Brawler's Fury: Starting at 2nd level, a brawler can make a brawler's flurry as a full-attack action. When doing so, a brawler has the Two-Weapon Fighting feat when attacking with any combination of unarmed strikes, weapons from the close fighter weapon group, or weapons with the "monk" special feature. She does not need to use two different weapons to use this ability.
Unarmed Strike:
At 1st level, a brawler gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. A brawler may attack with fists, elbows, knees, and feet. This means that a brawler may make unarmed strikes with her hands full. A brawler applies her full Strength modifier (not half ) on damage rolls for all her unarmed strike
Could a Brawler have a heavy shield for +2 AC, and use brawler's fury with 2 unarmed attacks? Unarmed Strike says that he can attack with both hands full, and brawler's fury says that it is any combination.
I ask because feats such as weapon focus, weapon specialization, and Beiler's bite work best with 2 unarmed attacks. And at the same time, for a Str character who only gets light armor, AC is lacking without a heavy shield.
Yes, she can---she's using one arm twice, or maybe using her feet instead. Flurry specifically allows that.
That's pretty awesome. It certainly saves on needing improved shield bash, and let's feats stack up better. Thank you
Although you might end up preferring to go with the shield. One extra feat lets you get 2 handed attacks during the flurry. The str bonus doesn't increase, but the power attack does. You can get a total of x3 power attack across your two hands, basically. That is compared to the x2 of light weapons like unarmed strikes in the same flurry.
So while it might be a nice option until improved shield bash at a later, you might prefer shield bash in the end. Particularly if AC is an issue (since unarmed strikes are usually upgraded with an item that uses the same slot as common AC boosting item).
And it is usually more expensive to upgrade unarmed strikes due to the amulet of might fists as well. One of the advantages of a flurry is that you can TWF with a single weapon... so you only need to upgrade a single shield to get AC (and thus you can afford a better enhancement much quicker, and that directly translates to better attack/damage). In comparison, the amulet of might fists basically costs the same as two upgraded weapons. So you would typically be able to afford a +2 weapon while unarmed strikes would be stuck with the +1 amulet for a long time.
For shield bashing...he'd need improved shield bash, power attack...and shield spikes, right? Because he'd need armor enchantment for the shield and a weapon enchantment for the spikes.
Well, he needs the AC enhancement anyway if he wants it to serve as AC during the unarmed stuff.
Power attack would likely also come up with the unarmed build as well, since I am fairly certain that getting full power attack on flurries is one of the mechanical advantages used by this class for damage.
Overall, the only special cost of admission here is the improved shield bash feat, which generally seems worth it due to the value of a 2 handed close weapon on brawler that also gives AC. Unarmed can of course be competitive, that that usually requires different investments, like style feats.