Unarmed attacks, natural weapons, and a monk's robe

[ShadowcatX]

I was wondering if an alchemist with a base attack bonus of 8, using the feral mutagen and a monk's robe could make a pair of unarmed attacks (+8, +3) then his normal natural weapon attacks (claw, claw, bite). If so would the multiattack feat reduce the penalty to hit on these attacks? Is the monk's robe even necessary or could he get by with just the improved unarmed strike feat?

I've tried googling and searching the forums but my searching ability seems to be fail today.

[hogarth]

Sure, that should work (kick/kick/claw/claw/bite at +8/+3/+3/+3/+3 or +8/+3/+6/+6/+6 with Multiattack). Having Improved Unarmed Strike is sufficient, although your attack would only do 1d3 base damage.

[Bobson]

It's doable, but it's not very efficient. In addition to the attack penalty to the natural weapons, you also only do half strength modifier on each instead of full strength. So you're trading three +8 attacks at full strength, for three +6 attacks at half strength, and two attacks at +8 and +3 at full strength. Best case scenario, you've traded Str*3 for Str*3.5, but you're more likely to miss with one of the full strength attacks and end up at Str*2.5 (and slightly more likely to miss with the natural attacks, which would drop you to *2 or lower). The extra 1d3 damage from each of the unarmed attacks (1d4 if large) is not enough to be worth that.

The monk's robe would help somewhat, but bringing the damage up to 1d8, but if you're going with the feral mutagen, you're probably going to be strength-focused, which means you lose more from dropping to Str*2.5 than you'd gain from an extra 1d8.

[ShadowcatX]

The character's also going to be a vivisectionist so missing out on the damage from strength isn't as much of a problem as it would be for another character, but it is an interesting point. I always just thought that more attacks always meant better but that's not necessarily the case.