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    Ettin in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2014

    Default Re: Does a shove trigger Tavern Brawler's bonus trigger?

    It's actually unclear what's going on. Both grapple and shove are listed as special melee attacks that result in an athletics contest instead of an attack roll.

    Are they still attacks? Yes they are. But with what?

    You can shove anyone you can attack in melee. That means you can shove people with whips and polearms at reach (technically). Shove specifically says "within your reach." So you use the same implement to shove as you do to attack.

    So what about unarmed strike? "Instead of using a weapon to make a melee weapon attack, you can use an unarmed strike." So an unarmed strike replaces a melee weapon attack. Can you replace a special melee attack with an unarmed strike? Well, last I checked, you can push people with your hands. So yes. But does it still count as an unarmed strike? That's the tricky part. Is an unarmed strike any attack you make with your body, or is it only damaging attacks you make with your body? What is the order of operations here?

    I'm pretty sure that the devs have ruled on this (sage advice) in the past in regards to TWF. But the text makes things a bit unclear.

    Long story short, this is a ruling. Your DM may allow it. Or, he may not.
    Last edited by Easy_Lee; 2017-08-14 at 09:24 AM.