I've brainstormed a mastery feat chain for those who want their characters to be good at fighting unarmed in Iron Heroes. Feel free to comment or use it in your own games.
Unarmed Combat [Power, Finesse]
You have spent a long time turning your own body into a living weapon.
Base Mastery: 1
Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit (Power only): You can treat your unarmed strike as a Power weapon. If doing so would not be beneficial, such as when using the Combat Expertise feat, you do not have to do so - but you have to make the decision from round to round.
Benefit (Finesse only): You can treat your unarmed strike as a Finesse weapon. If doing so would not be beneficial, you do not have to do so - but you have to make the decision from round to round.
Expanded Mastery 2: Your unarmed strike does 1d6 damage.
Expanded Mastery 3: Your unarmed strike does lethal damage.
Expanded Mastery 4: On a full attack action, you can use your unarmed attacks in a flurry of blows. When doing so, you can take one additional attack at your highest attack bonus, but all attacks (including the bonus attack) take a -2 penalty to hit.
I did not include the higher levels of damage or flurry of blows, because I did not want unarmed combat to become better than armed combat. If you want to do hideous amounts of damage with your unarmed attacks, you can always take the Weapon Focus mastery feats 2, 7 and 9 (+2 damage each).
Unarmed Combat [Power, Finesse]
You have spent a long time turning your own body into a living weapon.
Base Mastery: 1
Prerequisite: Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit (Power only): You can treat your unarmed strike as a Power weapon. If doing so would not be beneficial, such as when using the Combat Expertise feat, you do not have to do so - but you have to make the decision from round to round.
Benefit (Finesse only): You can treat your unarmed strike as a Finesse weapon. If doing so would not be beneficial, you do not have to do so - but you have to make the decision from round to round.
Expanded Mastery 2: Your unarmed strike does 1d6 damage.
Expanded Mastery 3: Your unarmed strike does lethal damage.
Expanded Mastery 4: On a full attack action, you can use your unarmed attacks in a flurry of blows. When doing so, you can take one additional attack at your highest attack bonus, but all attacks (including the bonus attack) take a -2 penalty to hit.
I did not include the higher levels of damage or flurry of blows, because I did not want unarmed combat to become better than armed combat. If you want to do hideous amounts of damage with your unarmed attacks, you can always take the Weapon Focus mastery feats 2, 7 and 9 (+2 damage each).
Maybe +1 damage per point of mastery whenever you get it.
