Two-weapon fighting and Unarmed Strikes

[Thalin]

Let's take a monk who switched out flurry of blows for another feature, but wants to use two-weapon fighting with both unarmed strikes. Is this RAW (IE: PFS) legal? It states that unarmed strike counts as a light weapon for the purposes of unarmed strike, but can it count as both the "off" hand and the "on" hand?

[DonDuckie]

I am not sure what exactly you are asking :)

It is possible to use TWF while unarmed. That is: punching with both hands. You can't do it with one hand.

[lantzkev]

yes it's already been answered before...

check your faqs

[HaraldKlak]

Yes, you can TWF with two unarmed strikes. Flurry of blows even refer to TWF feats to explain how the extra attacks work.
The drawback compared to having flurry of blows, is that you are using your lower base attack bonus.

[Thalin]

Cool, ironically I did a lot of searches on the internet and could not find it. Wanted to make sure my character was legal. Thanks Iantzkev, should have checked the faq :).

[lantzkev]

Since you're the gm, you can also say "does it make sense that unarmed strike is a singular weapon and not say a fist or foot other fist or other foot?"

[Seraphimpunk]

remember ki extra attacks and some other abilities are when using 'flurry of blows' not making a full attack action, so you'd lose the ability to spend ki for extra attacks, as well as using a lower bab than flurry of blows.

[Kazaan]

Also, keep in mind that, while Monk unarmed strikes get full Str to damage even as off-hand attacks, Monk Weapons only get that property when used in FoB. So if your Monk has a Kama in each hand, the off-hand Kama still gets reduced strength if you're just using traditional TWF and you can't use the same weapon for both main and off-hand attacks.

[gourry187]

Actually the note where a monk foes full Str, even with off hand attacks is not listed under FoB. It is part of their unarmed strike so they should still do full Str with then.

[Seraphimpunk]

yeah, he said the monk gets it with their unarmed strike.

but when they pick up a monk weapon to use it for TWF outside of Flurry of Blows, since its standard TWF rules, main STR / offhnad 1/2 Str applies.

[Thalin]

Yeah, it's a Manuever Master; I combine flurry of manuevers and two-weapon fighting to get my attacks up (which I know I don't get the flurry bonuses for and take the -2, but those attacks are still fairly effective, given that the opponent is usually on the ground).

But then I started to worry since Unarmed attacks weren't technically in ANY hand if they could be "Two Weaponed". Probably just overthinking it :).

[Kazaan]

Yeah, it was ruled that "unarmed strike" is a completely abstract weapon that isn't required to use any particular part of the body. So it isn't a matter of "left fist, right fist" or "left foot, headbutt" but just "unarmed strike, unarmed strike" with the special caveat that it can be used for both main-hand attacks as well as off-hand attacks in the same round. Moreover, it still can be associated with a particular body part such as with Magus's Spell Combat which requires a hand-associated light or 1-h weapon (which disqualifies boot blades and tail swipes), but they said that an Unarmed Strike still has the capacity to be a specific appendage (ie. hand) if it benefits you.