Does someone fighting unarmed threaten the area around them? According to the SRD, you threaten squares into which you can make a melee attack, but unarmed attacks are listed separately from melee attacks, implying that they are not the same. Additionally, the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, and by extension the monk abilties don't specify that you now threaten an area. It is specified that if an unarmed combatant strikes someone with IUS, that they would incur an AoO, but no other situations that would normally incur an AoO are clarified. All that I can gather from IUS is that you are considered armed and so wouldn't incur attacks of opportunity when fighting, but does that mean you threaten an area?
Threatening Unarmed?
- Thread starter BlackBart
- Start date
Crothian
First Post
BlackBart said:
Off the top of my head under the feat it says you are considered armed when unarmed, and then somewhere else it says armed people threaten around them, and then you have threaten the area to get an AoO. I don't recall it coming out and saying it, I think you have to find A, then B, then C and together they say it.
I'm not sure Crothian's post is correct.
The SRD, under Combat Basics, states that you threaten the area into which you can make a melee attack. So an unarmed Medium-size character should threaten the area 5' around him, and I can't find a rule that says otherwise.
Improved Unarmed Strike lets you punch an armed opponent without provoking an AoO yourself. It doesn't say that it changes the way you threaten.
Have I overlooked something?
[Edited to clarify which post I was talking about]
The SRD, under Combat Basics, states that you threaten the area into which you can make a melee attack. So an unarmed Medium-size character should threaten the area 5' around him, and I can't find a rule that says otherwise.
Improved Unarmed Strike lets you punch an armed opponent without provoking an AoO yourself. It doesn't say that it changes the way you threaten.
Have I overlooked something?
[Edited to clarify which post I was talking about]
Last edited:
kreynolds
First Post
AuraSeer said:
I won't say you did, because I can't find anything in the books right now, oddly enough. I hope I'm not remembering an old discussion with my group or something. Best I can do is a Sage reply. Here's a snip...
It's not a good example, but it was the best one I could find.
I suppose more than anything, this is the part I'm looking for. I did find an interesting tidbit in the glossary.Crothian said:
Unarmed Attack: A melee attack made with no weapon in hand.
(That may not be a perfect quote, but it's pretty close). Of course the implication of that statement alone is that any unarmed individual threatens the area around them.
While the Sage reply seems to state that "armed" is sufficient to threaten an area, it could have been worded better. Regardless, it's probably as much as I need to be content. I just wish they would have worded IUS to say that you can take attacks of opportunity normally, rather than specifying attacks of opportunity against an unarmed attacker alone.
