Are natural weapons... weapons?

[stewstew5]

None of which supports your stance that they are weapons (except the monster manual entry if you squint, but that both doesn't explain itself nor apply to players so...).

it's still got more support than them not being weapons

[Undyne]

Sometimes you write out a question that sounds obvious -- blindingly, stupidly obvious. And then you sit down, think about all the implications, and you're frozen in confusion and fear.

Natural weapons are used by some monsters, transformed Druids, and at least four potential player races: Tortles, Lizardfolk, Minotaurs and Tabaxi. It's the last lot I'm concerned with. I'm quoting the Tortle here, but the wording's pretty similar between them all:


Upon deeper looking around, it's clear that natural weapons are not, as far as I can tell, inherently unarmed strikes. And there's at least one race, the arakocra, who have altered unarmed but as-written no natural weapons. Somewhere on Twitter, Crawford describes natural weapons as one of three weapon categories, and elsewhere seems to imply that Paladins are allowed to Smite with natural weapons despite usually arguing against weaponless Smites:


Sorry for the lack of proper links, but relatively new poster.

...but wait a minute. Slow down a second. Hold on a mo'. If we said that natural weapons are weapons, and I use them to make an unarmed strike... am I making a unarmed strike with a weapon? Am I, by extension, making a melee weapon attack with a weapon?

With the recent UA, this is maybe a less completely-silly question to ask. An Unarmed Fighting character who doesn't take Monk 6 doesn't have a way of attacking creatures with magical immunities, beyond 'switch to a weapon'. Most DMs would probably just give you magical gloves or something, but imagine if you could use spells that target weapons, or make use of certain features -- and hello, I've lit my claws on fire and for the next hour they're magical. (Elemental Weapon.)

My gut instinct is that, RAI, this shouldn't be allowed. So I kind of expected to be shut-down pretty quickly, but actually getting an firm, clear answer to the question 'Are natural weapons weapons?' proved kind of hard. Note that I am, out of curiosity, looking for clarification mainly from a RAW perspective. If you can get me a firmly unambiguous yes or no from somewhere, I'd love you.

From my perspective as far as actually running the game goes, I generally don't think there's really a balance issue allowing fists to count as weapons, unless you go out of your way to regularly disarm characters in your campaigns. So if you turned up to my table, I'd probably just be willing to rule that, hey, if you want to roll up a primarily-unarmed Paladin, natural weapon or no: sure, we can make Smites work for them. But I'm still curious in the answer outside of just running the game myself. Did I miss something obvious?

Also note that this is a separate question from, say, 'Do they make weapon attacks?' They do indeed, and making a weapon attack is distinct from making an attack with a weapon; but that's not the only rule at play here.

Unarmed attacks are indeed weapons- It's why Stunning Strike on a monk is so busted, since they can just Flurry Of Blows and stun-lock a whole encounter.

[Misterwhisper]

Unarmed attacks are indeed weapons- It's why Stunning Strike on a monk is so busted, since they can just Flurry Of Blows and stun-lock a whole encounter.

Those 2 things are not related.

Unarmed Strikes are not weapons but you can make melee weapon attacks with them as a special rule.

It has been stated, confirmed, and printed in the SAC.

[Yunru]

it's still got more support than them not being weapons

Ummm... No?
Let's look at Alter Self: Alters your unarmed strike, not a weapon.
Let's look at Aarakocra: Alters your unarmed strike, not a weapon.
Etc.

[stewstew5]

Ummm... No?
Let's look at Alter Self: Alters your unarmed strike, not a weapon.
Let's look at Aarakocra: Alters your unarmed strike, not a weapon.
Etc.

Aarakocra Talons:

You are proficient with your unarmed strikes, which deal 1d4 slashing damage on a hit.

Note it doesn't call them natural weapons

Tortle claws:

Your claws are natural weapons, which you can use to make unarmed strikes. If you hit with them, you deal slashing damage equal to 1d4 + your Strength modifier, instead of the bludgeoning damage normal for an unarmed strike.

note that it specifically states that they are natural weapons

Alter Self Natural Weapons:

You grow claws, fangs, spines, horns, or a different natural weapon of your choice. Your unarmed strikes deal 1d6 bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage, as appropriate to the natural weapon you chose, and you are proficient with your unarmed strikes. Finally, the natural weapon is magic and you have a +1 bonus to the Attack and Damage Rolls you make using it.

once again, it states that these are natural weapons

These things either just alter your unarmed strikes, or specifically turn them into natural weapons that do (1d6..etc.).

[Yunru]

Note it doesn't call them natural weapons

Then it doesn't count.

These things either just alter your unarmed strikes, or specifically turn them into natural weapons that do (1d6..etc.).

Ummm no, the ones that say natural weapons also only modify your unarmed strikes.

I'll say it again, every instance of the player getting natural weapons only changes your unarmed strike. Natural weapon attacks are unarmed strikes.