Unarmed Attacks
Most D&D characters have a vast array of weaponry available to them. Lethal implements such as swords, maces, and spears are seldom out of reach, and many characters also wield deadly spells. Still, a simple kick, head butt, or punch has its place in the game, too, especially when dealing with the unexpected.
The rules for attacking without weapons contain a few odd twists that can throw off players and DMs who don't use them often, and characters who make unarmed attacks into an art, such as monks, can pose some special problems as well. This series explores unarmed attacks in detail, and seeks to throw some light into the territory's murkier corners.
The Language of Unarmed Attacks
Here are a few terms you'll encounter in this article.
Free Hand: For a humanoid or other bipedal character, a hand that's not occupied with holding or wielding a weapon or other object, or being used for some other purpose, such as clinging to a wall.
Iterative Attack: One or more extra attacks a character gains by virtue of a high base attack bonus when using the full attack action; see pages 22 and 143 in the Player's Handbook.
Lethal Damage: Damage that reduces a creature's hit points.
Natural Weapon: An appendage or other body part (such as teeth or claws) that a creature can use to attack other creatures or objects. Natural weaponry deals lethal damage without recourse to a class feature or feat, such as Improved Unarmed Strike.
Nonlethal Damage: Damage that accumulates without reducing a creature's hit points. When a creature accumulates enough nonlethal damage to equal its current hit points, it is staggered. When a creature accumulates enough nonlethal damage to exceed its current hit points, it is unconscious. Some creatures ignore nonlethal damage.
Threatened Area: The area around a creature where it can make armed melee attacks. For most creatures, this is the band of squares adjacent to the creature.
Generally, a creature must wield a weapon or have a natural weapon to threaten an area.
Unarmed Attack/Unarmed Strike: These two terms are used interchangeably to describe an attack with an appendage that is not a natural weapon, such as a human's fist. An unarmed attack usually deals nonlethal damage and provokes an attack of opportunity from the creature being attacked.
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From page 301 of the Dungeon Master's Guide: Staggered: A character whose nonlethal damage exactly equals his current hit points is staggered. A staggered character may take a single move action or standard action each round (but not both, nor can she take full-round actions). A character whose current hit points exceed his nonlethal damage is no longer staggered; a character whose nonlethal damage exceeds his hit points becomes unconscious. Unconscious: Knocked out and helpless. Unconsciousness can result from having current hit points between -1 and -9, or from nonlethal damage in excess of current hit points. |
Unarmed Attack Basics
The unarmed attack entry in Chapter 8 of the Player's Handbook contains most of the rules for fighting without weaponry. Here's an overview, along with a few additions and comments:
- You usually make an unarmed attack with a free hand.
As far as the rules are concerned, you can use just about any part of your body in an unarmed attack: a head butt, kick, elbow, knee, or forearm. This means you don't need a free hand to make an unarmed attack.
If you're making any unarmed attacks in addition to an attack with your primary hand (for instance, a sword slash and a kick or head butt), consider the unarmed attacks as off-hand attacks even if you aren't making them with a hand. See Part Two for notes about using unarmed strikes as primary and secondary weapons.
- An unarmed attack provokes an attack of opportunity.
The creature you target with your unarmed attack gets an attack of opportunity against you, provided that it is armed (that is, holding a weapon, has a natural weapon, or has the Improved Unarmed Strike feat). Other foes that threaten you don't get attacks of opportunity against you.
Technically, the creature you attack gets an attack of opportunity against you even if you're not in the area it threatens (or when it's too small to threaten the area around it) because you're reaching into its space to make your unarmed attack. For example, if you're size Medium and you use your 5-foot reach to make an unarmed attack against a Tiny creature (reach 0 feet) that has a weapon (natural or otherwise), you provoke an attack of opportunity. If you've ever tried to pick up an angry cat, you'll have no difficulty appreciating what the rules are trying to simulate here.
The attack of opportunity you provoke is resolved before your unarmed attack. If the attack of opportunity kills or knocks you out, your unarmed attack is spoiled.
- If your base attack bonus is high enough to give you iterative attacks, you can make multiple unarmed attacks when you use the full attack action.
This makes unarmed attacks fairly odd. Natural weaponry does not allow iterative attacks, but unarmed attacks -- which you make with part of your body -- do. This arises from the rules' attempt to simulate the sheer mastery some pugilists and martial artists achieve with unarmed strikes.
