Donald Braden
First Post
So, playing a monk in 5e. My dungeon master and i talked this through as I researched some african martial arts traditions when developing my character.
The monk Martial Arts feature indicates that the monk can make one unarmed blow as a bonus action. In the real world description of the goal of some of these martial arts traditions is to "use the entire animal" so if you strke a weapon with your fighting stick you should use your momentum to drive your elbow into the side of your head.
DM made the call that as a martial artist that counts as just part of the attack action then.
We decided that because otherwise you are talking about a significant expense of a ki point to gain just 1 additional strike and that seems a steep price to pay for a very limited resource.
I have not reached 5th level yet, I imagine we will land on only being able to make use of the martial arts unarmed strike once, while still being to expend a ki point for two additional blows.
So at 4th level my attack sequence is:
1. Quarterstaff strike.
2. unarmed strike (which would be an elbow or some other follow through sort of strike with a body part)
3. (opitinal with expense of ki point) two additional unarmed strikes.
5th level would look like this
1. quarterstaff strike
2. unarmed strike (optional, if used here, can not use unarmed strike 4)
3. quarterstaff strike (extra attack feature)
4. unarmed strike (can be used only if not used in attack 2)
5. (optional with expense of Ki point) Flurry of Blows
Of course now, typing it out the momentum argument would need to apply to both the attack and extra attack...
What are other people's thoughts?
The monk Martial Arts feature indicates that the monk can make one unarmed blow as a bonus action. In the real world description of the goal of some of these martial arts traditions is to "use the entire animal" so if you strke a weapon with your fighting stick you should use your momentum to drive your elbow into the side of your head.
DM made the call that as a martial artist that counts as just part of the attack action then.
We decided that because otherwise you are talking about a significant expense of a ki point to gain just 1 additional strike and that seems a steep price to pay for a very limited resource.
I have not reached 5th level yet, I imagine we will land on only being able to make use of the martial arts unarmed strike once, while still being to expend a ki point for two additional blows.
So at 4th level my attack sequence is:
1. Quarterstaff strike.
2. unarmed strike (which would be an elbow or some other follow through sort of strike with a body part)
3. (opitinal with expense of ki point) two additional unarmed strikes.
5th level would look like this
1. quarterstaff strike
2. unarmed strike (optional, if used here, can not use unarmed strike 4)
3. quarterstaff strike (extra attack feature)
4. unarmed strike (can be used only if not used in attack 2)
5. (optional with expense of Ki point) Flurry of Blows
Of course now, typing it out the momentum argument would need to apply to both the attack and extra attack...
What are other people's thoughts?