Shillelagh spell on nunchaku: how does it work?

Question

The Shillelagh spell says that spell ends if the caster lets go of the club/staff or if they cast it again the original spell ends.

But the PHB mentions a monk weapon called the nunchaku which it says would be 2 clubs connected by a string.

So would the spell treat the nunchaku as 2 different clubs and only buff one half of the nunchaku? Or does Shillelagh buff the entire nunchaku but the buff only apply to the first club attack? Or does shillelagh buff both clubs for both attacks?

There is a level 4 monk in my group who has taken the Magic Initiate feat and chose druid and one of the cantrips she took was shillelagh as she uses nunchaku. I would like to know how I should implement the spell when we meet again this saturday so I figured I would ask.

Answer 1

Yes, but...

The only reference to nunchaku that is present in the Player's Handbook is in the section detailing Monk Weapons in the Monk class description.

This section (PHB p.78) mentions:

Certain monasteries use specialized forms of the monk weapons. For example ... a club that is two lengths of wood connected by a short chain (called a nunchaku) ... Whatever the name you use for a monk weapon, you can use the game statistics provided for the weapon in chapter 5

So, using this logic, and the example used in the PHB, you would use the statistics of a club for your nunchaku.

So, your shillelagh spell can affect "both ends of the nunchaku", as long as it is used mechanically the same as a club, since the PHB has given license to mess around with the flavour of your monk weapons.

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What this means is that you could use the nunchaku like one club, not the way you are looking for (used like two clubs, using two-weapon fighting rules) unless you are using two of them. However, as per the rules of the shillelagh spell, if you cast the spell a second time, the previous instance of the spell ends.

Answer 2

No

There is no nunchaku in the PHB weapons list. The DMG says on page 41 in the chapter "Flavors of Fantasy" that a nunchaku is nothing but a flail with a japanese name. The spell says it works on "The wood of a club or quarterstaff you are holding". A nunchaku is neither. Mechanically a flail is a different entity than a club or staff and from a lore perspective, a wooden club or staff are somewhat pure, while a nunchaku has by definition a metal chain attached to both pieces of wood.