Simple question. Emei piercer does 1d3 damage by default, but its description says "The ring prevents the wielder from being disarmed and turns unarmed strikes into piercing attacks."
So if a Monk is wielding emei piercers, would the Monk still use its unarmed strike damage die? Or the default 1d3 of the emei piercer?
Default damage unless there is a rule to say otherwise.
first line read :
"This weapon is used to augment unarmed martial techniques. "
lets compare it to the 'Gauntlet':
"This metal glove lets you deal lethal damage rather than nonlethal damage with unarmed strikes. A strike with a gauntlet is otherwise considered an unarmed attack"
the gauntlet make someone who is unarmed to be able to deal lethal damage ,but he is still considered unarmed = if he doesn't have improved unarmed strike he provoke aoo and he can't threat if its his only weapon. it also has "Damage 1d2 (small), 1d3 (medium)" same as the emei.
i think the 1d2 small and 1d3 medium is set as the normal unarmed strike damage output. in gauntlet it make the attack lethal,but other then that change nothing. in emei since it say "and turns unarmed strikes into piercing attacks." it seem that like a gauntlet it counts the attack as unarmed strike only changes it into piercing damage
-other wise it would say it counts as ARMED strike. like in spiked gauntlet:
"An attack with a spiked gauntlet is considered an armed attack."
so it changes only what it say, emei count it as unarmed strike, but make it piercing (so without improved unarmed strike,like with a gauntlet you provoke aoo and do not threat, and a monk would deal his unarmed strike damage)
I think you are extrapolating too much, the EP is not called out as being an unarmed attack at any point. It doesn't make an unarmed strike do piercing damage or give the wielder the choice c.f. Cestus; it turns an unarmed strike into a piercing attack.
The full quote is "The ring prevents the wielder from being disarmed and turns unarmed strikes into piercing attacks."
You must be armed to be disarmed.
I can think of nothing in the rules that allows the Monks extra unarmed strike damage with any normal weapon. When flurrying Monk weapons allow you to bypass damage reduction, unarmed strikes do extra damage.
My knowledge is not exhaustive though and I've been proved wrong before.