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<blockquote data-quote="hong" data-source="post: 180409" data-attributes="member: 537">It's interesting that you should say that.Note that the &quot;unarmed attack bonus&quot; from Table 3-10 in the PHB applies to both unarmed strikes, and attacks with monk weapons. Since monks clearly do not have nunchaku for hands, the conclusion must be that &quot;unarmed&quot; is merely shorthand for a particular attack form that only monks have. Let's call it &quot;foo&quot; to avoid confusion with actual unarmed strikes.The &quot;foo attack bonus&quot; that monks get is something that they can apply to both unarmed strikes, and to attacks with monk weapons (if they desire). However, a special feature of this &quot;foo attack bonus&quot; is that regular off-hand attacks don't apply. Instead, a monk who uses monk weapons in conjunction with the foo attack bonus can use flurry of blows if so desired.Of course, a monk with a special monk weapon can _choose_ not to use this &quot;foo attack bonus&quot;, and use her regular BAB instead. In this case, she could take advantage of feats like TWF, Improved TWF and so on. However, since she isn't using her &quot;foo attacks&quot; anymore, she can no longer get the better iterative attacks.Furthermore, note that &quot;a monk fighting with a one-handed weapon can make an unarmed strike as an off-hand attack, but she suffers the standard penalties for two-weapon fighting&quot;. Likewise, &quot;a monk with a weapon (other than a special monk weapon) in her off hand gets an extra attack with that weapon but suffers the usual penalties for two-weapon fighting and can't strike with a flurry of blows&quot;. All of this shows that references to &quot;unarmed&quot; attacks in the monk class description can't be taken too literally. For if this were the case, then the &quot;unarmed attack bonus&quot; would hold whenever a monk made an unarmed attack, regardless of whether she had a weapon in hand -- and that's not true. Hence the &quot;foo attack form&quot; interpretation given above.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="hong, post: 180409, member: 537"] It's interesting that you should say that. Note that the "unarmed attack bonus" from Table 3-10 in the PHB applies to both unarmed strikes, and attacks with monk weapons. Since monks clearly do not have nunchaku for hands, the conclusion must be that "unarmed" is merely shorthand for a particular attack form that only monks have. Let's call it "foo" to avoid confusion with actual unarmed strikes. The "foo attack bonus" that monks get is something that they can apply to both unarmed strikes, and to attacks with monk weapons (if they desire). However, a special feature of this "foo attack bonus" is that regular off-hand attacks don't apply. Instead, a monk who uses monk weapons in conjunction with the foo attack bonus can use flurry of blows if so desired. Of course, a monk with a special monk weapon can _choose_ not to use this "foo attack bonus", and use her regular BAB instead. In this case, she could take advantage of feats like TWF, Improved TWF and so on. However, since she isn't using her "foo attacks" anymore, she can no longer get the better iterative attacks. Furthermore, note that "a monk fighting with a one-handed weapon can make an unarmed strike as an off-hand attack, but she suffers the standard penalties for two-weapon fighting". Likewise, "a monk with a weapon (other than a special monk weapon) in her off hand gets an extra attack with that weapon but suffers the usual penalties for two-weapon fighting and can't strike with a flurry of blows". All of this shows that references to "unarmed" attacks in the monk class description can't be taken too literally. For if this were the case, then the "unarmed attack bonus" would hold whenever a monk made an unarmed attack, regardless of whether she had a weapon in hand -- and that's not true. Hence the "foo attack form" interpretation given above. [/QUOTE]

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