Do Monster Attacks Count as Unarmed Attacks?

[MajorSarigar]

The Fury aspect barbarian receives Raging Resistance against "physical weapon damage, but not physical damage from other sources (such as unarmed attacks)". My question is, in Pathfinder 2E, do monster attacks with their claws/jaws/tentacles/spikes/horns etc. count as weapons, or as unarmed attacks?

[Eltacolibre]

Unarmed attacks, some monsters have weapons but it is usually specified in their entries.

[Azurespark]

I would say yes, claws, jaws, etc. are unarmed attacks.

If we look at the animal instinct barbarian, when you rage you gain the chosen animal's unarmed attack(s) from table 3-3. And the attacks from that table are fists, jaws, claws, horns. And they all have the unarmed trait.

[The Gleeful Grognard]

They don't have the unarmed trait but they are indeed unarmed attacks, both by the description of the unarmed trait in the CRB as well as the frequent mentions in the first chapter of the Bestiary.

Further supporting this look at the ghost entry on page 166
"all ghosts have a ghostly hand unarmed strike"
then look at the ghostly hand attacks, no unarmed trait.

(the unarmed trait is on page 283 of the CRB)

[Azurespark]

I was referring to the animal instincts (pg 86 of the CRB). But I guess that wasn't really the best place to look.

[Bidmaron]

What are the consequences? If it doesn't have the trait of unarmed, then any rules applicable to unarmed wouldn't apply, right? The trait has to be there?

[Eltacolibre]

Monsters and NPCs aren't written like players.

It is usually pretty obvious if an attack is a weapon or unarmed:

Example of two attacks:

Melee [one-action] fist +14 (agile, finesse, good, magical), Damage
3d6+1 bludgeoning plus 1d6 good

Obviously an unarmed attack above.

Melee [one-action] longsword +14 (versatile P), Damage 1d8+6 slashing

This is obviously a weapon attack.

[MajorSarigar]

So a Fury barbarian's Raging Resistance only applies against manufactured weapons, not against any sort of natural weapons? That is weird, and weirdly written. Given how much emphasis they put on the difference between unarmed attacks and weapon attacks, and that historically, monster natural attacks have been considered to be armed with a weapon, it's strange that they left this unclear.

[Eltacolibre]

Not really that unclear, they literally went out of their ways to say that Unarmed attacks are not weapons in 2e.

p.283 wrote:

Unarmed: An unarmed attack uses your body rather
than a manufactured weapon. An unarmed attack isn’t a
weapon, though it’s categorized with weapons for weapon
groups, and it might have weapon traits. Since it’s part of
your body, an unarmed attack can’t be Disarmed. It also
doesn’t take up a hand, though a fist or other grasping
appendage follows the same rules as a free‑hand weapon.

It is repeated so much all over the corebook, they really want to make sure that there is no confusion.

This is what the bestiary says about melee attacks from the monsters:

Bestiary wrote:

Melee [one-action] (traits; some weapon traits, such as deadly, include
their calculations for convenience) The name of the weapon
or unarmed attack the creature uses for a melee Strike,
followed by the attack modifier and traits in parentheses

[DeadDMWalking]

So Raging Resistance isn't supposed to apply against 'monsters' like wolves and dragons, but it is supposed to apply against 'civilized opponents' like hobgoblins? That seems weird to me, too.