D&D 5E Unarmed strike finesse house rule

[Jediking]

A single use of Stunning Strike per short rest would work well thematically with the pressure point assassin idea, though it is perhaps too strong to combine so easily with Sneak Attack.

And now it's time to unleash the infamous Leopard Claw Dragon Fang Five Finger Death Palm technique!

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

And now it's time to unleash the infamous Leopard Claw Dragon Fang Five Finger Death Palm technique!

. . . that's the one where you boot your opponent in the nuts. Right?

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Any unforeseen issues with making unarmed strike a finesse weapon.

The errata removed unarmed strikes from the weapon table to simplify interaction with two-weapon fighting, frenzy, retaliation, battle magic, Cleric strikes, Paladin smites, duelling style, great weapon fighting style, two-weapon fighting style, disarming attack, Warlock weapon bond, war magic, improved war magic, eldritch strike, sacred weapon, horde breaker, and whatever other ones my quick flick through my book has missed.

If you are making it a weapon then you need to think about its interaction with all of these features.

 

[clearstream]

Any unforeseen issues with making unarmed strike a finesse weapon. A player would like to combine unarmed attacks with sneak attack and even combined with monk I can't see any balance problem. And it does simulate the cool sneak up and snap the goons neck seen in countless action movies. I
kind of think it always should have been but oh well I can house rule things.

Apologies for the necro but I just hit the same question in my campaign. I am ruling as follows

"At 6th Monk hands gain the properties Finesse and Light under the class feature Ki Empowered Strikes"

 

[Hillsy7]

Any unforeseen issues with making unarmed strike a finesse weapon. A player would like to combine unarmed attacks with sneak attack and even combined with monk I can't see any balance problem. And it does simulate the cool sneak up and snap the goons neck seen in countless action movies. I
kind of think it always should have been but oh well I can house rule things.

A whip is a finesse weapon. A whip can also be flavoured to being a garotte wire. The pommel of a dagger can be flavoured to be a fist. A light Hammer can be flavoured to be a kick. Stick to the dice and the rules and what you "call" the weapons doesn't matter.

However, there's reasons why the monk text specifically does not mention finesse, but does mention monk weapons can use Dex - unarmed the monk is badass, whereas other Dex builds ain't. Punchy McOrcFace however ain't too bad. Giving a Rogue access to unarmed sneak attack potentially makes him just as badass as a monk in any unarmed, which kinda on the monks shoes a bit.

Flavour is cool, mechanical there's cause for caution......

 

[clearstream]

A whip is a finesse weapon. A whip can also be flavoured to being a garotte wire. The pommel of a dagger can be flavoured to be a fist. A light Hammer can be flavoured to be a kick. Stick to the dice and the rules and what you "call" the weapons doesn't matter.

However, there's reasons why the monk text specifically does not mention finesse, but does mention monk weapons can use Dex - unarmed the monk is badass, whereas other Dex builds ain't. Punchy McOrcFace however ain't too bad. Giving a Rogue access to unarmed sneak attack potentially makes him just as badass as a monk in any unarmed, which kinda on the monks shoes a bit.

Flavour is cool, mechanical there's cause for caution......

That's a good point about Rogues. Per PHB78 "You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons" so one of the few situations Finesse matters to a Monk is if they are also a Rogue. The question becomes, "Is it right for a 6th level Monk Nth level Rogue to get Sneak Attack damage with their bare hands?" At this point I don't see why it wouldn't be! It sounds fun and fits an image of a deadly Monk assassin. More to the point, why force such a Monk/Rogue to use Shortsword? What does that do for the game? How might the game be better that way?

 

[clearstream]

What you got is fine, but you can narrow the rule down to saying "a sneak attack can be made with finesse weapons and unarmed strikes"

It's the smallest modification you could make to get the result you want, which means there can be no unintended side effects (not that I think there are any that could matter)

This is a broader modification than the one I propose, because it confers the capability to both Rogues and Monks rather than only Monks. For me, where the fluff melds with the crunch is around Ki Empowered Strikes. By the time your hands count as magical weapons I feel like they could deliver sneak attack damage. Whereas Rogues have no such training... at least, not until they take up the skills of a Monk.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

This is a broader modification than the one I propose, because it confers the capability to both Rogues and Monks rather than only Monks. For me, where the fluff melds with the crunch is around Ki Empowered Strikes. By the time your hands count as magical weapons I feel like they could deliver sneak attack damage. Whereas Rogues have no such training... at least, not until they take up the skills of a Monk.

I just flat-out removed the Finesse requirement for Sneak Attacks. It seems to make more sense to my group, allows some more rogue concepts, and doesn't seem to have broken anything.
I'd probably allow Sneak Attack with an unarmed strike, no problem.

 

[clearstream]

I just flat-out removed the Finesse requirement for Sneak Attacks. It seems to make more sense to my group, allows some more rogue concepts, and doesn't seem to have broken anything.
I'd probably allow Sneak Attack with an unarmed strike, no problem.

I'm drawing the line at Sneak Attacks with Glaive in my campaign, that's for sure Polearm Mastery is already back-breakingly good. +Sentinel? +Sneak Attack!

 

[GlassJaw]

I just flat-out removed the Finesse requirement for Sneak Attacks. It seems to make more sense to my group, allows some more rogue concepts, and doesn't seem to have broken anything.
I'd probably allow Sneak Attack with an unarmed strike, no problem.

I've thought about this, but I'm still leery of allowing it with two-handed weapons. First because of flavor and second, the interaction with feats like GWM and Polearm Master.


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