Monk rule question: Stun, how many times?

[Ancalagon]

The scenario.

Jinn Lee, the level 7 Monk, is facing a Frogmoth. She knows it's a very dangerous monster and has to be disabled before it gets to do damage to her party. She is full of ki. So she readies her magical spear and moves in and does her best to stun the monster. However, the Frogmoth has a great con save, and resists the first attempt.

Can she:

1: That was it for this round, better luck next round
2: Attempt with every attack, including her flurry of blows
3: Attempt again, but only a maximum of twice per round, as the bonus attack(s) are unarmed only and are not melee weapon attacks?

I'm aware that this is very expensive, Ki wise, but the party has *two* monks...

Thanks!

 

[guachi]

2

The answer is #2.

 

[Harzel]

Pretty much #2, except that the attack must hit in order to allow Stunning Strike to be attempted (but you probably knew that).

 

[abirdcall]

3: Attempt again, but only a maximum of twice per round, as the bonus attack(s) are unarmed only and are not melee weapon attacks?

Clarification for you here, and I promise it will make sense if you think about it.

Unarmed strikes are not weapons. That makes sense right, you're not actually holding a weapon.

Attacking with an unarmed strike is a melee weapon attack. This is where 5e could be a little more clear in the wording.

There are 4 possible attacks

Melee weapon attack
Melee spell attack
Ranged weapon attack
Ranged spell attack

So an unarmed strike needs to be 1 of those 4 types. So it counts as a weapon attack (b/c it isn't a spell) but does not count as a weapon for things that affect weapons (because it is your body, not an object).

Hope that makes sense.