Unarmed Combat + Power Attack

[Yair]

Is there any way to do reasonable damage using unarmed combat? I am playing a strong barbarian unarmed fellow, but when it comes to serious fights I find the greatclub handy (with Power Attack and x1.5 Str going for it and all).

 

[Brekki]

Remember that you cannot use power attack with a light weapon. And unless you are a monk, your body doesn't count as a natural weapon, so you can't power attack with your fists.
edit: didn't know untill now that unarmed was the exception

Damage increases:
- strength / rage / etc ... duh
- feat: weapon specialization (fists)
- item: amulet of mighty fists
- feat: improved natural weapon (fists)
- there are several spells that change your fists into claws or otherwise increase their damage

 

[Oscar carramiñana]

I agree with Brekki saids

 

[James McMurray]

Remember that you cannot use power attack with a light weapon. And unless you are a monk, your body doesn't count as a natural weapon, so you can't power attack with your fists.

You can’t add the bonus from Power Attack to the damage dealt with a light weapon (except with unarmed strikes or natural weapon attacks),

Even non-monks without improved unarmed strike can power attack with an unarmed strike.

I would look into various PrCs to increase your base damage. I'm not sure which ones are non-Lawful, but Drunken Master, Tattooed Monk, and Shou Disciple are all possibilities.

 

[Thanee]

Actually you don't even need the feat.

Bye
Thanee

 

[0-hr]

Try to pick up improved unarmed strike and maybe even improved grapple and stunning fist later on (some fighter levels would help with the feats). Two weapon fighting would let you do the old one-two combo. And if you have an arcane friend, get a minor ring of spell storing (or ioun stone) to keep a few True Stikes handy. That let's you do your full power attack and still pretty much guarantee the (first) hit.

d20 Modern has some good, basic, brawling feats that let you build a decent scrapper even at low levels - so you might ask you DM to look over those.

 

[James McMurray]

Actually you don't even need the feat.

Even non-monks without improved unarmed strike

That's what I said.

 

[Thanee]

Oops!

Bye
Thanee

 

[Kae'Yoss]

Ask if you can get the d20 Modern Feat "Combat Martial Arts" or a variant thereof: it will increase your base damage.

For example, you could have a feat that has Improved Unarmed strike as prerequisite, and raises the damage die to 1d4. A better version of that feat makes it 1d6, another maybe even 1d8.
This will give you some unarmed capability even without the monk thing. Or look for a variant class of Martial Artist (like hongs) and Multiclass into that.

 

[Yair]

Thanks all.

It seems there isn't a way to match the two-handed weapon wielding fellows (barring PrCs etc I don't know)...