Claws and One-Handed Weapon Attacks

I was looking over the new Swashbuckler class in the Advanced Class Guide playtest material and was wondering if having claws as a natural weapon in your off-hand allowed your class benefits that require you to be wielding a weapon in only one=hand with nothing in your other hand still apply or not? Do claws count as a weapon for this purpose?

Strictly speaking, claws don't count as "occupying" your hand. You can still hold a weapon or item in a hand with a claw and it counts as a free hand. You could even make an attack with the claw and it doesn't count against having a free hand. But sometimes, there are additional limitations such as Spell Combat where you not only must have a free hand, but also all your attacks must be made with one weapon wielded in the other hand and nothing else. This means you can't use the claw to both do the casting and make an attack. I don't know if there is similar verbiage for the Swashbuckler or not.

I didn't notice that kind of verbiage. It seems to work more like the Duelist prestige class in terms of language for the one weapon thing.

The Claws are natural Weapons. Using the claw and a weapon allows two two attacks, but the claw drops from a primary attack, to a secondary attack (-5 I think)
The claw could be used to attack, or cast a spell, but not both.

Kazan, where did you get that spell combat rule? I don't believe I have ever see that before.

I think that's specifically for some Magus class feature. Not sure which one.

Kazan, where did you get that spell combat rule? I don't believe I have ever see that before.

Magus: When using spell combat, can the weapon in my other hand be an unarmed strike or a natural weapon?

Yes, so long as the weapon is a light or one-handed melee weapon and is associated with that hand. For example, unarmed strikes, claws, and slams are light melee weapons associated with a hand, and therefore are valid for use with spell combat. A tail slap is not associated with a hand, and therefore is not valid for use with spell combat.

It must be a hand-associated weapon associated with the specific hand you choose as your "weapon" hand (your "other" hand) so you cannot pick the same hand for both casting and attacking just because it's not a weapon that occupies the hand (ie. unarmed strike, gauntlet, cestus, claw, etc). Presuming you have two hands, you must use one hand for your melee attacks and the opposite hand for your casting. If you're a one-armed Magus... you're gonna have a bad time.

Ahhh I see what you were driving at in the first post now.