Unarmed strikes...

[Gan Mondragone]

I have read many places that it is better for a monk to use brass knuckles than regular unarmed strikes. Can anyone explain this to me as it seems that you are taking a severe hit in damage by using them.

[Byrdology]

It's not anymore... Used to think you could get the weapon enhancements from the knuckles and keep the dmg dice from the monk... This is not true though.

[Gan Mondragone]

Thanks...I could never figure it out.

[lemeres]

The reason brass knuckles and the cestus are commonly advised is because the Amulet of Mighty fists used to have a higher price at 2.5 times an equally enchanted weapon. The price has dropped to only x2 though though (which just so happens to be the number of hands you have...usually, heh). There is still the problem that you have sacrificed your amulet slot for your weapon enhancements.

There is also the advantage that a monk using flurry could use only a single brass knuckle. But you are doing as many hits as a TWF ranger. Not that much of a sacrifice.

As for the choice in manufactured weapons, typically brass knuckles are preferred since they provide little mechanical disadvantage to wear constantly and they keep the aesthetic of unarmed strikes. If you really wanted to take advantage of weapons, you would use the temple sword. You can two hand it for extra damage, and that can be done during the flurry as well.

[Neo2151]

When you FoB, you only ever get your Str bonus when you flurry. So two-handing a temple sword while flurrying does not, in fact, give you extra damage from two-handing it.

[Name Violation]

gauntlet works

[blackbloodtroll]

Neo2151 wrote:

When you FoB, you only ever get your Str bonus when you flurry. So two-handing a temple sword while flurrying does not, in fact, give you extra damage from two-handing it.

You do get extra damage from Power Attack.

[Neo2151]

blackbloodtroll wrote:

Neo2151 wrote:

When you FoB, you only ever get your Str bonus when you flurry. So two-handing a temple sword while flurrying does not, in fact, give you extra damage from two-handing it.

You do get extra damage from Power Attack.

That's not extra damage from two-handing - that's extra damage from Power Attack, which has it's own built-in upgrade rules. :)

[blackbloodtroll]

When wielding a weapon with two hands, you gain more bonus damage from Power Attack.

This is why Monk players will wield a Monk Weapon with two hands.

[lemeres]

And I am fairly certain that the temple sword is the only monk weapon from their standard proficiencies that can be wielded with two hands. The rest are light weapons and thus can't get any advantage from strength or power attack by being two handed.

Except maybe the quaterstaff. That is a double weapon though, so I am a bit fuzzy on the rules for it.

[blackbloodtroll]

With a single Cleric dip, you can Flurry with just about anything.