Damage for disarmed Monsters.

General ACKS Forums Ask the Autarchs
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Are there any guidelines for unarmed damage for monsters that are disarmed of their weapons? for example, the ettin: the monster entry is attacks: 2 clubs. damage: 3d6 / 2d6. So what is the damage of an ettin without a club?

The only indication of unarmed damage is for human-sized (assume 6’ tall) creatures: unarmed strikes deal 1d3 nonlethal damage with a punch or 1d4 nonlethal damage with a kick. Assuming an ettin being 12’ tall, extrapolation would assume that the ettin punches for 1d6 (or 2d3) and kicks for 1d8 (or 2d4) damage. But this doesn’t look right, because a bugbear also does 2d4.

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Bugbears are smaller, but have bear claws.

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ah yes, forgot about the claws. so starting from human-sized unarmed damage would it be ok to scale upward proportinally to size? there are some other monsters that have listed weapons in their descriptions with damage given in the stat block for the weapon used. but nowhere can i find unarmed damage for such monsters. examples are the ettin, cyclops, giants. there may be more.

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Keeping in mind that I’m not an Autarch, and Alex may have had some method to his madness :slight_smile:

If you want to maintain consistency with the given listings, assign a multiplier to the punch/kick that is the same as the presumed weapon’s multiplier. If the creature seems likely to be a natural with unarmed combat, has claws, or the like, shave off the “nonlethal” portion.

This will occasionally require some interpretation. For example, a hill giant deals 2d8 with a club. A “club” is a 1d4 weapon, but that’s the kind of club a wizard can use (a knobbed stick, shillelagh, or cane, perhaps); a hill giant is usually portrayed with a big, two-handed tetsubo-style of weapon - I would be inclined to make that either 1d6/1d8 or 1d10 (two-handed only) at the human scale. So assume the multiplier is ×2. A punch by that logic will be 2d3 or 1d6 nonlethal and a kick will be 2d4 or 1d8 nonlethal.

5

I posted these notes in the Orc Custom Class thread. They should help address the issues you are raising:

Bugbears (AC 4 and 2d4 damage)
+1 natural strength bonus, +3 natural armor bonus.
One-handed weapon (1d6) and shield

Dwarf (AC 5 and 1d8 damage)
Battle axe wielded two-handed (1d8) and banded plate armor

Elf (AC 4 and 1d8 damage)
Spear or sword wielded two-handed (1d8) and chain mail armor

Ettin (AC 6 and 2d8/3d6 damage)
+6 natural strength bonus / +7 natural strength bonus, +5 natural armor bonus
Spiked club (1d6) in each hand and hide armor

Gnome (AC 4 and 1d6 damage)
One-handed weapon (1d6), shield, and scale armor

Gnoll (AC 4 and 2d4 damage)
+1 natural strength bonus, +1 natural armor bonus
One-handed weapon (1d6), shield, and leather armor

Goblin (AC 3 and 1d6 damage)
One-handed weapon (1d6), shield, and leather armor

Hill Giant (AC 5 and 2d8)
+5 natural strength bonus, +3 natural armor bonus
Spear wielded two-handed (1d8)

Hobgoblin (AC 3 and 1d8 damage)
Spear wielded two-handed (1d8) and scale armor

Kobold (AC 2 and 1d4)
-1 natural strength penalty
Small weapon wielded two-handed (1d6) and leather armor

Ogre (AC 4 and 1d10 damage)
+3 natural strength bonus, +3 natural armor bonus
Club (1d4), fur armor

Orc (AC 3 and 1d6 damage)
One-handed weapon, shield, and leather armor

Note #1: Damage bonuses are converted into dice by adding the bonus to the average die roll than mapping it to a new larger or smaller die.
1d4+3 = 1d10
1d6-1 = 1d4
1d6+1 = 2d4 (technically should be 1d8, but making it 2d4 differentiates it from using a medium weapon two-handed)
1d8+5 = 2d8

Note #2: Dwarves ane elves arguably should get a fighter damage bonus of +1 to their weapons. If you believe that should be the case (e.g. they aren’t members of some slightly-less-than-elite class which has traded this damage bonus away), then their equipment load-out is:

Dwarf: One-handed weapon and shield, chainmail armor (AC4)
Elf: One-handed weapon and shield, lightweight chainmail armor (AC3)

Punches normally deal 1d3 nonlethal damage while kicks normally deal 1d4 nonlethal damage; neither attack can be used against characters in metal armor. However, monsters with natural armor may deal lethal damage and can punch or kick characters in metal armor without taking damage.

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thx

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I would love to see some monster creation guidelines in the upcoming lairs & encounters(?)/monsters(?) supplement :slight_smile: