IMPROVED UNARMED STRIKE FEATS [IUS]
Improved Unarmed Strike feats are a new grouping that was created to deal with the fact that there are a whole bunch of feats that require IUS. As such it isn't an official grouping of feats. IUS was chosen because it includes just about everything a monk would want to do with unarmed strike, yet includes a number of feats that aren't available to the Monk as a class feature. Also, all feats that require stunning fist and deflect arrows are included, because both those feats require IUS, thus is part of the feat tree.
Ability Modification
Feats: Feed the Hungry Slaad.
I'm of mixed feelings about this feat. If I was a spellcaster, and I had to get the prereqs, I'd pick it up. Untyped bonus to my main spellcasting attribute has it's uses. As a Melee fighter, it's limited. Extra wisdom can help a monk with stunning fist DC and your AC, but it's basically only for one fight a day. So if you absolutely NEED an extra +4 to a mental attribute, then hey, look at this.
Anti-Arrows
Feats: Deflect Arrows, Snatch Arrows, Spinning Defense
Deflect arrows is the start of this short feat tree. It lets you stop one ranged attack from a projectile or thrown object. Snatch arrows lets you catch the projectile and try and attack your attacker with it. Spinning defense takes deflect arrows to the next level letting you block ALL arrows. But the arrow attractor ASA and all arrows will home in on you, then you can casually deflect them all. Frankly, not the most impressive feat tree. Much more effective for a low level character.
Anti-Shapeshifter
Feats: Disrupting Strike.
You have to be a shifter to take this feat, but the way this feat reads, it should force anyone who is shape shifted into their original form. Now, the exact way it works and how far it will work is sort of up to the DM. It isn't worded the way I would like. As it stands, by RAW, it only works on the shapeshifter subtype. It should work on anyone who has shape shifted/polymorphed. It should work on someone using Wild Shape, but technically, no. Talk to your DM and see how it works in your DM's mind before you take this feat.
Anti-Spellcaster
Feats: Anchoring Blow, Pressure Point Strike, Throat Punch
If you are making an anti-spellcaster build, these are some feats to look at. You can also use any feat that helps with tripping, grappling, and blinding/deafening, but these feats focus more on the specific problem of anti-Spellcaster. Anchoring blow is a lockdown feat that stops people from using magical means to escape. Teleport, dimension door, plane shift, all spells that put distance between you and your attacker. Pressure point strike can actually stop someone being able to cast any spell or use a spell-like ability for 1d4 rounds. Period. In some ways, that's even better then an antimagic field. Finally is throat punch, which gives a spellcaster who needs verbal components a 50% chance of spell failure.
Attack of Opportunity
Feats: Defensive Throw, Grappling Block.
If your enemy attacks you, you get an AoO trip attack. It's like getting a free attack and great for any lockdown build. Grappling block gives you a free AoO to disarm your target once a round.
Blinding/Deafening
Feats: Eye Rake, Falling Star Strike, Pressure Point Strike, Ring the ear, Thunderclap.
Eye rake, Falling Star Strike, and Pressure Point strike all can render the target blind for a few rounds. Pressure point strike, ring the ear, and thunderclap can all render a target deaf. Blind targets have a hard time hitting you or casting spell with a range because they have no line of sight. Deaf targets have a -4 to initiative and 20% chance of spell failure. So this is useful against spellcasters. However, the ability to blind is the better of the two. Alas, The only feat I recommend is Pressure Point Strike. It does everything you need.
Bull Rush/Moving the Enemy
Feats: Forceful Staff Strike, Martial Throw, Great Throw, Thunderclap.
Thunderclap is difficult to get, and only knocks the targets down. Not worth it. Forceful staff strike allows you to attack with then bull rush someone with your quarterstaff. Sort of defeats the purpose of using it with unarmed strikes, eh? Martial throw and great throw allow you to toss people around and or change places with your target. Great throw is the better of the two. If you hold a reach weapon in your off hand when you use it, you get to throw someone as far as your threatened area. In theory, it is possible to toss someone straight up. With a little work, a 25-foot reach is not out of the question. That's an extra 2d6 falling damage. Or of you are near a cliff, toss him off!
Charging
Feats: Flying Kick.
If you are into charging, this feat is the bomb. 1d12 extra damage, and the way it reads, I think it applies to every unarmed strike you make on a charge. Check with your DM, as there is some room for interpretation.
Damage Boost
Feats: Dragonmarked Fist, Empty Hand Mastery, Fist of Iron, Sapphire Fist, Hammer Fist, Superior Unarmed Strike, Water Splitting Stone.
Honorable Mention: Improved Natural Attack (This feat does increase the damage of your unarmed strike, but does not require IUS to take.)
