My group is playing Iron Gods, and we've made it all the way to the 5th module and 14th level. Holy smokes, high-level PF gets complicated.
My current suite of combat feats is Improved Unarmed Strike, Power Attack, Combat Expertise, Dodge, Mobility, Improved Grapple, Improved Critical, and . . . Snake Style. So my unarmed strikes do piercing damage.
I'm thinking of picking up Hamatula Strike: http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/hamatula-strike-combat/
Now, clearly that feat is kinda badly written. (Technically you could shoot someone with a crossbow and grapple them, which while awesome, is probably not intended.) But help me out, please. Would I be able to:
1. Make a flurry of blows, which at this level gives me 5 attacks.
2. Hit with a piercing unarmed strike.
3. Initiate a grapple, and if I succeed my hand is STUCK IN HIS BODY! (Normally you'd take a -4 penalty to grapple using Hamatula Strike because you don't have two free hands, but I do, since I'm unarmed.)
4. We both are grappled, so he gets -4 Dex and I get -2 to attacks, which is kind of a wash. I continue making the rest of my flurry with the hand that isn't currently stuck in him.
5. Next turn, rather than 'maintain the grapple' as a standard action, I just make another flurry, and initiate a new grapple if I hit.
6. Potentially attack a second enemy with my spare hand and if I hit grapple him too. (Take the -4 penalty here because I no longer have two free hands.)
7. Potentially attack and grapple a third enemy with, say, a kick (also an unarmed strike that does piercing damage).
What out of that list works, by your understanding of the rules?
(Also, because we're fighting robots [which have hardness], I chose the steelbreaker archetype of brawler. It lets me attempt to find weak points in enemies to bypass hardness and DR. http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/hybrid-classes/brawler/archetypes/paizo-bra wler-archetypes/steel-breaker/ ... This has nothing to do with my question, but I really like the idea of punching into robots and ripping them apart from the inside out.)
Note about the Hamatula crossbow grapple below
1. checks out
2. checks out
3. checks out
4. checks out
5. checks out
6. checks out*
7. checks out (bralwer unarmed strike op)
* Actually if you were to play a non-humanoid race (like a tiefling) you wouldn't even take the -4 here since the penalty only applies to humanoids. For this same reason you cannot use hamutla strike with a crossbow as a humanoid.
"Humanoid creatures without two free hands attempting to grapple a foe take a –4 penalty on the combat maneuver roll" <-- this is the only (very tenuous) restriction on the range (within reach of your hands) at which you can grapple and it only applies to Humanoid creatures.
EDIT: also, snake style lets you boost your touch AC, like, alot. I never noticed that before, it's really good
It does indeed. 14 ranks of Sense Motive, +2 Wis mod, Skill Focus (Sense Motive), Snake Style, and a Seducer's Bane Bracelet gets me a d20+31 touch AC against one attack per round.
My fellow PCs jokingly call me the god of empathy.
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Killer Robot 34.672 makes its attack roll
RangerWickett stares imploringly into its optical sensors
Killer Robot 34.672 spontaneously generates a beating heart and cannot bring itself to hit the adorable RangerWickett
RangerWickett promptly rips Killer Robot 34.672's new heart out of its chest housing with their bare hands