Navy Blue's page

I'm taking a look at the Stunt and Strike alternate feature for operatives from the Character Operations Manual, and I'm fascinated by how useful many of these stunts are. And this brings up a question about the use of Stunt and Strike itself: Is it possible to benefit from these stunts when out of combat? Such a scenario could be: "I'm using Stunt and Strike with my unarmed strike to attack nothing, but I activate my Wordless Pidgin stunt to convey something to my buddies!"

Of course these have to be within reason. Such limits would be like using the Blindsense (Computers) stunt when you don't have access to a computer system or pulling off a Mighty Leap (Athletics) stunt when in zero-g. That I get, but still I ask, "Can these stunts be used outside of combat?"

If so, then the things operatives can do may have gotten more ridiculous.

Suppose a close combat type wanted to take the Improved Unarmed Strike as their main form of (melee) attack. Then, he had an idea to wear a Cetus Battleglove to augment his unarmed strikes, at least enough to make them lethal and non-archaic. No powered armor, no racial natural attacks, no armor storm style, just the Improved Unarmed Strike feat and a battle glove or two.

Is the result:

A.) A combination similar to being a monk or brawler in PF. Attack with the battle glove and deal the damage from improved unarmed strike (whichever is greater).

OR

B.) They're two separate weapons. Choose between either the battle glove or improved unarmed strike when making a melee attack or attack of opportunity.

I'm interested in making a soldier with the Steward Officer archetype, but the 4th level alternate class feature has me a bit perplexed. It's as follows:

Military Training (Ex) 4th Level
You gain one of the following feats as a bonus feat (you must meet all the prerequisites of the chosen feat): Advanced Melee Weapon Proficiency, Improved Unarmed Strike, or Longarm Proficiency. At 6th level, if you chose Improved Unarmed Strike at 4th level, you gain Improved Combat Maneuver. Otherwise, you gain the Weapon Specialization feat as a bonus feat for the same weapon type to which the bonus feat you gained at 4th level applies. If you already have all the listed feats, you can choose a bonus combat feat instead.

A soldier already gets proficiency with advanced melee weapons and longarms, so upon obtaining this feature you are forced to take Improved Unarmed Strike. Then at 6th level, you receive Improved Combat Maneuver.

So my questions are the following:

1: Can the list of feats be overwritten simply by taking improved unarmed strike before 4th level?

2: If the above scenario occurs, will I somehow receive 2 bonus combat feats (one at 4th and another at 6th), or will it just be that one at 4th level that's a bonus?