I find the write-ups for various Style feats to be a bit confusing. Do they apply only to unarmed combat, or can one use all/most/some of them with manufactured weapons?
Take the Crane Style series of feats, for example. The obvious inspiration for that one would be the original Karate Kid movie, i.e., unarmed combat. The flavour text for Crane Style (UC p. 93) includes the words "your unarmed fighting techniques blend ...", but the actual rules text makes no mention of restricting the feat's use to unarmed combat. And both the flavour text and rules text of the next two feats in that chain (Crane Wing and Crane Riposte) make no mention of unarmed combat. Therefore my question: are these feats just for unarmed combat, or for all forms of combat?
I find the write-ups for various Style feats to be a bit confusing. Do they apply only to unarmed combat, or can one use all/most/some of them with manufactured weapons?
Take the Crane Style series of feats, for example. The obvious inspiration for that one would be the original Karate Kid movie, i.e., unarmed combat. The flavour text for Crane Style (UC p. 93) includes the words "your unarmed fighting techniques blend ...", but the actual rules text makes no mention of restricting the feat's use to unarmed combat. And both the flavour text and rules text of the next two feats in that chain (Crane Wing and Crane Riposte) make no mention of unarmed combat. Therefore my question: are these feats just for unarmed combat, or for all forms of combat?
If they don't specify unarmed combat, they work with armed combat too. The Crane trilogy is a good example of those, probably because they're defense-oriented. I believe most of the others do specify unarmed strikes in the actual rules text, but if they don't, you're good to go. Crane Riposte's AoO is a rare instance of getting a benefit that you can apply to a manufactured weapon; Panther Style and Snake Fang both specify UAS for their AoOs.
The feat Feral Combat Training will get you the usually-UAS-only benefits with natural weapons. (Nothing will get you them with manufactured weapons.)
Oh, and some styles have some UAS-only benefits and some non-weapon benefits. If you're using Dragon Style, for instance, you ignore difficult terrain when you charge (and so on) no matter what you're wielding, but you only get to add 1.5x Str to damage on an UAS.
And don't even think about using Pummeling Style with anything but UAS or the pathfinder developers will come to your house and beat you to death with clubs their fists.
Hope that clears things up.
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Fuzzy Wuzzy is correct.
Thematically, while many martial arts have a strong unarmed focus, their stances and such often also have benefits when using weapons, and some arts do involve training in both unarmed and weapon technique. The Improved Unarmed Strike prerequisite indicates that the feat's benefits are derived from training in unarmed combat even if they have broader application.
Thank you both for your answers! :)