D&D 5E Psi Warrior and Unarmed Fighting

[ppaladin123]

Psionic Strike. You can propel your weapons with psionic force. Once on each of your turns, immediately after you hit a target within 30 feet of you with an attack and deal damage to it with a weapon...

Unarmed strikes are considered melee weapon attacks but the unarmed strike is not itself a weapon.

So by RAW, the fighter's new Unarmed Fighting Style does not work with Psionic Strike.

ARGH. There goes a fun character concept (basically a psionic monk/brawler). Is there any mechanical reason why this shouldn't be allowed? The unarmed fighting style DOES appear to work with most Battle Master maneuvers as a point of contrast.

 

[Al2O3]

It seems similar to Paladins not being able to smite with weapons. Based on that, my guess is that preventing the concept you mentioned and others like it to keep monks being the best monks and fighters mostly using weapons is the point of the rule.

 

[ppaladin123]

I could see role protection being a concern but as I said, the style works with battle master maneuvers so you can pretty easily replicate something like the open-hand monk subclass with the right choices.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Prohibiting the use of unarmed strike appears to be the purpose of that wording.

Why aren't you using a lightsabre?

 

[ppaladin123]

Yes, it screams Jedi and in fact using a big sword is mechanically superior. Just trying to understand why they did it this way.

 

[toucanbuzz]

So by RAW, the fighter's new Unarmed Fighting Style does not work with Psionic Strike.

ARGH. There goes a fun character concept (basically a psionic monk/brawler). Is there any mechanical reason why this shouldn't be allowed? The unarmed fighting style DOES appear to work with most Battle Master maneuvers as a point of contrast.

Correct.

I don't design the games, but in 2018 Crawford responded the unarmed strike rule was a combination of (1) preserving the monk class as the unarmed niche class and (2) multiclass stacking worries. When someone talked about "game balance," he said D&D is driven by story and legacy first.

 

[cbwjm]

If someone came to me and said they wanted to make unarmed psi strikes, I'd allow it. In this case rule of cool applies.

 

[Azzy]

I agree that it was a decision to protect the monk's role as the hand-to-hand combat expert. That said, there is nothing unbalancing about allowing the psi warrior's abilities to work with unarmed attacks.

 

[Ancalagon]

I've allowed a paladin PC to do a smite with a punch - the punch dealing 1 damage, and the rest being the smite. It's not a "free" at-will ability, there is a cost in spell slots - or psi points