Armor Spikes and Enchantments

[Sinfullyvannila]

Heya, this is my first post and I didn't know if this was the correct forum. I'm playing a Fighter with the Brawler archetype, the concept is a "Pro Wrestler", "The One Man Legion of Doom". I'm not too horribly interested in powergaming it of course, but I want to be clear on the options.

ANYWAYS, I was thinking about wearing spiked armor and cranking all as many "elemental" enchantments on it as possible. You know, Corrosive, Flaming, etc as well as merciful and maybe Bane(Humanoid). My issue is that the entries specify that they do damage "on a hit". I was wondering if that includes doing bonus damage on grapples

[Dragonchess Player]

First, you're posting a Pathfinder question in the D&D 3.5/d20/OGL forum; it should probably be in the Pathfinder RPG/Rules Questions. To answer your question:

For 3.5:

d20 SRD wrote:

You can have spikes added to your armor, which allow you to deal extra piercing damage (see Table: Weapons) on a successful grapple attack.

Basically, succeeding on the opposed grapple roll is your "hit." You do normal unarmed damage, plus damage for the armor spikes (including enhancement bonuses and other damage bonuses that apply). You only apply the Str bonus to damage once, however.

For Pathfinder:

PRD wrote:

Damage: You can inflict damage to your target equal to your unarmed strike, a natural attack, or an attack made with armor spikes or a light or one-handed weapon.

(emphasis mine)

Again, succeeding on the CMB check vs. the opponent's CMD is your "hit." You don't get to stack unarmed and armor spike damage, though.

[Dark Immortal]

The unarmed fighter archetype received several grapple related features and makes a style feat available as well. While I prefer the brawler in almost every respect to the unarmed fighter, I concede that the unarmed fighter archetype is a superior choice for grapples and the added style feat is a very nice benefit as well.

Keep in mind that Brawlers do not begin with improved unarmed strike, so you would have to take the feat or dip monk to acquire it (or get it some other way).

Unarmed fighters receive the feat for free at level 1 as well as a style feat of their choice (with some restrictions). Perhaps the best style for an unarmed fighter, in this case would be snapping turtle style and taking a high str/dex and moderate con.

You could also be a proficient grappler with a high dex, agile maneuvers, weapon finesse (and weapon focus unarmed), and then needing only dex and con. Pure unarmed fighter is all that is needed in this case and several options for developing the grapple style exist beyond the style feats also (such as the jawbreaker line of feats). If you could afford a four level excursion in martial artist (a monk archetype that does not use ki and focuses on improved pressure point attacks and stunning fists) then you could have a truly nice looking character, in my opinion.

This all precludes just taking the tetori monk archetype and being a grappling beast by default.