Note; I'm writing this ignoring the ever-popular Gnoll/Kholo bite and the Lizardfolk options. I'm more asking about the ones I hear less about.
I have been spit-balling some characters while I wait for my players to arrive and became fixated on having non-monk classes use what their parents gave them. But as I build characters there's been a few oddballs. So I wanted to ask the community if they built any characters using those options? I have been writing some notes on what I think about the options I was looking at for the army of fighters/rangers/rogues/swashbucklers clogging up my Pathbuilder app, and would love to see what people have come up with.
SLAG MAY - 1d6 Slashing, grapple, and cold iron. Grapple seems like a wasted trait since you are already unarmed. If you are going unarmed, you are probably picking up a lifting belt for the athletics bonus anyway so being able to use +1 from hand wraps isn't major. Making a weapon cold iron isn't that expensive compared to other precious metals. Use case; toxicologist alchemist that is strength-based and needs a simple slashing weapon for injury poison? It competes with a cold iron spear, I think. Later changeling feats can add 1d4 persistent mental damage on crits and dazzle maneuver. Can use Clawdancer Archetype.
STRONGJAW KOBOLD / RAZORTOOTH GOBLIN / NAGAJI FANGS / IRONHOOF CENTAUR - 1d6 Piercing (bludgeoning for centaur), finesse, unarmed. Not bad but it competes with the ever-present rapier for dexterity builds like rogue/swashbuckler. It depends on what you value more; unarmed versatility or Deadly D8. Goblins and Centaurs can remove the finesse trait to make it a 1d8 weapon with a feat which is a neat gimmick for a fighter and has other feats to support it like Ankle Biter and Hungry Goblin. Kobolds have no such support. Still, it's a neat visual to have a kobold thief backstabbing with bite attacks, or a goblin swashbuckler disarming people with their teeth.
CLAWED CATFOLK - 1d6 Slashing, finesse, unarmed. Same as Kobolds/Gobbos, basically. Has the persistent damage feat like changelings, but with the weaker poison damage type. Being explicitly a hand-based unarmed weapon it might be easier to use with athletics maneuvers depending on your GM. Maybe your GM won't agree that you can disarm with your goblin mouth (is a mouth a grasping appendage?), but you can with your cat hands. Can use Clawdancer Archetype.
LESHY SEEDPOD - 1d4 Piercing, 30-foot range. Seems like a neat backup weapon for dexterity builds that might want it. They are essentially free throwing knives you don't need to draw, which could help rogues or swashbucklers who can't reach their foes. It's not a weapon, so it sadly can't be poisoned. Toxicologist probably would have appreciated the action economy if they could. Has one feat to give it persistent bleed.
KITSUNE FOXFIRE / KITSUNE RETRACTABLE CLAWS 1d4 Electric, Cold, or Fire, 20-foot range on the foxfire. Like Leshy Seedpod, but with a better damage type, less range, and can benefit from critical weapon specialization. It's actually pretty cool for a rogue. Retractable Claws is basically normal fists but slashing damage. Can use Clawdancer Archetype.
NAGAJI SPIT I think this might be my least favorite of the ranged unarmed attacks? Hooded Nagaji heritage gives 1d4 poison damage which is already commonly resisted and is a mere 10-foot range. You know what else is 10-foot range? The other heritage choice that increases your better fangs attack to 10-foot range. You can get a feat to spit on your own teeth or weapon to add damage at level 9 which I think is the actual use case for the heritage? There's also a feat that buffs the poison spit (or gives poison spit if you aren't a hooded Nagaji) but it just adds Dazzle to spit crits.
IRON FISTS ORC - This modifies your existing Fists attack instead of adding a new one. 1d4 Bludgeoning fists like normal but it loses non-lethal. Gains the shove trait for some reason, despite already being able to shove because you are unarmed.
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Okay, so giving an ancestry attack a combat trait like shove or grapple does actually do something, though - it allows you to add the item bonus from Handwraps of Mighty Blows to your checks, rather than needing a separate item to boost your Athletics.
Fangs/Hooves/Anything that doesn't take up a hand attacks are great for Thaumaturges that don't want to use a Weapon Implement. Having two free hands means two implements can be active all the time, which depending on the ones you're using can help a lot in terms of keeping bonuses up or keeping effects active.
The Cold Iron trait from Slag May can be extremely impactful at low levels, before cold-iron weapons are relatively cheap. Build a Slag May Monk, lean into ki-powers (or stances that don't require a specific strike), and just blender all the things if you in a fey or demon themed adventure. Sure 9th level Monk class feature will mostly obsolete it, but in the game I've been playing, its felt totally worth it.
Ironhoof centaur does quite well as a druid, BTW. The Steelhoof feat increases the damage to 1d8 and they gain access to Trample later, leaving the hands free for a shield (probably a caster's targe with a reinforcing rune) and a staff.
Plus, the Skilled Herbalist and Herbal Forager ancestry feats can act like a limited version of the herbalist archetype.
