Unarmed Striking Swashbuckler

[satio of the Steel Fang]

Hello

I want to know if over 10 levels my character concept could be pulled off

I'd like to craft a swashbuckler Who in place of using a man made weapon he fights using piercing unarmed strikes

I could see him with either levels of brawler or in monk

But not to sure if it's just to much of a gimic
And would be lack luster.

[Name Violation]

the Okayo Corsair archetype will help with the combo
you don't even need to be using piercing to make it work. you could work in something like slashing grace to keep up damage

[Melkiador]

I’m wondering what you want out of the swashbuckler for this. Or is this just for the challenge of making an unarmed swashbuckler.

[Azothath]

this idea proposes unarmed strike counts as a light or one-handed piercing weapon... it's similar to Perfect Strike feat and Perfect Strike APG FAQ

essentially this isn't going to work as the base swashbuckler class mandates the PC will be using a light or one-handed piercing weapon to regain panache. So some monk weapons, yes, unarmed strike, no. Swashbuckler finesse, weapon training, weapon mastery...
Swashbuckler class

the Swashbuckler arch - Okayo Corsair makes some alterations that match what you want but your weapons are constrained to light or one-handed weapon from the monk weapon group. So the pond of weapons for crit fishing is; temple sword, 9-section whip, [non-PFS]waveblade(18+), dbl chicken saber, (1d3 or 1d4)...

depending on what you want to do, a better route might be Monk or archetype, UnchMonk, Cleric/Warpriest(Irori, Monad, Korada, Lythertida, Akuma, Il'surrish).

[Mysterious Stranger]

I am wondering the same thing Melkiador is. I don’t really see the benefit of an unarmed swashbuckler vs a finesse monk or brawler.

[Belafon]

Sounds like a fun idea!

As Name Violation said, Okayo Corsair lets you do this right out of the box. The other decent choice I can think of is a single level dip in Monk (Master of Many Styles) to pick up Shark Style so your unarmed strikes can count as piercing. This also gets other monk goodies (possible AC bonus, better Unarmed Strike damage, etc.)

The downside to your concept is that you aren't going to crit as often as you would with an 18-20 weapon. Which in turn means you don't regain panache as often. Does that make it unplayable? No, of course not.

[Phoebus Alexandros]

satio of the Steel Fang wrote:

I want to know if over 10 levels my character concept could be pulled off

I'd like to craft a swashbuckler Who in place of using a man made weapon he fights using piercing unarmed strikes

Of course you can pull it off. It's just an added level of difficulty.

Whether you're Okayo Corsair or not, you're talking about a class that relies on critical hits, reducing a creature to 0 or fewer hit points, performing daring acts with "a low probability of success," or satisfying the requirements of dares (which cost feats) to refill the panache pool it needs for its features. By fighting unarmed, you reduce your chance of regaining panache via critical hits from 30 percent to 10 percent. That means you're going to rely more on delivering killing blows (or the equivalent), high-risk stunts, and restricting your feat choices.

If you're fine with that, great. What you lose out on combat efficiency, you might more than make up in thematic fun.

[Oli Ironbar]

Dip in constructed pugilist brawler gets you 19-20 slashing UAS that can be made keen, or x3 UAS that’s piercing.

Also ask your GM about using a waveblade. It regains panache as fast as anything and can be used to flurry.