During the course of their adventures, the PCs wound up separated by a Crypt Thing, and the Brawler, all on her own, encountered a Rhu-Chalik (Bestiary 5). It knocked her out and had more than enough time for the monster to copy her consciousness and send it off to its masters.
Now, 8 levels later, they're going to be confronting those masters. A collection of aberrations, mostly. I haven't worked out all the details yet. They have a copy of the brain of one PC (albeit, a copy of her 4th level brain).
So, knowing that they're going to be faced with an unarmed-striking hero (the rest of the party has changed composition enough since 4th level that that out of date information won't be useful regarding any of the rest of them), how might some enigmatic aliens prepare themselves. I don't want to be unfair to the Brawler, but I'd also like to unnerve her by having enemies know her, and ready with tactics tailored to her unarmed, power attacking, punchy style.
Basically what are some weakness of unarmed brawlers that I can exploit? Which ones might be too nasty, and would threaten to verge into being unfun?
I am not familiar with the bestiary 5 monsters and their special abilities.
So, you are mostly just extrapolating the info from previous combat data? And then taking advnatage of that?
The most obvious choice is probably DR. Assuming that the brawler doesn't have pummeling style, DR is a killer. A level 8 unarmed brawler can't even get through cold iron/silver. So either that or alignment DR should be a pain. Sure, you can golf bag a cestus... but it will not be as enhanced, and it will lack support from style feats and such.
Reach is a problem. Something with 10 to 15 feet of reach means that the brawler probably has to eat an AoO to get close. This is a weakness of most martials, but many of them could also use reach weapon options more effectively than a brawler... so yeah.
Brawler AC relies, in part, on their mobility. Besides dex bonuses, their dodge bonus to AC is also important. Dodge bonuses are lost when you would also lose your dex bonus. So overall, that is something to aim for. That should generally at least be a 3 AC loss between dodge and dex at level 8 (and 4 at level 9- maybe they level up during these events?).
So overall, that is something to aim for. That should generally at least be a 3 AC loss between dodge and dex at level 8 (and 4 at level 9- maybe they level up during these events?).
Ooh, sorry if I phrased that awkwardly, they're at 8 levels beyond 4 (i.e. 12th level), not at 8th level itself.
Denying Dex a isn't bad method at all, though I'm not sure if it feels particularly personal.
Then adamantine DR seems to be the thing to aim for, assuming no pummeling style.
Because everyone else that hits things can deal with that no problem (heck- at some level, adamantine weapons are the thing you really aim for with a weapon, and what you spend your money on). But for the brawler, it can be troublesome to use punches only and deal with that particular DR.
Of course, at level 12, you can grab the right fighter feats with martial flexibility to lessen such DR. Which is nice for the 'he has advnaced a lot since then' part. So play up the enemies- have them cast stoneskin, and then gloat since they don't think his 'puny fists' can hurt them anymore.
And then they say "IMPOSSIBLE! HOW COULD A MERE HUMAN DO THIS!"
So yes- have them pop all sorts on wands and potions to target the brawler, and then have the brawler overcome that with their later class abilities. It is the thought that counts. And this thought is "I want to murder you specifically".