D&D: ‘Book of Many Things’ *Finally* Gives You +1 Unarmed Strikes
The Book of Many Things has gone and done it: they’ve finally brought a +1 (or more) Unarmed Strikes item to the table.
Monks of 5th Edition rejoice! You no longer need to plead with your DM to homebrew in those +1 knuckledusters. The Book of Many Things at long lasts makes Rules-As-Written the idea of a magic item that adds +1, +2, or +3 to your Unarmed Strikes.
It’s such a small thing. But it is so very nice for Monks to get a bone thrown to them. As a class whose core fantasy is “good at hitting things unarmed,” there’s a dearth of items that play into this. Aside from the new Wraps of Unarmed Prowess introduced in the Book of Many Things, there’s the Gloves of Soul Catching (arguably) from Candlekeep Mysteries and the Eldritch Claw Tattoo from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and that’s about it!
Book of Many Things – “Sure, Go Ahead and Punch Good”
The item in question is one of 58 new magic items introduced in the book. While there might not be a new class, there are a ton of magic items. In fact it’s one of the better tomes full of magical treasures WotC has put out in a quite some time. Don’t worry, we’ll get to more of them as the November 14th release date nears.
But for now, let’s take a look at the Wraps of Unarmed Prowess.
“While you’re wearing these cloth wraps, your unarmed strikes are considered magical for the purpose of overcoming immunity and resistance to nonmagical attacks and damage, and you gain a bonus to the attack and damage rolls of your unarmed strikes, determined by the wraps’ rarity.
They’re available at Uncommon (+1), Rare (+2), and Very Rare (+3), per usual. This is such a simple item. And one that benefits more than just Monks. Fighters who take the Brawler feat (or anyone who wants to deal magical damage with their unarmed strike) can now, for instance, punch a ghost to death (again) with ease.
The “your unarmed strikes are considered magical” isn’t necessary for most Monks, since they get that with their level 6 feature, Ki Empowered Strikes. But it’s nice to see that there’s that little boost in accuracy and damage, both of which increase the overall damage per round output of Monks using their Unarmed Strikes.
This matters, even to Monks who use a +1 (or more) Monk Weapon, like a Quarterstaff, will still see the enhanced accuracy and damage on their follow-up Unarmed Strikes or Flurries of Blows. Of course, it’s no Baldur’s Gate 3 Monk that can do around 240 damage per round, but hey, what is?
This and more in The Book of Many Things!
