AbdulAlhazred
Legend
The flaw in your reasoning is easily seen when you understand that you don't have ANY PARTICULAR THING that is an unarmed weapon. You don't have to have an empty hand, etc. Unarmed is not a normal weapon. It can't be enchanted, it doesn't get a prof bonus, you can't HAVE prof with it, and you can't say you are or are not 'wielding' unarmed. It can't be enchanted either. It isn't a WEAPON because it isn't any specific weapon. You can scoff at that all you want, but if you actually follow out what the implications are of unarmed being a weapon then you find it makes any number of other things not work right at all. It simply isn't RAW a weapon. I'm sorry if that offends you but go ahead and talk to CS if you want, etc. I would suggest going into the Q&A archive on the D&D forums. This kind of question has come up 1000's of times and has been quite thoroughly discussed there. I know, I answered many many many questions on the subject back when I was into doing that.
and yes, a chair leg is different from being unarmed, clearly. It is a specific weapon being wielded in a specific hand. Unarmed is not. You don't "make an unarmed attack with your left hand" for instance. You just make an unarmed attack. You CAN however hold a chair leg in your left hand (as long as you designate that your 'main hand').
You are also correct, unarmed attacks aren't off-hand, they aren't ANY hand. There are a number of things they won't specifically trigger or benefit from. Again, you may not like that, but it is still true.
and yes, a chair leg is different from being unarmed, clearly. It is a specific weapon being wielded in a specific hand. Unarmed is not. You don't "make an unarmed attack with your left hand" for instance. You just make an unarmed attack. You CAN however hold a chair leg in your left hand (as long as you designate that your 'main hand').
You are also correct, unarmed attacks aren't off-hand, they aren't ANY hand. There are a number of things they won't specifically trigger or benefit from. Again, you may not like that, but it is still true.