New race, opinions welcome!

[Nyaricus]

PHBII actually beat Klaus to the punch (no pun intended )

Versatile Unarmed Strike
Prereq: Improved Unarmed Strike
Benefit: As a swift action, you can opt for your unarmed strikes to deal your choice of bludgeoning, Piercing or slashing damage. Once you make this choice, your unarmed strikes continue to deal the chosen damage until you use another swift action to change it.
Special a Fighter can choose this feat as one of his bonus feats.

However, if your feat allowed both Piercing AND slashing, and was a Kathos-only feat - then dandy; I'd call it balanced. No different than a Morningstar doing B/P.

Anywho, my 2c

 

[Klaus]

I opted to make the feat grant Slashing damage, and a +2 bonus on Grapple checks. A kathos monk can get it as a bonus feat at Monk 1, 2 or 6, but any creature with Improved Unarmed Strike and a claw attack can take it.

 

[Nyaricus]

meh, sounds okay

 

[GreatLemur]

You know, the moment I saw "New race, opinions welcome!" the first thing I thought was "It's going to be another cat people race, isn't it?" I understand the need to make a version that works for you; it's just amazing to me how often we see this.

 

[Sir Brennen]

You know, the moment I saw "New race, opinions welcome!" the first thing I thought was "It's going to be another cat people race, isn't it?" I understand the need to make a version that works for you; it's just amazing to me how often we see this.

What? What's wrong with cat-people races?

Seriously, when it comes to a creating a non-human race for a game with a emphasis on combat, few predators capture the imagination like big cats. Their power, stealth and agility is a combination which something like a bear or wolf can't really match when it comes to human idealization.

Klaus - where was this article published?