Supposing, as a monk, I come into vast amounts of money and, heh, lack the wisdom to spend it otherwise…
If I have both a Body-Wrap of Mighty Fists and an Amulet of Mighty Fists, both enchanted to their maximum of +7 and +5 respectively, do the effects of both items, presuming they are otherwise compatible effects, stack together to give me an effective enhancement bonus of +12 to my unarmed attacks?
[RPG] Maximum effective enhancement bonus to Unarmed Attack
magic-itemsmonkpathfinder-1eunarmed-combat
Related Solutions
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.
Probably Not
The status of gauntlets, cesti, rope gauntlets, and other weapons of that sort has never been officially FAQed, but Sean Reynolds and James Jacobs have made forum statements that no, these all count as weapons and therefore are not vectors for enchanting unarmed strikes (nor do they count as unarmed strikes for monk or brawler improved unarmed damage, stunning fist, etc.). That is also the general Pathfinder Society practice. Here's a Paizo forum post (one of hundreds) that is nicely concise.
However, since there has never been a ruling of impeccable authority on the question, it is ultimately up to your table. To save the usual monk haters the time, I will note that many believe that monk/unarmed stuff is weak enough that allowing gauntlet etc. enchants or even "double dipping" enchants as you propose is still balanced.
Best Answer
The maximum effective enhancement bonus a creature can have on its unarmed strike is +10, but discuss with the GM changing that in this case
Unlike its predecessor D&D 3.5, Pathfinder on Magic Weapons says
(Emphasis mine.) Thus, despite its quirks, like any other lone weapon, a monk's unarmed strike is limited in the manner described above. The player of a monk that activates a body wrap of mighty strikes that possesses a total of a +7 enhancement bonus in appropriate magic weapon special abilities while wearing a +1 amulet of mighty fists that possesses a total of a +4 enhancement bonus of appropriate magic weapon special abilities must discuss with the GM which of the wrap's magic weapon special abilities activate and which don't so that the total doesn't exceed an effective +10 enhancement bonus on the monk's unarmed strike.
However, this reader thinks parts of this rule are terrible, and this GM ignores the parenthetical including those from character abilities and spells (that, by the way, goes largely unmentioned elsewhere as can be seen by questions here and here). Further, this GM assesses the quoted passage wholly in context so that it applies only to specific magic weapons like a +5 vorpal scimitar rather than having the rule cascade throughout the game to affect, for example, an otherwise nonmagical weapon on which has been cast a crapton of spells that buff it and wondrous items that happen to affect weapons like the amulet and the wrap. My campaigns have benefited rather than suffered because of this GM's more liberal stance regarding this loathsome and oft-overlooked rule.