I know that Natural Weapons don't all count as Unarmed Strikes, but I keep hearing online that Unarmed Strikes are a kind of Natural Weapon. Is this the case?
[RPG] Are Unarmed Strikes Natural Weapons
dnd-3.5enatural-weaponunarmed-combat
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No, they can't be enchanted, because they aren't masterwork and can never be, and all magic weapons must be crafted with a masterwork base.
To create a magic weapon, a character needs a heat source and some iron, wood, or leatherworking tools. She also needs a supply of materials, the most obvious being the weapon or the pieces of the weapon to be assembled. Only a masterwork weapon can become a magic weapon, and the masterwork cost is added to the total cost to determine final market value.
It is quite plain that they are not masterwork by default, given the lack of +1 to attack rolls. So let's suppose we want to upgrade them. But it is impossible for an existing unarmed strike to be made masterwork, per this clause in Weapons:
You can’t add the masterwork quality to a weapon after it is created; it must be crafted as a masterwork weapon (see the Craft skill).
All right, let's try making a new one that's masterwork. This fails because unarmed strikes are not manufactured weapons, and you can't manufacture a weapon with the Craft skill if it's specifically not manufactured at all.
Glossary — manufactured weapons:
This category also includes […] in essence, any weapon that is not intrinsic to the creature.
Monk's class features do not help with this, since Craft is not an effect and neither enhances nor improves anything:
A monk’s unarmed strike is treated both as a manufactured weapon and a natural weapon for the purpose of spells and effects that enhance or improve either manufactured weapons or natural weapons.
How about buying one? You might actually be able to buy an ordinary unarmed strike, since they're listed in the Equipment section in the Weapons table, and you needn't pay anything for it*. Unfortunately, per the quote on MW weapons, a weapon must be crafted as masterwork to be MW, and per the preceding this is not possible even for NPCs. There might be an exception, as there seems to be for magic oils, which you can buy in shops but not craft, except that nowhere is "MW unarmed strike" listed for sale.
Magic fang and company do not make a weapon into a "magic weapon"; rather, they give a weapon a +1 enhancement bonus (and the ability to bypass DR /magic because of that), which is not technically the same thing. And while all magic weapons are masterwork by definition as well as by prerequisite, magic fang and friends do not have to be interpreted as giving a weapon retroactive masterwork status, for essentially the same reason, which is fortunate as otherwise the rules would create some bizarre and abusive situations†.
Magic fang gives one natural weapon of the subject a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls.
Magic weapon gives a weapon a +1 enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls. (An enhancement bonus does not stack with a masterwork weapon’s +1 bonus on attack rolls.) You can’t cast this spell on a natural weapon, such as an unarmed strike (instead, see magic fang). A monk’s unarmed strike is considered a weapon, and thus it can be enhanced by this spell.
All magic weapons are also masterwork weapons, but their masterwork bonus on attack rolls does not stack with their enhancement bonus on attack rolls.
Some monsters are vulnerable to magic weapons. Any weapon with at least a +1 magical enhancement bonus on attack and damage rolls overcomes the damage reduction of these monsters.
Note the phrasing of the last quote; they are described as vulnerable to magic weapons, but that's not the rules text, just the plain description, since vulnerability is not defined (except in the incompatible context of energy vulnerability; it should be clear that DR 5/magic does not mean that a +1 longsword does 50% extra damage as well as overcoming DR). The actual rules say that any weapon with a +1 magical enhancement bonus (whether or not the weapon is, per se, a "magic weapon" itself otherwise) overcomes that DR.
(emphasis added to quotes)
* This is, to my mind, patently absurd, but hey, RAW. Monks won't be proficient with those unarmed strikes, but hey, RAW.
† For example, casting magic weapon to increase the price of a club from 0gp to 300gp (permanently? who knows!) and selling it. Or casting magic weapon on any plain weapon to make it masterwork for future crafting. There is a Pathfinder spell for this purpose. It does nothing else‡, is a level higher, costs as much as crafting a MW weapon in the first place, and takes an hour to cast. Allowing magic weapon to do this for free in a standard action is ridiculous.
