Do Monks Get Multiple Natural Attacks if Unarmed?


Rules Questions


I wasn't too sure on this, so I thought I would ask for clarification. I know in one campaign I did, creatures with natural attacks would get to do all of their natural attacks in one turn as a full round action. How does that work for the monk, if using unarmed fighting? In this case the monk is level 1, no feats except those that come with the class (improved unarmed strike). Would the monk's natural attacks just be his fists? I saw that it said on the page they can fight with their knees and stuff too, so I wasn't really sure what the protocol for it is. First time having a monk in the campaign.


There's unarmed strikes and natural attacks. The two are different. What the monk gets is a class ability called "unarmed strike" and a class ability called "flurry of blows". The "flurry of blows" lets her, as a full-attack action, make an additional attack at her base attack bonus using either unarmed strikes or weapons with the "monk" special quality (that is labeled in the weapon description), or a combination of the two. The "unarmed strike" piece of that is a general game mechanic term that applies to any body part--so if the monk's hands are tied, they can still unarmed strike by kicking or head-butting or whatever. The exact body part used isn't specified, but all are subsumed under the term "unarmed strike".

Natural attacks, in game terms, are a different beast (pun intended), and not something you have to worry about for a monk.

WITH THE EXCEPTION that spells that target natural weapons (like magic fang) treat the monk's unarmed strike as a natural weapon while spells that target manufactured weapons (like magic weapon) ALSO can affect the monk's unarmed strike. You (usually) don't have to worry about body-part specifics for such spells--unless your GM really wants you to.


Unarmed Strikes aren't Natural Attacks.

A human monk has no natural attacks (same for most humanoid races).


Thanks for clearing that up guys, much appreciated!

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