating, as it chooses. In either case, it can drain energy as noted earlier. If the vampire wishes to use its monk
unarmed attack rate, it must use only its monk attack bonus, however.

...This answer referrences another one in the FAQ, but I couldn't find it with a quick glance.

 

[Skaros]

So, basically, you get the best of both worlds, right?

At low levels you can use the monk unarmed damage with your half-fiend natural attack routine (claw/claw/bite), and at higher levels you can switch over to using the monk's unarmed attack routine, etc.

-Skaros

 

[Kershek]

For a good example, take a look at the half-fiend monk that was just posted on Wizards:

http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/re/re20021118a

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I think, as that example shows, that the damage from the claw/claw/bite routine is completely separate from the monk's unarmed attacks and thus can't make use of monk unarmed damage. Of course, if the monk wanted to, she could use her damage from a claw or a bite in place of unarmed monk damage (say in the case that one of these attacks had poison associated with it). Essentially, the claws and the bite are just like monk melee weapons that can be substitued into the unarmed routine.

So you can attack with claw/claw/bite and use claw/claw bite damage, which might be good at 1st level. As you go up in levels, you'd just stick to unarmed attacks.