‡ It has this excellent provision: "If the target object has no masterwork equivalent, the spell has no effect." Doesn't work on unarmed strikes, as they appear to have no MW equivalent and are not objects.
Replacing a claw attack with an unarmed strike
Sorry, but no. Unarmed strikes use a weird hybrid of the rules for manufactured and natural weapons, but for the purposes of full-attacks, they work like manufactured weapons. That is, you get iteratives with them, but if you can only combine them with natural weapons by making those natural weapons secondary (−5 attack penalty, only ½Str to damage).
The first rule that you quote is specifically about spells and effects. A full-attack is not either of those.
Claws and lack of offhand unarmed strikes
Feral Combat Training does mean that anything from the monk’s unarmed-strike-improving class features can apply to natural weapons, and that can include the bit about never being offhand.
However, claws and other natural weapons are never “offhand” to begin with. The term “offhand” only applies when using two-weapon fighting, and that combat option does not interact with natural weapons (aside from the attack penalty, which applies to all attacks). So the fact that the monk class feature, combined with Feral Combat Training, says that natural weapons are never offhand does not do anything because that was already true.
Instead of “main hand” and “offhand,” natural weapons are either “primary” or “secondary.” These are different. When combined with manufactured weapons (or unarmed strikes) in a given full-attack, all natural weapons are secondary: they receive the −5 penalty and get only ½Str to damage. Neither the monk class nor Feral Combat Training does anything about treating them as secondary or removing or reducing the penalties for being secondary.
So whether you have Feral Combat Training or not, your full-attack using unarmed strikes is:
Unarmed Strike, Claw (−5), Claw (−5), Claw (−5)
If you have Feral Combat Training, the claws do benefit from the improved base damage dice of unarmed strike, however, even if they’re still stuck with ½Str to damage.
Two-Weapon Fighting, Feral Combat Training
If you are actually using two-weapon fighting, the provision about monks never having offhand unarmed strikes meaningfully applies only to the unarmed strike. It “applies” to the claws, but does nothing for them.
So, for example, if your two weapons are a sai and an unarmed strike, and you have the Two-Weapon Fighting feat, your attack routine would be:
Sai (−2), unarmed strike (−2), claw (−5), claw (−5)
The unarmed strike would add your full Strength to its damage, however. Note that I assumed that the sai took up one of your claw-hands. I did not wish to get into the debate about whether one can use two unarmed strikes as part of two-weapon fighting.
You didn’t ask, but about Flurry of Blows
All of the statements above about full-attack apply equally well to flurry of blows, except that you need Feral Combat Training to use natural weapons in a flurry at all, and flurry of blows cannot be combined with two-weapon fighting because of Paizo nonsense.
Personal recommendation
For the record, monks, natural attacks, and how they combine, these are some of the worst things in Pathfinder. The rules are confusing, complicated, and the result works very poorly. I suggest you save yourself a headache and just... not.
Best Answer
No.
Unarmed Strike
Improved Unarmed Strike
Unarmed Strike (Monk)
Conclusion
In regards to anyone other than a monk, an unarmed strike is a light weapon that is neither natural nor manufactured.
Exclusively for the monk (and others with monk-like abilities), an unarmed strike is a manufactured light weapon, and a natural light weapon.
What is a Manufactured Weapon?
Any weapon that is not intrinsic to the creature, such as a sword, a rock you pick up, a club you make.
What is a Natural Weapon?
Natural weapons are weapons that are physically a part of a creature, such as a bite, a claw, a tail slap.
Unless specifically mentioned, (such as the Monk, creature listing or racial description, etc.) no one has a natural weapon right away. For example, no human has a claw attack, a bite attack, etc. without feats, spells, or other abilities that gives that to them.
Also, an unarmed strike does not cause lethal damage, provokes an attack of opportunity, and is a very unappealing option without Improved Unarmed Strike, and/or some other way to make it better. Monk's specifically mention that their unarmed strikes count as both manufactured and natural or intents and purposes - because almost no one else's do.
If you take Skip William's advice to heart (which is not RAW) then you will find him stating, "For purposes of weapon enhancements, an unarmed strike is considered a natural weapon," and "Natural weaponry deals lethal damage without recourse to a class feature or feat, such as Improved Unarmed Strike."