Improved Unarmed Strike and Grabbing?

[Pierson Lowgal]

Does a PC/NPC with improved unarmed strike incur attacks of opportunity when starting a grapple?

If no, has anyone had a problem with a monk or high strength warrior type just squeezing the life out of many enemies?

In this week's game, my bull's strengthed, raging 4th level barbarian did, what for me, is a significant amount of damage by easily grappling and squeezing an unarmed wizard-type guy. If he had improved unarmed strike he could probably do this to a large number of our enemies. d2 + 7 damage (never mind monks or dudes with really high strengths and large sizes) and a human sized enemy prevented from swinging his/her larger than tiny sized weapon or casting most spells, is pretty good. Overly good?

Am I missing something? I realize much more damage could be done swinging a weapon, especially with multiple attacks at high levels but incapacitating an enemy can't be overlooked.

thanks

 

[Deset Gled]

I believe that the main thing you are missing is Oriental Adventures . I believe this should help answer most of your questions:

IMPROVED GRAPPLE [GENERAL]
You are skilled in martial arts that emphasize holds and throws .
Prerequisite : Improved Unarmed Strike .
Benefit: If you hit with an unarmed strike, you deal normal damage and can attempt to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. No initial touch attack is required . You can deal normal damage while grappling, rather than subdual damage, without suffering a penalty on your grapple check.
Normal: Characters without this feat make a melee touch attack to grab their opponent and provoke an attack of opportunity when doing so. They also suffer a -4 penalty on their grapple checks when trying to inflict normal damage in a grapple.