Im looking to play a warpriest of irori to convert one of my old 1e characters to 2e but im having a problem. The character is supposed to be quite melee focused but am I correct in assuming the martial focused warpriest feats (emblazon armament and divine weapon) as well as the vast majority of martial cleric spells (which affect weapons) dont actually work for an unarmed cleric?
Is unarmed or fist treated as a weapon in this edition for the purpose of these features?
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Unarmed attacks are not weapons and do not work for weapon abilities unless specifically called out. Sometimes this is done via affecting Handwraps or all melee Strikes, but the ability has to say so. Again, unarmed attacks do not count as a weapon.
Also, fighting unarmed is quite difficult except for Monks & Animal Barbarians. Even after investment, it's still often better simply to pick up a good weapon and smack the enemy (which can be a deflating realization after working on a build, right?).
A PF1 Warpriest doesn't translate well into the PF2 Warpriest (which is more like a high defense PF1 Cleric). That full set of spells puts a high tax on one's other abilities (all of them). And it'll strain your spells simply to compete with a normal martial character. Again, fairly deflating, especially since those spell would work even better on a martial ally.
Best option IMO is to play a martial class and reskin it as having those skills through divine providence (a description ultimately with no mechanical ramifications). Fighters & Champions make good foundations, but for Irori Monk would serve best (of course). Then take a Cleric Dedication or the ki feats as divine abilities for more of a "pseudo-Warpriest" feel.
Your Warpriest could take the Monk or Martial Artist Dedication, but then it'd take awhile for your PC to get up to speed w/ their attacks, and they'd still be fairly inferior in melee (again due to getting all that sweet spellpower). Would not recommend.