D&D 5E (2014) Would you allow this if you were the DM

[Celtavian]

You could call it Bear Style Kung Fu. Supposedly the animal-based martial arts were based on mimicking the movements of an animal.

 

[Riley37]

If you become accomplished at moving your human body to anticipate blows and move in implausible ways, can you still do that in the body of a bear?

My answer is no, that wouldn't fly in my game. The ursine body does not lend itself to martial arts. Your muscle memory would be working against you at every turn, and there are motions which the human body can perform which are just physically impossible for a bear. The very idea of a bear using martial arts is ridiculous.

On one hand, it's time to fund studies on the topic, and see if it can be accomplished and replicated.

On another hand, anyone who has learned boxing, and then learned karate, or vice versa, has learned one set of ways to punch, and then another set of ways, similar but subtly and significantly different. "Jeet bruin do" is an opportune pun; it's also 100% on the money, because jeet kun do is (among other things) the skill of managing multiple sets of martial arts muscle memories.

So if you can show me that multiple sets of muscle memory prevented Bruce Li from being an effective martial artist, then my table won't allow druid/monks to spend two hours each downtime day, practicing their moves in bear form, and developing two sets of muscle memory, one as (demi)human, the other as bear.

"there are motions which the human body can perform which are just physically impossible for a bear"
Yep, that's why I mentioned rising block, sweeping block, elbow strike, uppercut; and NOT leg sweep, nor snap kick, nor knife hand, nor anything from the holds-and-throws category. Bears can learn to *pedal bicycles* and to steer bikes by leaning. You might be underestimating what else they can learn.

I prefer to err on the side of NOT underestimating bears when they also have human-level intelligence, but hey, suit yourself; your table follows your rulings.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"there are motions which the human body can perform which are just physically impossible for a bear"
Yep, that's why I mentioned rising block, sweeping block, elbow strike, uppercut; and NOT leg sweep, nor snap kick, nor knife hand, nor anything from the holds-and-throws category. Bears can learn to *pedal bicycles* and to steer bikes by leaning. You might be underestimating what else they can learn.

I prefer to err on the side of NOT underestimating bears when they also have human-level intelligence, but hey, suit yourself; your table follows your rulings.

Some even gots mad quarterstaff SKILLZ, yo!

[video=youtube;Ghgg_fukbvU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ghgg_fukbvU&sns=em[/video]

[video=youtube;PJAkq7TzT54]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJAkq7TzT54&sns=em[/video]

 

[Psikerlord#]

I dont allow multiclassing, so it's a no from me.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

No multiclassing in D&D makes me a...

...saaaad panda.








(Not so sad that I would leave a game, though.)

 

[BoldItalic]

There is a solution that is cheaper from a charop point of view and avoids agonising over the rules.

1. Create the monkbear as a monster. Fluff says that these are the result of the souls of departed monks reincarnating as black bears. The stats block is the same as a black bear except that the multiattack is claw/claw/bite instead of just claw/bite, and the CR is increased from CR½ to CR1 because of that extra attack. Fluff says that the extra attack comes from the monkbear dimly remembering its monk training from before its reincarnation.

Okay so far? It's a legit monster.

2. Create a level-2 Moon Druid. Single-classed, no need to level-dip into Monk, so you can do this at first level-up. He can wildshape into a monkbear. It's a CR1 beast, he's a Moon Druid so he can do it at level 2. No argument.

Even games that don't allow multiclassing can accommodate this solution.

And it saves a level.

And it's fun.

Oh, and going by the video posted by [MENTION=19675]Dannyalcatraz[/MENTION], monkbears have proficiency in quarterstaff. And maybe get the Polearm Master feet, if you allow feets in your game.

No, that wasn't a typo, it was a pun.

Oh, never mind.

 

[Riley37]

If you cross monkbears with owlbears, for 100 offspring, do you get:

23 owlmonks
24 monkbears
22 owlbears
25 (ordinary) bears
2 (demihuman) monks
2 owl (except the owls are not what they seem)
1 bear/monk/owl
1 hen/turtle/dove/partridge/pear, which practices kendo according to the "Book of Five Rings", and when unarmed uses Hen Style savate

 

[BoldItalic]

If you cross monkbears with owlbears, for 100 offspring, do you get:

23 owlmonks
24 monkbears
22 owlbears
25 (ordinary) bears
2 (demihuman) monks
2 owl (except the owls are not what they seem)
1 bear/monk/owl
1 hen/turtle/dove/partridge/pear, which practices kendo according to the "Book of Five Rings", and when unarmed uses Hen Style savate

Owlmonks go Ki-Whit! Ki-Whit! as they fly around. They have Darkvision, are proficient in Stealth and automatically gain surprise at night. But they can't use polearms. That would be just silly.

I've never seen a hen/turtle/dove/partridge/pear. Do they roost in Christmas trees?

I like this thread.

 

[cmad1977]

I would regularly ridicule anyone who wanted to do anything so that so clearly is an attempt to 'break' the game. And then I would parse rules/spells etc in order to make the foes this person faces equally broken. Good for goose...

 

[Ristamar]

In a loose "beer & pretzels" style game or a stand alone adventure, I might allow it.

In a more serious, ongoing campaign, I'd stick to the rules. As Paraxis previously noted, natural attacks do not equate to unarmed strikes. And I believe Mearls has already reiterated that Natural Armor does not stack with Unarmored Defense.