Monstrous Monks (Pathfinder)

[Mr Sko]

Recently several players have approached me with the idea to run a monsters as pcs game in Pathfinder. While I'm normally pretty good at making spot decisions for rules but this one instance has me a bit stumped.

One of my pcs wants to eventually take Monk levels on his monster, his line of thought is it that, since his claws are *technically* his unarmed attack that it will increase with the monks unarmed damage bonus.

I'm not sure if the rules would work like that since he already does 2d6 damage with his claws and even more distressing, if it stacks with his bite of tail. I think my main fear is him greatly outstripping the rest of the party because he's a bit more familiar with the rules.

Could anyone offer any clarity for me on the matter? Should they actually increase with the monks level I'd also need to know where to start since I think the lowest damage on the unarmed damage bonus table is 1d6.

[tyckspoon]

Premise is wrong; Natural Weapons are not Unarmed Strikes (and Unarmed Strikes are specifically not Natural Weapons, at least in Pathfinder. Pathfinder pulled off the amazing feat of making Unarmed Strike rules even messier than they were in 3.5, and they're one of the worst-written clumps of rules, unwritten assumptions, and exceptions in 3.5.) You only combine unarmed strike and natural weapon damage if something specifically tells you to do so, and the Pathfinder devs are kind of unduly paranoid about this so you probably won't see anything that does that.

Relevant to your question: Unarmed Strikes are usually assumed to be but do not have to be strikes with a fist. From the Monk class:

A monk's attacks may be with fist, elbows, knees, and feet.
And the general Combat rules explaining how to deal with Unarmed attacks:

Unarmed Attacks: Striking for damage with punches, kicks, and head butts is much like attacking with a melee weapon, except for the following:

So your monstrous Monk would most likely most his unarmed strikes as kicks or knee strikes or headbutts or whatever, and then use his natural weapons as normal.

[grarrrg]

One of my pcs wants to eventually take Monk levels on his monster, his line of thought is it that, since his claws are *technically* his unarmed attack that it will increase with the monks unarmed damage bonus.

I'm not sure if the rules would work like that since he already does 2d6 damage with his claws and even more distressing, if it stacks with his bite of tail. I think my main fear is him greatly outstripping the rest of the party because he's a bit more familiar with the rules.

Could anyone offer any clarity for me on the matter? Should they actually increase with the monks level I'd also need to know where to start since I think the lowest damage on the unarmed damage bonus table is 1d6.

First things first, REQUIRE him to take the Feral Combat Training (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/combat-feats/feral-combat-training-combat) feat BEFORE you allow any "Monk damage increase".
Selected text from Feral Combat Training (emphasis added):

Choose one of your natural weapons. While using the selected natural weapon, you can apply the effects of feats that have Improved Unarmed Strike as a prerequisite, as well as effects that augment an unarmed strike.
Here is your 'loophole' to ONLY allow it to work with his Claws and not all of his Natural Attacks. And note you can only take any given feat ONCE unless otherwise stated, so he can ONLY get this for ONE natural attack.

As for how to progress the damage here are Three (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/monk) Damage (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/feats/monster-feats/improved-natural-attack) Tables (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/s/strong-jaw).

My advice? Use the Monk damage progression, but use the "large size" damage progression (starting from 2d6)
2d6 > 2d8 > 3d6 > 3d8 > 4d8