Breaking hand on Unarmed Strike? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Breaking hand on Unarmed Strike? [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
dragonseth
03-13-06, 09:18 AM I was thinking, if I try to punch something REALLY hard wouldn't it do some sort of damage to my hand?
Dragonteuthis
03-13-06, 10:18 AM If you were strong enough, yeah, you probably would.

What does that have to do with D&D?
dragonseth
03-13-06, 10:46 AM Oops, sorry, I meant could that happen in D&D? Like if my fighter loses his weapon and decides to try and punch a bulette or something with thick armor.
ClementWillowbreaker
03-13-06, 12:20 PM That never happens in DnD. Punching objects with hardness might. Although I might be imagining a rule for that (there is one in WoD, whose combat system is now a simplified DnD 3.5, with Hardness, and even copy-paste versions of combat manuevers, so it's easy to mix them together in your head).
jaelis
03-13-06, 12:30 PM There's no dnd 3.5 rule for damaging yourself when you make an unarmed strike, except for some creatures' (for example, fire elementals) special abilities.

Putting something like that in as a houserule would be awfully mean to monks.
Tyler Do'Urden
03-13-06, 04:02 PM There's actually no rules in D&D for damaging any weapon by using it. You can punch steel plates or mine for mithral with a longsword all day long and nothing bad will happen.

I had thoughts a while ago for incorporating rules by which your equipment suffers wear and tear and you have to repair it once in a while. I was thinking a weapon would take one tenth the damage it dealt, and this would be cumulative until it bypassed its own hardness, it would deal itself 1 full point of damage, then reset. You could easily modify this to apply it to unarmed strikes, say make a Fort save or suffer a penalty on attacks and damage with that limb equal to one tenth the damage dealt.

But then I realized that all this does is increase bookkeeping and nerf certain characters. It's assumed that your weapons and armor get beat up on a regular basis and you use some of your down time to smooth over burrs, sharpen things, polish things, bolt on extra plates; Craft is a class skill for every single class. It's assumed they know how to repair their own equipment just a little. Plus most characters that use unarmed strikes in combat are assumed to have the sort of shaolin training that turns your fists into deadly weapons. Or ki. One or the other.

As a DM, you can just throw in that sort of thing randomly when someone punches something with too much hardness. But you don't need to set down systematic mechanics for it.
tarkin
03-13-06, 04:41 PM Any martial artist will tell you that you only hurt your hand if you do minimal/no damage to the object you hit. If you break it/damage it significantly you will not get hurt unless you used really bad technique (or struck glass).

I think the added realism is not worth it.
draconic_swine
03-13-06, 09:14 PM The only time I'd apply this rule would be to a character who is not trained in unarmed combat. Anyone who takes improved unarmed strike is immune to this damage -- like Tarkin said, bad technique is what hurts. But I still wouldn't implement this rule. It's just not worth the added work.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
dragonseth 03-13-06, 09:18 AM	I was thinking, if I try to punch something REALLY hard wouldn't it do some sort of damage to my hand?
Dragonteuthis 03-13-06, 10:18 AM	If you were strong enough, yeah, you probably would. What does that have to do with D&D?
dragonseth 03-13-06, 10:46 AM	Oops, sorry, I meant could that happen in D&D? Like if my fighter loses his weapon and decides to try and punch a bulette or something with thick armor.
ClementWillowbreaker 03-13-06, 12:20 PM	That never happens in DnD. Punching objects with hardness might. Although I might be imagining a rule for that (there is one in WoD, whose combat system is now a simplified DnD 3.5, with Hardness, and even copy-paste versions of combat manuevers, so it's easy to mix them together in your head).
jaelis 03-13-06, 12:30 PM	There's no dnd 3.5 rule for damaging yourself when you make an unarmed strike, except for some creatures' (for example, fire elementals) special abilities. Putting something like that in as a houserule would be awfully mean to monks.
Tyler Do'Urden 03-13-06, 04:02 PM	There's actually no rules in D&D for damaging any weapon by using it. You can punch steel plates or mine for mithral with a longsword all day long and nothing bad will happen. I had thoughts a while ago for incorporating rules by which your equipment suffers wear and tear and you have to repair it once in a while. I was thinking a weapon would take one tenth the damage it dealt, and this would be cumulative until it bypassed its own hardness, it would deal itself 1 full point of damage, then reset. You could easily modify this to apply it to unarmed strikes, say make a Fort save or suffer a penalty on attacks and damage with that limb equal to one tenth the damage dealt. But then I realized that all this does is increase bookkeeping and nerf certain characters. It's assumed that your weapons and armor get beat up on a regular basis and you use some of your down time to smooth over burrs, sharpen things, polish things, bolt on extra plates; Craft is a class skill for every single class. It's assumed they know how to repair their own equipment just a little. Plus most characters that use unarmed strikes in combat are assumed to have the sort of shaolin training that turns your fists into deadly weapons. Or ki. One or the other. As a DM, you can just throw in that sort of thing randomly when someone punches something with too much hardness. But you don't need to set down systematic mechanics for it.
tarkin 03-13-06, 04:41 PM	Any martial artist will tell you that you only hurt your hand if you do minimal/no damage to the object you hit. If you break it/damage it significantly you will not get hurt unless you used really bad technique (or struck glass). I think the added realism is not worth it.
draconic_swine 03-13-06, 09:14 PM	The only time I'd apply this rule would be to a character who is not trained in unarmed combat. Anyone who takes improved unarmed strike is immune to this damage -- like Tarkin said, bad technique is what hurts. But I still wouldn't implement this rule. It's just not worth the added work.