Horcs, Choking, and FCB

[Spermy The Cat]

Afternoon folks.

I have a Half-orc Strangler in Society, and I've noticed something odd. To get to the meat of it, the Strangler archetype for Brawlers lose their scaling unarmed strikes in exchange for dealing sneak attack damage during a grapple, ignoring the fact that you have to retake Improved Unarmed Strike to begin grappling. However, one of the options for a Half-orc as an FCB is to "Add ¼ to the brawler’s effective level to determine her unarmed strike damage."

How does that work with the Stranglin'? Do I slowly regain my punch damage?

[Java Man]

Well a 1st level and 20th level strangler have the same unarmed damage, so that fcb does zero for you. There are plenty of other fcbs that are useless to some archetypes or class options.

[Spermy The Cat]

So I should stick with the human, then?

[Weirdo]

If your only reason for choosing Half-orc is the racial FCB, yes, take human.

However, if you like the other half-orc racial abilities, it's perfectly reasonable to just take the HP or skill point for your FCB.

[Serisan]

Depends on the objective. If the goal is the extra feat, then yes. If it's for the FCB, then the Half-Orc can just poach the human FCB.