- When your unarmed attack hits, you deal unarmed strike damage.
For a Medium character, an unarmed strike deals 1d3 points of nonlethal damage, plus your Strength modifier. A Small character's unarmed strike deals 1d2 points of nonlethal damage. A Large character's unarmed strike deals 1d4 points of nonlethal damage.
An unarmed strike threatens a critical hit on an attack roll of 20 and deals double damage on a confirmed critical hit.
- You can deal lethal damage with an unarmed strike.
Anyone can deal lethal damage with an unarmed strike by taking a -4 penalty on the attack roll. This reflects the difficulty you have hitting the foe where it really hurts. You make the decision to take the penalty before you make the attack roll.
- It's possible to be considered armed when you attack without a weapon.
A creature with one or more natural weapons is always considered armed. That is, it threatens the area around it and does not provoke attacks of opportunity when attacking armed foes.
A creature delivering a spell or other magical effect with touch is considered armed when attempting to touch a subject.
The Improved Unarmed Strike feat allows you to function as though armed when making unarmed attacks.
- For purposes of weapon enhancements, an unarmed strike is considered a natural weapon.
If you attack without a weapon, a spell such as magic weapon won't help you, but a spell such as magic fang will. Unarmed strikes (even improved unarmed strikes) and natural weapons aren't equivalent
The Improved Unarmed Strike Feat
The Improved Unarmed Strike feat allows you to make unarmed attacks as though you are armed. That is, you don't provoke an attack of opportunity when making an unarmed attack and you threaten the area around you.
In addition, your unarmed strikes deal lethal damage or nonlethal damage at your option. If you choose to deal lethal damage with your unarmed strike, you don't take a penalty on your attack roll.
Unarmed Strikes and Natural Weaponry
Before we move on, it's worth pointing out that a character making an unarmed attack, even with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, does not have natural weapons. Nor is a natural weapon a substitute for the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.
As we saw previously, unarmed strikes allow iterative attacks and natural weapons do not.
A feat that requires natural weaponry as a prerequisite, such as Multiattack, doesn't work with unarmed strikes. Likewise, having a natural weapon is not a substitute for the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. For example, you don't meet the Improved Unarmed Strike prerequisite for the Deflect Arrows feat if you just have a natural weapon.
Remember, however, that magic weapon enhancements that work with natural weaponry, such as the magic fangspell, also work with unarmed attacks. This rule allows pugilists and martial artists access to some magic weapon enhancements (also see the next section). It also reflects the fact that a creature making an unarmed strike is using part of its body in the attack.
Monk Unarmed Strike Class Feature
The monk class offers a potent subcategory of unarmed attack. The class provides Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat, but the monk class offers some additional benefits for when fighting without weapons:
- A monk's unarmed strikes can be treated as either manufactured or natural weapons when applying spells or effects that enhance either manufactured or natural weapons. For example, either a magic weapon spell or a magic fang spell can enhance a monk's unarmed attacks.
This allows a monk access to all manner of weapon enhancements for her unarmed strikes. For example, a monk can use the Improved Natural Attack feat to increase her unarmed strike damage.
- A monk can make unarmed strikes with either hand interchangeably or with a knee, elbow, or foot.
A monk does not suffer an off-hand penalty when attacking unarmed. That is, the monk does not take any attack penalty and gains her full Strength bonus to damage (if any) no matter which appendage the monk uses to make the unarmed attack.
This rule doesn't exempt monks from two-weapon combat penalties (see below).
- A monk's unarmed strike damage increases with levels in the class.
A monk uses the unarmed strike damage entry for her monk level on Table 3-10 in the Player's Handbook (or on Table 3-11 for a Small or Large monk) instead of the normal unarmed strike damage for the character's size (see Part One).
A monk's unarmed strike threatens a critical hit on an attack roll of 20 and deals double damage on a confirmed critical hit.
- An unarmored monk can use a flurry of blows.
When unarmored (that is, when not wearing a suit of armor or using a shield), a monk using the full attack action can make one extra attack when attacking without a weapon or when using a special monk weapon.
Depending on the monk's class level, the extra attack might or might not impose an attack penalty (see the monk class description). If there is a penalty, it applies to all attacks the monk makes (such as attacks of opportunity) until the monk's next turn begins.
