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By Jeff Nabors

Published on February 5, 2023, Last modified on June 1st, 2023

One of the best items out there for unarmed builds, the eldritch claw tattoos can take your fist fighter to a whole new level.

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What is the Eldritch Claw Tattoo?

The Eldritch Claw Tattoo is a wonderous magical item released with Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Unlike most items with strict visual details, this tattoo takes the shape of clawlike forms and jagged contouring made from a magical needle.

What does Eldritch Claw Tattoo do?

This wonderous uncommon magical item only comes in one form but offers two distinct benefits:

  • While the tattoo is on your skin, your unarmed strikes are considered magical when it comes to damage resistance and immunity. You also gain +1 to your attack and damage rolls for unarmed strikes.
  • You may use your bonus action to empower your tattoo for a full minute. While active, your melee attacks (unarmed or with a weapon) can reach up to 15 feet away. Additionally, your melee attacks deal an extra 1d6 force damage per hit. Once used, you cannot use this again until the next dawn.

Is the Eldritch Claw Tattoo a Good Magic Item?

On paper, this is a pretty interesting magical item. Not only is it a huge boon to unarmed attackers, but the bonus action can also make them incredibly versatile during fights. Any melee characters who struggle with ranged attacks or want to use unarmed strikes should be trying to pick up this item.

Unfortunately, this item falls short for most character builds. Unarmed strikes only work for a few select builds, and they usually aren’t as potent as other melee builds.

What Builds Want an Eldritch Claw Tattoo?

As we said before, this item is perfect for any classes that want to use unarmed strikes or really need additional reach when in fights.

Monks

As a surprise to nobody, monks will love to have this item. It can give them the ability to count their unarmed strikes as magical to avoid resistance earlier than 6th level, but the added bonus of added range is what matters most. Monks wielding an eldritch claw tattoo can channel their inner Monkey D. Luffy and use their stretchy arms to dominate a battlefield.

Unarmed Fighting Style

Characters that have picked up the Unarmed Fighting Style by being a fighter or choosing the Fighting Initiate feat will also love this boost to their unarmed strikes. This combo can put out 1d8 bludgeoning + 1d6 force + STR modifier per attack, which is actually more than a greatsword can deal.

This means if your fighter or other martial character happens to come across an eldrtich claw tattoo and can still invest in the Unarmed Fighting Style, it might be worth it over your current load out.

Tavern Brawler

When combined with the Unarmed Fighting Style, you can also deal 1d4 damage at the start of your turn to grappled creatures, which can further boost your damage per turn.

Rune Knight

When you combined the eldritch claw tattoo, Unarmed Fighting Style, and Tavern Brawler feat with a Rune Knight fighter, who can become Large as a bonus action, you can produce quite the potent grapple build. Not only can you grapple Huge creatures, but you also have advantage on your STR (grapple) checks.

With Tavern Brawler, you can use your bonus action to grapple after you hit with your eldrtich claw strike. Then, at the beginning of your turn you get to deal an automatic 1d4 extra damage.

You can also use Giant’s Might to boost your unarmed strike damage by 1d6 once per turn (1d8 at 10th level).

Eldritch Claw Tattoo Price

Because this item only comes in one rarity, the price of this is pretty even across the board. According to the rarity tables from the Dungeon Master’s Guide, the price of an Eldritch Claw Tattoo is between 101-500gp.

These guidelines are incredibly vague but are somewhat improved by the Magic Item Pricing found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, which would price the item to be 1d6 x 100gp.

Eldritch Claw Tattoo FAQs

Can you grapple with Eldritch Claw Tattoo’s Bonus Attack?

Unfortunately, no. Grappling requires you to use a free hand to grapple, while the tattoo extends your attack range with inky black tendrils.

Does the Eldritch Claw Tattoo affect attacks with Wild Shape?

Sadly, this item doesn’t work with druid’s Wild Shape feature. Those attacks are classified as “natural weapons,” not unarmed strikes.

Are there other versions of the Eldritch Claw Tattoo?

As of the writing of this article, there is only one rarity for the Eldritch Claw Tattoo. However, your DM may find it appropriate to throw you a bone with a +2 or +3 variant.

Jeff Nabors

Jeff Nabors has been playing D&D ever since he stumbled upon the 3.5E core books in his high school library. When he isn’t running a campaign or designing a game, you can find him on Twitch, writing about game design, or staring off into the endless abyss.

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