Handwraps and claws

[Newtsong]

If my lizardfolk fighter has handwraps, do they grant their bonus to claw attacks because they provide "their benefits on unarmed attacks the character makes with her hands"?

I know a claw is not an unarmed strike.

I know an unarmed strike is not a natural weapon.

I assume an unarmed strike is an unarmed attack even if you have IUS (which makes it so you are not considered unarmed) because otherwise handwraps would be pretty pointless.

But is a claw an unarmed attack?

[Derklord]

No, unarmed strikes/unarmed attacks are strictly seperate from natural weapons.

Newtsong wrote:

I assume an unarmed strike is an unarmed attack even if you have IUS (which makes it so you are not considered unarmed) because otherwise handwraps would be pretty pointless.

Unarmed strike and unarmed attack are de facto interchangable terms. 'Unarmed attacks' are described as "Striking for damage with punches, kicks, and head butts" CRB pg. 182

What you're refering to is counting as being unarmed, i.e. whether you threaten squares in your natural reach. Despite the confusing name and descrition, that's something completely seperate. The handwraps don't care whether you have IUS or not, they effect all 'unarmed strike' attacks made with the fist (the pseudo-weapon which normally does 1d3 damage and allows iterative attacks).

[Newtsong]

Thank you for the help.

As a continuation on the theme of This Thread, is there any way for my lizardfolk's natural attacks to benefit from spells that target melee weapons (which apparently means manufactured melee weapons), such as our paladin's holy sword spell?

[Derklord]

Not that I know of, but most things don't need one - basically, natural weapons are, well, weapons.*
Some spells clearly intend to affect manufactured weapons, though, so it depends on the spell. Please note that Holy Sword is basically self-only, a Paladin could RAW cast it on their own claws, but not any other natural weapons, and not other characters' weapons, manufactured or natural.

*) Similar to the unarmed stuff, 'natural attack' and 'natural weapon' are interchangably used terms.

[Meirril]

Mainly you'd be looking at Amulet of Mighty Fists and (Greater) Magic Fang to boost natural attacks. Greater Magic Fang can also have Permanency cast on it, but you'd want one for each claw/bite/other natural weapon.

But lets pretend you're pushing 17th level and you've got 3 natural attacks you commonly use. You could get a +5 amulet of mighty fists...or you could locate a high level druid and someone that knows permanency to give you +4-5 on each of your natural weapons, and then use the bonuses from the Amulet of Mighty Fists to give yourself weapon special abilities instead of an enhancement bonus so your natural attacks would be the equivalent of an +8-10 weapon.

Of course Permanency and your Greater Magic Fang spells can be dispelled, so its risky. But a small collection of +2-3 Amulet of Mighty Fists that let you tailor your combat to the opponent could be very powerful. Ghost Touch + Bane: Undead could be very good in the right situation. Similarly if you had an amulet with Brilliant Energy you wouldn't want to equip it against every opponent.

[Fuzzy-Wuzzy]

Though it should be noted that a high-enhancement AoMF will let you bypass appropriate DR, while greater magic fang will only ever bypass DR/magic even at +5. Weigh the tradeoffs.

[Newtsong]

Thank you again.

I'm currently using an AoMF already. I just got curious about handwraps for my fighter after the thread about our paladin and warpriest.