Brutes like to throw their weight around, jostling and battering foes to move them about the battlefield. Brute practitioners are unarmed fighters who deal additional damage with their unarmed strikes as described in the unarmed strike practitioner table.
Associated Feat:
Improved Unarmed Strike.
All practitioners of the Brute sphere gain the following ability:
Shove
As a move action, you may move up to half your speed and make a melee touch attack against a creature. If successful, the target takes bludgeoning damage equal to your Strength modifier (or whichever attribute was used to make the check) and gains the battered condition until the end of your next turn. You may perform a shove in place of the attack granted by a charge, although this does not grant the extra movement.
Manhandle: When you successfully perform a bull rush, drag, reposition, or overrun combat maneuver (assuming the target decided to block you and did not simply move out of the way), you may apply the effect of one (manhandle) talent you know to that creature. (Manhandle) talents cannot be applied to maneuvers performed as a free action.
Author's Note: Shove is a unique "armed attack" that when augmented with a talent that allows you to "use a weapon" (e.g. Brace Weapon, Slapper) will only inherit specific properties from that weapon. The Brace Weapon and Slapper talents add bonuses to hit and/or damage and certain damaging effects (such as a flaming or holy special weapon ability) but do not treat a shove attack as an attack with that weapon for other effects (such as a spell-storing weapon, the grab or trip universal monster rules, the Bashing Finish feat, or other "when you make a successful attack"-type effects).
Unarmed Combatants
Practitioners who train in certain spheres focused on unarmed combat, such as Boxing, deal additional damage with their unarmed strikes based on the total number of unarmed spheres and talents they possess, as shown in the following table. Practitioners from a class that already grants an unarmed damage progression, such as the brawler or monk, may treat their unarmed strike as one size category larger if they have 3 or more talents in an unarmed combat sphere, but receive no further benefits. In addition, any practitioner with at least 1 talent in an unarmed sphere gains the benefits of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat.
Table: Practitioner Unarmed Damage
| Level |
Damage (Small Practitioner) |
Damage (Medium Practitioner) |
Damage (Large Practitioner) |
| 1-3 talents |
1d3 |
1d4 |
1d6 |
| 4-7 talents |
1d4 |
1d6 |
1d8 |
| 8-11 talents |
1d6 |
1d8 |
2d6 |
| 12-15 talents |
1d8 |
2d6 |
3d6 |
| 16-19 talents |
2d6 |
2d8 |
3d8 |
| 20+ talents |
2d8 |
2d10 |
4d8 |