| Imaflying |
I know this is a question that´s been already discussed more than a hundred times before but the last thread I found regarding this was over two years old so I thought perhaps there was some kind of concensus already reached by this points.
First thing first, according to the PRD (2/4/2015):
Gauntlet: This metal glove lets you deal lethal damage rather than nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes. A strike with a gauntlet is otherwise considered an unarmed attack.Strike, Unarmed: A Medium character deals 1d3 points of nonlethal damage with an unarmed strike. A Small character deals 1d2 points of nonlethal damage. A monk or any character with the Improved Unarmed Strike feat can deal lethal or nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes, at his discretion. The damage from an unarmed strike is considered weapon damage for the purposes of effects that give you a bonus on weapon damage rolls.
An unarmed strike is always considered a light weapon.
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By these two descriptions I can interpret two different things:
A)A gauntlet lets you deal lethal damage with unarmed strikes. Attacking with a gauntlet is not considered an unarmed strike, since gauntlet and unarmed strike are listed as two different weapons that share same group (unarmed attack).
B)A gauntlet lets you deal lethal damage with unarmed strikes. Attacking with a gauntlet is considered an unarmed strike, meaning it benefits itself of its own description.
Going by A would mean I must wear a gauntlet in my right hand in order to do lethal damage with my left hand or legs.
In other words, a gauntlet doesn´t benefit from it´s own description. Not even Improved Unarmed Strike would help since the feat only mentions unarmed strikes in its benefits.
Also, striking with a gauntlet would mean provoking AoO even if using the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. Since a gauntlet is not an unarmed strike. (a gauntlet strike?)
Going by B seems to make more sense, but on the other hand contradicts what many other point out that gauntlets are not unarmed strikes. Also it would benefit from special circumstances like monk´s scaling damage or special feats that require the use of unarmed strikes.