Minotaurs make great melee combatants. Large for increased reach (which can be improved to 10 ft reach with Stretching Reach) and the horns do 1d8 piercing damage (plus 1d6 bleed with Goring Charge).
Those d6 finesse attacks can be useful for rogues and swashbucklers.
Okay, so giving an ancestry attack a combat trait like shove or grapple does actually do something, though - it allows you to add the item bonus from Handwraps of Mighty Blows to your checks, rather than needing a separate item to boost your Athletics.
True. Does the bonus only apply to explicitly spelled out maneuvers (Slag May's grapple for example) or does it also apply to regular unarmed attacks like fists with the unarmed trait that imply it? Do potency runes on a gauntlet apply to maneuvers? If it applies to regular fist attacks, whats the point of Slag May claws having grapple since you don't lose your fist attacks?
I always forget potency runes apply because my players love lifting belts, bestial mutagens, and armbands of athleticism, and the bonuses don't stack with the weapon potency bonus. But you can get the +1 handwraps 2 levels before the lifting belt.
The Cold Iron trait from Slag May can be extremely impactful at low levels, before cold-iron weapons are relatively cheap. Build a Slag May Monk, lean into ki-powers (or stances that don't require a specific strike), and just blender all the things if you in a fey or demon themed adventure. Sure 9th level Monk class feature will mostly obsolete it, but in the game I've been playing, its felt totally worth it.
Funny enough, the character that spawned this post was a Slag May Changling. I was experimenting with Clawdancer Swashbuckler (gymnast) builds and I needed claws for access to the archetype. The silly idea I settled on was using the new Kobold lore to justify a changeling kobold. He's from a warren that worked for an Iron Hag, using wrestling to kidnap people for the Hag's dungeon. The claws aren't finesse so it can't use precise strikes and the cold iron doesn't carry over to claw stance, but I figured using them as cold iron claws is more of a backup weapon for dealing with fey than the main weapon.
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Giving an ancestry attack a combat maneuver trait also allows using that combat maneuver with the unarmed attack's body part. GMs may vary and may override this, but I don't see a good argument in the rules that allows Disarm with a Goblin Bite attack or Grapple with Sacred Nagaji tail attack.
The rule argument against allowing it is that all of these combat maneuvers require a free hand. They don't require an unarmed attack option to be available. Characters can make Fist attacks with both of their hands full by using their feet to make kicks or their head to make headbutt attacks. But even with the Fist attack still available, they aren't allowed to do Grapple or Trip maneuvers (for example) with their hands full.
For some unarmed attacks like Catfolk Claws or Slag May claws are using your hand anyway, so your hand needs to be empty in order to use the claws - so the hand is also empty in order to do combat maneuvers.
Personally I think that the Sacred Nagaji tail attack not having the Grapple trait is the one that is the most disappointing.
An example of this being used is the Snaring Anadi heritage. All that the heritage does is give the Grapple and Trip traits to the ancestry attack.
Unarmed attacks with maneuver traits would be useful anytime you have an ability that lets you use a maneuver as a follow-up if you strike with an attack with that trait, or otherwise lets you strike+maneuver, but I'm not sure how many of those there actually are in the game. A two-action MAP-reduced Strike+Maneuver combo is kind of a gimmee concept.
Attacks that don't require or fill up hands are obviously useful for the many features that use up a hand constantly or temporarily. A hands-free agile attack when you have both hands full is very nice to have, especially if you have no better third action.
Claw Dancer makes several ancestry unarmed attacks look pretty viable. Beyond that, lots of builds need a hand free to strike but not necessarily for the rest of the round; archers and alchemists are the most obvious. And if you're already investing in unarmed attacks, you can double dip your handwraps to get some additional damage type options. And you don't need to draw them. Some are basically as good as martial weapons, but you don't need martial weapon proficiency for them.
So basically they are ok back up options. Alchemists and claw dancers are otherwise the only things I can think of which would rely on them regularly.
You may also want to look at the thlipit contestant archetype for some interesting options.
You may also want to look at the thlipit contestant archetype for some interesting options.
That looks fun!
Anything with fangs- You want to play a gorilla animal totem barbarian, you want options in case you can't rage, and you feel like a backup sword would be lame.
I know this is the path I went for when writing up a grappler nagaji.
Oh, that's a good point I didn't consider. A razortooth goblin crossbow ranger/gunslinger would always have a melee weapon available for flanking/breaking grapples.
Ranged unarmed attacks like the Seedpods are useful. You get to use handwraps to boost them with runes. You can still have your hands full with other equipment.
They create exceptions to rules. A lot of the writers haven't considered that unarmed attacks can be ranged. Depending on how you feel about such exploits of course.
I consider ancestry unarmed attacks for any martial based shield character I play. I find that the utility of having a free hand more useful than a d8 weapon with a trait or two.
Also, if I'm playing in ABP game, having a non hand based unarmed attack (like a jaws or tail strike) is sometimes useful as an alternative damage type or in a situation where you can't have weapons (your party was imprisoned or a social event like a party).