A monk cannot use a flurry when using anything other than an unarmed strike or a special monk weapon. A nonmonk weapon or a natural weapon can't be combined with a flurry in any way.
Unarmed Strikes and Manufactured Weapons
From time to time, characters might find it useful to throw in an unarmed attack along with an attack from a manufactured weapon, such as a sword. Doing so requires the full attack action.
If the character in question isn't a monk, the rules governing attacks with two weapons cover this situation well. Most often, the character will use the unarmed attack as the off-hand weapon. The character makes one extra attack with the off-hand unarmed attack and gets the benefit of a light off-hand weapon; see the excerpt presented on this page for more details concerning two-weapon fighting. If the character does not have the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, the unarmed off-hand attack provokes an attack of opportunity from the foe the character attacks. The attacker gains only half his Strength bonus to damage for the off-hand attack.
Monks fighting with both manufactured weapons and unarmed attacks are a special case; see below for details
OOOOOO
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From page 160 of the Player's Handbook: TWO-WEAPON FIGHTING If you wield a second weapon in your off hand, you can get one extra attack per round with that weapon. Fighting in this way is very hard, however, and you suffer a -6 penalty with your regular attack or attacks with your primary hand and a -10 penalty to the attack with your off hand. You can reduce these penalties in two ways:
Table 8-10: Two-Weapon Fighting Penalties summarizes the interaction of all these factors. |
PPPPP
| Circumstances | Primary Hand | Off-Hand |
|---|---|---|
| Normal penalties | -6 | -10 |
| Off-hand weapon is light | -4 | -8 |
| Two-Weapon Fighting feat | -4 | -4 |
| Off-hand weapon is light and Two-Weapon Fighting feat | -2 | -2 |
OOOO Unarmed Strikes and Natural Weapons
Just as a creature can add weapon attacks to a full attack made with natural weapons, so too can it combine unarmed attacks with natural weapons. Two options are available to accomplish this task.
A creature can choose to treat its unarmed attacks as its primary attacks and its natural weapons as secondary attacks. (This method is normally used to add weapon attacks to a natural attack routine.) The creature must make all unarmed attacks with its primary limb, which prevents that hand from being used for a natural attack such as a claw or slam. It uses its full base attack bonus for the natural attack, gaining additional attacks as normal for a high base attack bonus, and adds its full Strength bonus on damage rolls. Of course, each of these attacks provokes an attack of opportunity if the target is unarmed (unless the creature has Improved Unarmed Strike). However, its natural weapons all become secondary attacks, taking the -5 penalty on attack rolls (or -2 with the Multiattack feat) and adding only half the monster's Strength bonus on damage rolls.
A simpler method is to treat the creature's unarmed attack as an off-hand attack. (After all, an unarmed strike is rarely as effective as a weapon attack would be, so it doesn't really merit the same level of priority in the average monster's attack array.) Instead of using its primary limb to deliver the unarmed attack, it uses a kick, head butt, or other appendage that isn't otherwise used to deliver a natural attack. The creature gains one unarmed strike, which deals damage appropriate to its size plus half its Strength bonus (since it's an off-hand attack). A creature using this method suffers a -4 penalty on all attacks (since it's effectively fighting with two weapons and its off-hand weapon is light). The damage for its natural attacks is unchanged. This method requires fewer calculations on the fly, so it's probably easier to use in play.
Let's look at the nalfeshnee for an example of how each of these methods would work in play.
A nalfeshnee using the first method would have three unarmed attacks (thanks to its base attack bonus of +14). Applying its size modifier, and Strength modifier, the nalfeshnee's total attack modifiers for its three natural attacks are +19, +14, and +9. These natural attacks each deal 1d6+7 points of nonlethal damage. Each of the nalfeshnee's natural weapons takes a -2 penalty for a secondary natural weapon (thanks to the nalfeshnee's Multiattack feat) and gains only half the nalfeshnee's Strength modifier to damage, which gives it two secondary attacks, as follows: one bite +18 (2d8+3) and one claw +17 (1d8+3); it loses one claw attack in order to make unarmed attacks with its primary limb.
Using the second method, the nalfeshnee's natural attacks are made at a -4 penalty (bite +16, 2 claws +13) but deal normal damage. It then makes one unarmed attack at +15 (+14 for base attack bonus, -2 for size, +7 for Strength, -4 for off-hand light weapon) that deals 1d6+3 points of nonlethal damage.