Unarmed Combat

Omegaxicor

First Post
I was wondering if anyone knew Unarmed Combat, I'm a bit confused:-S

The situation is this...

Human Fighter Level 2 (2 BAB)
2 spiked gauntlets

14 str
15 dex

How do a standard attack action and a full attack action work without feats?

and including these feats what changes?

Improved Unarmed Strike
Weapon Focus (unarmed)
Power Attack (If relevent)
2 Weapon Fighting? (dunno if this works or is needed for unarmed combat)

Like I said I know how combat works but I don't understand Unarmed Combat

Thanks
 
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Just the spiked gauntlets, he attacks as follows:

Standard Attack: S.G. at +4 to hit for d4 +2 damage.
Full attack: The penalties for two weapon fighting without the feat are so awful I don't even feel like looking them up. Something abysmal like +0 on the primary and -4 on the offhand. Primary does d4 +2, secondary does d4 +1, because the offhand only adds half str bonus to damage.
Because of the spiked gauntlets, your unarmed attacks are armed (in fact, they do piercing damage) and do lethal damage, and you don't provoke AoOs for making the attack(s). I'm pretty sure you also don't have the option to freely do nonlethal damage with the either, as a monk could with his bare fists.

With the feats...Improved Unarmed Strike does absolutely nothing for you, they're already an "armed" unarmed strike. Weapon Focus gives +1 to hit. Power Attack lets you trade up to -2 to hit for +2 damage. Two Weapon Fighting lets you have a prayer of hitting when attacking with both. Reduces the penalties to -2/-2 to hit. So, with the feats, your attacks look like:

Standard Attack: +5 to hit, d4 +2 damage. Able to take -1 or -2 to hit for extra 1 or 2 damage.
Full Attack: +3 to hit with each. d4 +2 damage on the primary, d4 +1 on the second attack. Power attack trade as above, forget if by RAW you can benefit from power attack with the offhand weapon or not.

Side note: The dex score affects nothing in these calculations, though you need it to qualify for Two Weapon Fighting feat.
 

I was wondering if anyone knew Unarmed Combat, I'm a bit confused:-S

Okay, let's walk through this a step at a time...

The situation is this...

Human Fighter Level 2 (2 BAB)
2 spiked gauntlets

Because of a technicality in the 3e rules, a character wearing Spiked Gauntlets isn't actually unarmed - they're considered to be armed. Spiked Gauntlets are Simple Weapons, so you don't need to worry about non-proficiency penalties.

14 str
15 dex

How do a standard attack action and a full attack action work without feats?

For a standard attack, your attack bonus is +4 (+2 BAB, +2 Str), and you do 1d4+2 damage.

As your BAB is only +2, your full attack is the same as your standard attack, unless you choose to use Two-Weapon Fighting. However, the penalties for doing so are huge: -4 with your main hand and -8 with your good hand.

So, that would give you two attacks, the first with an attack modifier of +0 and the second at -4. Each attack does 1d4+2 damage.

If you add the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, your attack penalties are much reduced, to 'only' -2 with each hand. In this case, you would get two attacks with an attack bonus of +2, each doing 1d4+2 damage.

and including these feats what changes?

Improved Unarmed Strike
Weapon Focus (unarmed)

Neither of these feats are any use to you. Because Spiked Gauntlets are considered weapons not unarmed attacks, neither of these feats will help you.

However, if you take Weapon Focus(spiked gauntlet), you will gain a +1 bonus to all of the attack modifiers listed above.

Power Attack (If relevent)

In 3.5e, you cannot apply Power Attack to light weapons (including Spiked Gauntlets). So this feat will have no effect.

In 3.0e, this restriction does not apply. In this case, you can choose to take a penalty of up to -2 on all your attacks in the round, and add the same value as a bonus to damage on a successful hit.

2 Weapon Fighting? (dunno if this works or is needed for unarmed combat)

See above.

Like I said I know how combat works but I don't understand Unarmed Combat

As noted above, because of the way Spiked Gauntlets are handled in the rules, you're not actually using Unarmed Combat.
 

For the sake of completeness, here's the same analysis done with a character who is truly unarmed (not wearing spiked gauntlets).

The situation is this...

Human Fighter Level 2 (2 BAB)

Because the character is unarmed, if attacking an armed foe he will provoke an Attack of Opportunity.

The damage for an unarmed attack is 1d3. In 3.0e, this is non-lethal damage. In 3.5e, this is subdual damage. (But don't worry about the distinction - they work the same way.)

If your character is wearing gauntlets (not spikedgauntlets), the damage is the same, but is normal (not non-lethal/subdual) damage.

14 str
15 dex

How do a standard attack action and a full attack action work without feats?

For a standard attack, your attack bonus is +4 (+2 BAB, +2 Str), and you do 1d3+2 damage.

As your BAB is only +2, your full attack is the same as your standard attack, unless you choose to use Two-Weapon Fighting. However, the penalties for doing so are huge: -4 with your main hand and -8 with your good hand.

So, that would give you two attacks, the first with an attack modifier of +0 and the second at -4. Each attack does 1d3+2 damage.

If you add the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, your attack penalties are much reduced, to 'only' -2 with each hand. In this case, you would get two attacks with an attack bonus of +2, each doing 1d3+2 damage.

Remember: in all of these cases, you'll provoke Attacks of Opportunity!

and including these feats what changes?

Improved Unarmed Strike

With this feat, you no longer provoke Attacks of Opportunity. Additionally, when not wearing gauntlets, you can choose whether to deal normal or non-lethal/subdual damage.

Weapon Focus (unarmed)

With this feat, you will gain a +1 bonus to all the attack modifiers listed above.

Power Attack (If relevent)

In 3.5e, you cannot apply Power Attack to light weapons (including unarmed attacks). So this feat will have no effect.

In 3.0e, this restriction does not apply. In this case, you can choose to take a penalty of up to -2 on all your attacks in the round, and add the same value as a bonus to damage on a successful hit.

2 Weapon Fighting? (dunno if this works or is needed for unarmed combat)

See above.
 

wow, that makes much more sense

Delericho, I think you have something confused, 3.5 rules refer to Non-Lethal damage, I haven't read 3.0 rules so I assume they are the ones who refer to subdual damage (do you mean subdural).

So anyone fighting unarmed (or with gauntlets) is considered wielding two weapons and would provoke attacks of opportunity with both attacks for a full round action and takes the usual TWF penalties of -6/10 but with Spiked Gauntlets a character is armed with two simple weapons and the TWF feat means that the penalties are -2/2 and the damage is 1d4+1*STR/1d4+0.5*STR.

Thanks both of you for clearing that up
 


So, that would give you two attacks, the first with an attack modifier of +0 and the second at -4. Each attack does 1d4+2 damage.

Don't forget that the off-hand only gets 1/2 the Strength modifier to damage, and thus gets 1d4+1 damage on a hit.
 

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