Weapon and fist? How would you do it?

[Foxman778]

As the title asks, I'm wondering how you would build a character that fights with a weapon in one hand and making unarmed strikes with the other?

[gadren]

Well if you are playing Pathfinder, Brawler does this pretty well, especially if the weapon is a close weapon.

[Foxman778]

What about non-close weapons?

[TheIronGolem]

It's really just two-weapon fighting, so treat it accordingly.

Also, if 3rd-party is on the table, check out the Thrashing Dragon discipline from Path of War, it's the go-to solution for sword-and-fist concepts.

[Arutema]

Hard to say without knowing what sort of weapon you'de prefer, and if you'd prefer to wear armor or not.

If it's a monk weapon, unchained monk is probably your best way to go. If it's not a monk weapon, but is the favored weapon of a deity, the sacred fist warpriest can meet the class feature requirements of the crusader's flurry feat single-classed, and let you make it a monk weapon with that feat.

The official rulings on TWF in PF work out that you can just TWF two unarmed strikes or a 1-handed weapon and an unarmed strike also.

[Psyren]

Note that you can make unarmed strikes with any part of your body, meaning you can do them even if both hands are occupied (i.e. headbutts, elbows, kicks, knees and so on.) So there's no reason you can't use a two-handed weapon, or a shield in your offhand, and still make this concept work; you aren't forced to use a 1H weapon in one hand and keep the other empty. This is especially useful on the brawler suggestion that was proposed initially since they can use shields.

[Seppo87]

I would go FalcataSwashbuckler/Brawler and get the crane style feat line and the weapon trick feat for one-handed weapons.
You can use kicks so that your right hand is free.

[Vhaidara]

As a massive fan of the fighting style in question, I tend to go for a Steelfist Commando Warlord with a focus on Fool's Errand (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?487641-Dreamscarred-Press-Path-of-War-Fool-s-Errand). Secondary discipline to taste, of course, but FE sets you up very nicely to both maintain the mobility I've traditionally seen in a sword and fist character as well as intermixing the two effectively.
For when I'm not using strikes I tend to go for a Two Weapon Fighting build, using sword and unarmed strike. This is viable both with light weapons (dex build using Weapon Finesse and Deadly Agility) or one handed weapons (either change your class to Myrmidon Silverblade Hunter Fighter [Path of War: Expanded and Lords of the Wild playtest (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?479603-Dreamscarred-Press-Introduces-Lords-of-the-Wild-The-Playtest!) respectively] for a dex build or take Prodigious Two Weapon Fighting from Path of War: Expanded to make TWF Str based). Hell, if you really want to have some fun you can combine the Myrmidon Silverblade Hunter Fighter with the Prodigious TWF setup for a character who uses a greatsword one handed while punching monsters in the face with the other.