Dragonmarked Fist, if you combine it with something that allows you to renew your Action point pool, like Aberrant Dragonmark Gift, will allow you to inflict maximum damage on an unarmed attack. Add ability damage to your unarmed strike and it will get disgusting. Empty Hand Mastery increases your "size" as far as your unarmed damage is concerned. However, it has one hell of a feat tax. Fist of iron is spend a SF and add +1d6 damage to one attack. Meh. Sapphire Fist is add Essentia to your unarmed damage. Meh. Hammer fist makes your unarmed strike a two handed attack. Superior Unarmed Strike adds monk levels to your effective level for determining unarmed damage, or gives a non-monk a special advancement chart. Water splitting stone gives you extra damage, but only to overcome DR.
Damage Shield
Feats: Fiery Ki Defense.
If you are into damage shields, or grappling people, then this won't hurt. You burn a Stunning fist use, you burst into flames. If you like to pretend you are in a Dragonball Z episode, then this is on your list of feats to pick up.
Damage: Cold Iron
Feats: Earth Fist.
Earth fist requires you to be touching the ground. If so, your unarmed strike is treated as cold iron. For 400 gp you can buy cold iron knuckle caps. Just saying.
Damage: Evil
Feats: Vile Ki Strike.
Vile damage is hard to heal, but this feat does very little vile damage. I suppose if you were an NPC this would be useful for wearing the PCs down.
Damage: Fire
Feats: Fiery Fist, Fiery Ki Defense.
Fiery Fist lets you set your unarmed attacks on fire and do an extra 1d6 of fire damage per blow for a round. If it wasn't fire damage, it'd be almost useful. However, it stacks with other sources of fire damage so if you have a NoNW with some fire inflicting attacks, maybe you can get it up high enough to actually over come fire resistance. At low levels, useful. It becomes increasingly less worthwhile the higher your level is. Now Fiery Ki Defense sets your entire body on fire, but it technically only affects targets who attack you. So you can't grapple someone for damage.
Damage: Holy
Feats: Holy Strike, Sanctify Ki Strike.
Not that impressive. They let you do extra holy damage on your unarmed strikes. Unless you are a paladin/monk, I wouldn't even read them.
Damage: Lawful
Feats: Axiomatic Strike.
Axiomatic Strike is poorly worded. Technically it allows you to spend a stunning fist and make an attack, but only against chaotic targets, and it does an extra 2d6. This is clearly not the intent. It should read in a fashion that you spend a stunning fist and it adds 2d6 damage to your unarmed strike that you are about to make. Clarify with your DM as to how it works before you look at it. The intent is clear. The RAW is open to abuse if you look at it sideways.
De-Buff
Feats: Hazing Strike, Pressure Point Strike, Stone Monkey.
Stone Monkey is some minor Debuffs and not really worth looking at. Hazing strike removes people from Rage, Psionic Focus, Altered Mental States, that sort of thing. It's a very strange and unique Debuff that may be of use in limited situations. It's more of a cool NPC feat then a PC one, however. Now Pressure Point Strike, it does everything. It's one of the most awesome feats ever. If you are a monk using stunning fist, just go take it.
Defense
Feats: Clever Wrestling, Cunning Sidestep, Defensive Metered Step, Fear No Binds, Mighty Works Mastery I, The Gentle Way, Word Give Form Mastery, Spinning Defense.
This is a grab bag of defensive feats that really don't have anywhere else to go. Cleaver Wrestling helps protect you against grapples. Cunning sidestep helps protect you from bull rushes. Defensive Metered Step gives you extra protection against one target. The more he misses, the harder it is for him to hit you. Fear no binds protects you against grapples and being tied up. Mighty Works Mastery I gives you +2 Dodge bonus to AC. The Gentle Way makes you completely and utterly immobile. Which is just WEIRD when you think about it. You could stop falling. You could hold up a mountain on your back. You could stop a ship from sinking. Word Given Form Mastery is difficulty to get, but it does give you 50% concealment against one target. If you want to work at it, it's great for someone who only fights one target at a time. And spinning defense protects you against arrows and gives you a +1 to AC when you perform a total defense maneuver.
Disarm
Feats: Grappling Block, Kahiko, Kahiko Mastery.
Kahiko is a minor bonus and sucks. Grappling block ironically does not grapple, but allows you to wrestle an attack's weapon out of his hands. It is awesome. Make sure to hold a triple dagger in your off hand when you do this. The triple dagger gives you a +3 to disarm, and you don't even technically need to know how to use it. Check with your DM on that one, however. Still, you get to disarm people before they even get to hit you as a AoO. Pure awesome.
