Unarmed Strike feats

[Unlogic]

Attempting to make unarmed combat styles remotely feasible for martial characters, I adapted the following feats from d20 Modern. Does this look balanced?

Brawl
Prerequisite: Str 13
Benefit: You gain +2 prof bonus with Unarmed Strikes, and do d6 damage instead of d4. When unarmed, your unarmed strikes are considered to be a 2-handed weapon for the purpose of class abilities, powers, and feats.

This should be fairly balanced, if not slightly underpowered. It allows a fighter to gain all the benefits of a greatclub, except slightly less damage, at the cost of a feat instead of 1 gp, including using all the fighter's class powers and Fighter Weapon Talent with it.

Combat Martial Arts
Prerequisite: Dex 13
Benefit: You gain +3 prof bonus with Unarmed Strikes, and can use dexterity instead of str for your basic attacks with them. When unarmed, your unarmed strikes are considered to be wielding two light blades for the purpose of class abilities, powers, and feats.

This is equivalent to dual-wielding daggers for the purposes of rogues and rangers, which lacks the benefit of Rogue Weapon Talent if the rogue actually had daggers, and much smaller weapons than the ranger would be wielding. Costing a feat instead of 2 gp for something slightly weaker.

NOTE: Proficiency bonuses don't stack, so taking CMA and Brawl should give you +3, d6, and choose whether to do a 2-handed or 2-weapon style, and whether to use Str or dex for basic attacks.

Improved Brawl
Prerequisite: Str 15, Brawl
Benefit: You gain an additional +1 to hit with unarmed strikes, and do d8 damage instead of d6.

This brings the fighter up to 1 point of damage less by using unarmed strikes than dual-wielding a longsword.

Improved Combat Martial Arts
Prerequisite: Dex 15, Combat Martial Arts
Benefit: Your unarmed strikes gain the High Crit property.

If I were to homebrew monks, I'd see Brawl and Combat Martial Arts as build options instead of feats.

What do you think?

 

[amnuxoll]

These seem eminently reasonable to me.

:AMN:

 

[ryryguy]

Looks reasonable.

I don't have the books - what's the usual fighter's weapon talent bonus? How does it compare to these feats?

I'm interested because I have a 3.5 monk that I'm thinking to convert to 4e using fighter. The 3.5 character is high strength and generally fills a defender role in the party, so fighter actually makes sense - perhaps even more sense than whatever the 4e monk will be if it turns out to be a striker. I was thinking I'd replace the fighter's regular weapon talent feature with something along the lines of your brawl feat. I was also thinking of altering some of the other weapon-specific fighter feats into unarmed versions, but your "treat unarmed as two handed" trick is a nicer solution, I think.

This monk is also a very dedicated grappler, so I'm planning to make up an improved grab feat for him and perhaps tweak a few fighter powers to involve grabs. When I finally get my hands on the books and get around to this I'll post what I come up with here.

 

[AMP Productions]

I would put the 2 improved versions in the paragon teir.

looks good on paper, had any chances to playtest it though?

 

[Unlogic]

Looks reasonable.

I don't have the books - what's the usual fighter's weapon talent bonus? How does it compare to these feats?

The fighter gets to add +1 to hit with either 1-handed-and-shield or 2-handed weapons. Brawl would allow fighters to use Unarmed Strikes as the latter.

This monk is also a very dedicated grappler, so I'm planning to make up an improved grab feat for him and perhaps tweak a few fighter powers to involve grabs. When I finally get my hands on the books and get around to this I'll post what I come up with here.

I've been looking at something along the lines of:
Grapple
Attack: Str vs Fort
Target: Grabbed opponent
Requirement: You must have 2 free hands
Hit: target becomes restrained until the beginning of your next turn. They can attempt to escape as per Grabbed.
Special: While grappling, you may only make basic unarmed attacks, or move the target as per Grabbed. You do not benefit from the target's granting combat advantage due to being restrained.
Sustain Move

Possibly allowing anyone to do it, or possibly as a feat power, a la Improved Grab.

Restrained seems like it was intended for grapple, but wasn't really used much that I've seen:

RESTRAINED
✦ You grant combat advantage.
✦ You’re immobilized.
✦ You can’t be forced to move by a pull, a push, or a
slide.
✦ You take a –2 penalty to attack rolls.

I would put the 2 improved versions in the paragon teir.

looks good on paper, had any chances to playtest it though?

I considered putting them in the paragon tier, but I feel like offering feats which make unarmed combat okay, but still weaker than any weapon option until you hit 11th level is a bit of a mean tease to anyone who actually wants to play an unarmed combatant. I was planning on trying to adapt the Advanced versions of the feats at some point and putting them at Paragon tier, but Advanced CMA is essentially the same as the paragon Devastating Critical feat and there is no Advanced Brawl, so there wasn't really much to do there.

No chance to playtest it yet; probably won't get one anytime soon. My players aren't especially unarmed fans, except for one who'll likely only try it with a full monk, rather than a combat style for fighter/ranger/rogue.