Monk two-weapon fighting only with unarmed strikes

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

IMO (and apparently the PHB's as well), the Flurry of Blows is EXACTLY the same as going TWF with unarmed attacks. Then some FAQ has to come along and confuse things.

In 3.0, this was true. It's no longer true in 3.5.

 

[maldonuich]

I decided to ask Wizards about my doubts. The question was:

Can a monk only attacking with unarmed strikes make his main attack with an unarmed strike and then a second off-hand attack (applying the rules and penalties for two-weapon fighting) with another unarmed strike? Can the same monk make a flurry of blows using only unarmed strikes and then an extra off-hand attack with an unarmed strike? Reading the FAQ I know that if the monk uses a special monk weapon (for example a sai) as his main weapon he can do off-hand attacks with unarmed strikes or another special weapon in the other hand but I do not know if the same applies if he is attacking only unarmed.

And the answer:

Yes, he can use Two-Weapon Fighting with both unarmed attacks and flurry of blows. All penalties stack however. So, if the monk receives a -2 with flurry of blows and -2 with Two-Weapon Fighting, it would be a total of -4 to all attacks. Good Gaming!

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

And the answer:

... will never appear in any campaign I run.

 

[frozeen]

got it wrong

Well, that pretty much clears this up. I dont think that the sentence:
"There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed."
was ment as a limitation to the monk. More as a way to say that the monk is so good fighting with no weapons that the second-hand attack dont count as a off-hand attack.

 

[angry monkey]

I think they'd be better off saying "Flurry of blows just stacks with everything. Natural weapons, normal weapon attacks, etc etc. That's the bennie you get for having a frontline class with no armour, bad attack bonus, and a reduced weapons list. If you suck it up for 8 or so levels, you get an extra free attack. Have fun"

amen.

(you left out lower hit points)

 

[Lamoni]

Well, that pretty much clears this up. I dont think that the sentence:
"There is no such thing as an off-hand attack for a monk striking unarmed."
was ment as a limitation to the monk.

I agree. I also think that if a monk wants to burn an extra feat on two weapon fighting that having Attack modifiers of -1/-1/-1 at level 4 for 3 attacks is not too great. I think I'd rather have a single +3.

If the monk takes improved TWF, at level 8 he'd have +3/+3/-2/-2
Then with greater TWF, at level 16 he'd have +10/+10/+10/+10/+5/+5/+0/+0.

That is a lot of attacks, but the monk did have to spend 3 feats. Plus the low BAB makes having more penalties to hit very unappealing.

According to that statement in the PHB, monk's can't do that without holding a monk's weapon. It doesn't make sense to me that holding a weapon in one hand would allow for more attacks when the monk can hit just fine unarmed and the unarmed strikes usually do more damage. I think it is a case of applying the statement to more than it was intended to cover. Since this is a rules forum and not an intent forum, I still have to go with it is illegal. I hope it gets erratta'd though.