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I was looking up Monk's Unarmed Strike for another answer and was wondering. If a power, such as Twin Strike requires you to be wielding two weapons, are you effectively wielding two unarmed strikes, or must you use some other weapon in either your main or your off hand?

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2 Answers

up vote 3 down vote

This, as far as I've gleaned from other situations, DMs, threads, and the rules, is a house rule question.

According to the letter of the rules, you are wielding one weapon, Monk's Unarmed Strike, that you can make multiple attacks with if you have the multiple attacks to use. Not two weapons. Game balance wise, I see zero issue with allowing this, and have never heard of a DM who did not allow two monk hands to be used as two weapons for feats – as long as you have both hands empty and usable as monk's unarmed strike weapons when using the feat.

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well, I can see a balance issue, its basically like having 2 longswords (non versatile, which is the only difference I see) that are identically enchanted (ki focus). So the damage output is pretty good. It's an off stat build without an extra feat, but with the right half-elf it would be very interesting. – wax eagle May 7 '12 at 17:55
The thing is, a monk almost always wants to wield other weapons to get feat benefits on their Flurry of Blows, and almost never makes actual weapon attacks. Allowing the dual-wielding of Monk Unarmed Strike is a fairly safe house-rule, simply because a non-monk character has to invest heavily in monk to get unarmed strike (usually getting little or nothing else out of it), while monks have to invest heavily in non-monk stuff to get anything worth using the unarmed strike with. Consider your example: half-elf is a sub-par monk race, plus you have to pump strength to use Twin Strike. – Oblivious Sage May 7 '12 at 18:32
If I'm not mistaken, the Monk's Unarmed Strike doesn't necessarily have to use his hands--it also covers things like kicks and headbutts and generally impressive martial arts. So, can you wield two 'normal' weapons and also have access to dual-wielding Unarmed Strikes? – ioanwigmore May 8 '12 at 1:01
I kind of call suspect on that last comment. By the flavor of the text, you are correct. They can make an unarmed strike with any part of their body. However, back in 3.5, a monk needed to be wielding only monk weapons or have their body unimpeded to use their flurry of blows, gain the damage from their unarmed strikes, ect. Even though this is 4th we're talking about, it still sounds right to me. A monk's martial arts encompasses the entire body. Limiting them to only kicks would reduce their effectiveness, ergo, reducing their ability to effectively wield their unarmed strike. – CrystalBlue May 8 '12 at 13:16
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While it says you can fluff an unarmed strike however you want (headbutts & kicks, for example), it also explicitly says you must have a hand free to "wield" your unarmed strike. – Oblivious Sage May 9 '12 at 3:11
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up vote -3 down vote

Treat Unarmed Strike as a single weapon for 1 hand. When using it for Two-Weapon Fighting, apply the normal TWF penalties. I would consider the other hand to be a light weapon for rules purposes and apply the corresponding penalties in-line with the TWF feat. -4/-4 in this case.

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This is for 3.5, not 4e. Ryan, would you like to revise your answer? – Brian Ballsun-Stanton♦ Sep 16 '12 at 7:56

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