LARGE CREATURE UNARMED STRIKE 5E MANUAL

Unarmed strikes are more readily defined in a player-facing document, the PHB or basic rules, specifically the section of the combat rules on melee combat:

These can be spell attacks or weapon attack, where the 'weapon' might be a manufactured item or a natural weapon such as a claw or tail spike. The most common actions that a monster will take in combat are melee and ranged attacks. 10-11) or the corresponding portion of the basic rules:

LARGE CREATURE UNARMED STRIKE 5E MANUAL

As Rubiksmoose's answer to that question cites, they are described in the intro to the Monster Manual (p. The question you linked addresses the definition of a natural weapon: they are 'natural' body parts that function as weapons. No, except where a trait or feature explicitly allows it. Also implied by the unarmed-combat descriptive text, not that that's 5e specific though. Is there an official position on whether natural weapons (which I understand as being a part of the attacking creature's body) can be used for unarmed attacks (which I recall reading are somewhat defined as being made with body parts, certainly that's how it sounds in this JC tweet) by default 1, or whether a specific exception must be made?ġ. Of course, neither of these wordings are used, hence the confusion. A clearer way of putting it might be 'your claws are natural weapons and can be used to make unarmed strikes.' If it was intended the other way, though, it could be clearer to say 'your claws are natural weapons, and can therefore be used to make unarmed strikes.'

This, however, seems ambiguous to me - is it saying that this specific example creates an exception where these natural weapons can be used for unarmed strikes? If so, the comma seems unnecessary and potentially misleading. your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. I've been struggling to find an official position on this for 5e.Īn answer to a related question asserts that only some examples of natural weapons can be used for unarmed strikes, giving this example from the Cat's Claws trait (VGtM, p. This question may contain the key to the answer for this, but focuses on Wildshape, doesn't have an accepted answer despite being 4 years old, and only establishes that natural weapons aren't automatically unarmed strikes (not whether they can be used for said strikes) - a semantic detail that seems important here. While there are several similar questions they all seem to deal with 3.5 or Pathfinder.

Large creature unarmed strike 5e