Flat-Footed
Feats: Feign Weakness, Unbalancing Strike
There are two feats which can make your target flat-footed. Feign Weakness sucks. Don't get it. It's a slow form of suicide to use. You waste an action getting one attack at a flat-footed target. In exchange he gets a free attack on you and next round he can make a full attack. And if your enemy chooses not to make his free attack on you, you just wasted your action for the round. NEVER TAKE FEIGN WEAKNESS. Now unbalancing Strike, that simply knocks someone off balance and renders them flat-footed. Great for working with sneak attackers.
Grappling
Feats: Choke Hold, Earth's Embrace, Fear No Binds, Improved Grapple, Kahiko, Kahiko Mastery, Scorpion's Grasp, Stone Monkey.
Grappling is a complicated process and few people understand it. I plan on having an entire Grappling feat handbook later. This is a good portion of the feats as it stands. First you need improved Grapple, so you can grapple. Kahiko/Kahiko Master are very expensive to get for rather minor boosts. I'd skip them. Choke Hold is actually quite nasty, as if you get lucky, it renders your target unconscious, which is one step away from death. Fear no binds is AWESOME, as it allows you to grapple AND attack other people while you grapple. Earth's Embrace is an extra 1d12 points of damage a round, so that's just awesome right there. Scorpion's Grasp lets you hold multiple targets at the same time. So combine that with feat no binds and Choke hold, you have a monk who grapples and chokes two people at a time while still beating up other people with his FEET. I just love the image. Stone Monkey lets you sort of cripple people, kinda. It's not really that interesting.
Incapacitation
Feats: Choke Hold, Freezing the Lifeblood, Paralyzing Fist.
These three feats are the feats that you use to render a target helpless. All three are just one step away from Coup de Grace. Choke Hold eventually makes the target unconscious, but does take some time. Make sure you confirm with your DM about grapples rendering a target silent and unable to cry out for help. Freezing the lifeblood paralyzes the target, as does paralyzing fist. Paralyzing fist take longer to take effect, however. All three are complicated, both in cost and how to use, so if you wish to go this route, you need to examine the feats themselves.
Lockdown
Feats: Archon Flurry, Pain Touch, Stone Monkey.
These three feats limit the number of actions your target can make. Archon Flurry is the granddaddy of them all. There is no defense, except not take a point of damage from you. Once you hurt the target for even one HP, you can limit them to 1 move or standard action a round. It's awesome. Pain touch makes the target nauseated, which limits your target to only move actions. Stone monkey slows down your target so he can't move as fast and takes negatives to rolls to use his injured limbs. Stone Monkey fails to impress me.
Maneuvers
Feats: Falling Sun Strike.
I don't know much about maneuvers from Tome of Battle. Maybe it's useful, don't know.
Mind Control
Feats: Mind-Shattering Strike.
Enough to make me play a Kuo-toa. You hit your target, they make a saving throw, or they go an attack their ally. Holy crap, that's evil. It burns through
Multiclassing
Feats: Ascetic Hunter, Ascetic Knight, Ascetic Mage, Ascetic Psion, Ascetic Rogue.
I'm going to make a different section about multiclassing feats. That said, these are the feats that all require IUS. If you are multiclassing in Monk and something else, review these, but none of them really jump out at me.
Multiple Attacks
Feats: Circle Kick, Roundabout Kick, Snap Kick.
Depending on your build, and how the DM views these feats, determines their usefulness. Alas, how your DM thinks they work is up for debate. Every unarmed fighter should look at all three of these feats. Ask your DM how he thinks they work. THEN consider if it fits your build. Roundabout Kick is the foundation of serious Rules about. Circle Kick might double all your attacks. Snap Kick might give you an extra attack, or it might not. Again, ask your DM, then make your choice.
Natural Attacks
Feats: Beast Strike.
Oh yeah. Add your natural attack damage to your unarmed strike. Become a Clawlock, and then add your unarmed strike BACK to your claw attack. If you are going into claw or slam attacks, look at this feat.
Party Support
Feats: Pressure Point Strike.
This feat has a dozen uses. Some of them is the ability to remove negative conditions from your allies, slow or cure poison, and act as a targeted greater dispel magic. An excellent choice for anyone who is into teamwork. However, you can’t use it on yourself. Keep that in mind.
Poison
Feats: Pressure Point Strike, Rattlesnake Strike.
Both feats inflict con damage poison. PPS is better damage, but requires more stunning fists use. Since they both use stunning fist to power then, only by also getting rapid stunning can you use both at the same time. If you are going this route, look also into getting the Assassination WSA in a Necklace of natural weaponry. That way you can also put poison on your hands and have it stack with your feats.
Parry
Feats: Steel Skin.
Steel skin lets you parry weapons with your unarmed attacks. Unless your DM is allowing parrying rules, this feat would be useless. Personally, I'd just hold a Sai in my off hand and use that to parry.
Ranged Melee
Feats: Distance Touch, Ki Barrage, Ki Blast, Ring the Golden Bell, Deft Fist, Serpent Fang.
If you want to make your melee attacks ranged, then these are the feats to look at.'
Skill Modification
Feats: Foot and Fist Mastery.
Frankly, the cost to get the skills is too much. It's a competence bonus. You can BUY competence bonuses. BTW, they don't stack. It exists, don't get it. Ever.
Strength Drain/Damage
Feats: Mighty Works Mastery II, Weakening touch.
Both feats require a daily use of stunning fist, so you can't use them together without rapid stunning. That said, MWM II does 1d4 Str damage, and Weakening touch does -6 strength penalty. So if you are going to use both, use weakening touch first, then Mighty Works Mastery II. If you do it the other way around, A strength penalty will never bring a target below a strength of 1. Keep that in mind.
Stunning
Feats: Distant Touch, Extra Stunning, Fist of the Heavens, Falling Sun Attack, Hazing Strike, Meditations of War Mastery, Rapid Stunning, Sapphire Fist, Pharaoh's Fist, Stunning Fist.
All these feats either add to your DC or stun a target. They combine how you stun with other attacks, or just stun in new ways. The ones that stand out are Rapid Stunning (You get to use stunning fist multiple times a round), Pharaoh's Fist (Area of effect stunning). And Distant Touch (Ranged Stunning). Honestly, not knowing your focus, you really need to look at all of these. There are cool feats with horrible feat taxes to get, and lousy feats that are useful in very specific situations. Falling Sun Attack is useless, unless you use maneuvers, for example. If you are going stunning fist, look at all the feats and evaluate them against your build.
Sunder
Feats: Eagle Claw Attack.
If you want to destroy inanimate objects, this helps. Kinda. Honestly, anything that destroys treasure is a bad idea, but if you also have adamantine Ki strike, you could use this to punch through walls better, or something. Sunder feats usually are only of use to NPCs and DMs who want to reduce your WBL.
Theft
Feats: Cutpurse.
This feat allows you to pick pocket in combat without provoking an AoO. The DC to pick pocket at a free action is DC 60. You can't buy this until 2nd level. Since there is no penalty to failing the roll, you can take 20. If you spend 90,000 gp, you can buy a wondrous item that gives you a +30 to slight of hand skill rolls. If your Dex is a 16, you have +3 to slight of hand skill rolls. If you wear a cloak, you have a +2 circumstance bonus to pick pockets. If you buy up your slight of hand to max at 2nd level, you will have a slight of hand of 5. Add those all together, you can take 20 to pick the pocket of your enemy in combat as free action and always make the DC 60 check. Since free actions take no time, by RAW, you could strip your target of all equipment that he isn't holding or strapped to his body. Of course you can't hold the items, but dropping an item is a free action, so if you got your reach out to say, 15 feet, you could strip everyone around you to their skivvies in a 15 foot radius and have a pile of all their equipment lying at your feet. Then, because you have evasion (being a second level monk, most likely), your friend can burning hands your square. You evade, the objects all burn and melt. Then your DM beats you with a DMG.
To Hit Boost
Feats: Offensive Metered Foot, Stonewalker Fist.
If you find yourself focusing on one target at a time OMF is actually a good feat. The more attacks you make, the easier it is to hit your target. Stonewalker Fist is only for a particular sub-race of dwarves. It lets you ignore stone and metal armor. Unless you are making a build around that feat, don't bother even looking at it.
Tripping
Feats: Defensive throw, Great Throw, Kahiko, Kahiko Mastery.
Kahiko gives you a minor bonus and is not worth it. Great throw leaves your target prone. Defensive throw is an AoO trip attempt against someone attacking you. Ironically, you don't need IUS for Improved Trip, so if you are into tripping, you'll have to wait for/go check out my Tripping Feat Handbook.
Weapon Related
Feats: Stunning Master, Sudden Willow Strike, Meditation of War Mastery, Toothed Blow, Versatile Unarmed Strike.
Sudden Willow Strike lets you use a quarterstaff to stun someone, where as Stunning master lets you use any weapon. Meditation of War Mastery gives you Weapon Focus, but only for one of a very short list of weapons. Toothed blow makes your unarmed attacks both Bludgeoning and Piercing, whereas Versatile Unarmed Strike allows you to change your attack to either Bludgeoning, Piercing, or Slashing, but only one at a time. It wouldn't work with toothed blow.
