The unarmed TC swordsage

[Caphi]

At first blush, it seems like it's supported. Unarmed strike is a Tiger Claw weapon, and Snap Kick uses unarmed damage. Begin the crazy Street Fighter comboing action, right?

Well, I tried making one. You run into a paradox pretty quickly.

See, RAW, the unarmed strike is just one big weapon, but comboing with TC is based on two-weapon fighting. Wolf fang strike has an specific exception built into it for this situation. Wild mongoose and raging mongoose appear to just not work; you only get one and two attacks, not two and four like the guy with two kukhris is doing.

Or you can pretend there are two weapons in there, which, in addition to forcing you to basically play a boxer, which is not what I'm interested in, raises the question of what happens to "generic" unarmed strikes like the one granted by Snap Kick, especially if your "weapons" are enhanced. So now you're back to the same drawbacks as the guy with TWF shortswords, wondering why you bothered with the whole IUS/SUS/losing light armor proficiency dance in the first place.

Is there any elegant way to do this? Or is unarmed swordsage just incompatible with half of the one discipline designed to let you be a monk that doesn't suck?

[Optimystik]

This is the whole "Can I TWF with Unarmed Strike" debate again that has been wrangled back and forth on these forums since time immemorial.

Short answer: ask your DM.

[Mongoose87]

You can do unarmed strikes with any park of your body. Take a monk-ish weapon, such as a staff, use your fist as your off-hand, and enjoy.

[Caphi]

This is the whole "Can I TWF with Unarmed Strike" debate again that has been wrangled back and forth on these forums since time immemorial.

Short answer: ask your DM.

Sorta, it's more like "how does TWF unarmed strike interact with 'normal' unarmed strikes".

[Snake-Aes]

Or just twf the same unarmed strike "weapon" twice and say you're punching really fast.

[Keld Denar]

Nothing says you can't "equip" 2 unarmed strikes, just like nothing says you can't equip 2 daggers. Just make sure you designate one UAS as your primary hand (which gains full Str bonus) and one as your offhand (which gains half Str bonus). Which part of your physcal body corresponds to each UAS is totally up to you, as long as you keep the mechanics true.

The rules in the PHB, in and attempt to ADD clarity, actually TAKE AWAY clarity because they don't use the word offhand consistantly as a mechanical term. They use it as a fluff term interchangably, and differentiating between the mechanical offhand and the descriptive offhand is almost impossible. One means a weapon (which may not even BE in a hand, such as Armor Spikes) that only gain half strength bonus. The other is fluff term that simply refers to a hand that isn't your primary hand. It is possible for your offhand to make attacks that don't count as offhand attacks, and possible to make offhand attacks with a weapon that isn't held in a hand, primary or off. Thus, WotCs examples introduce MORE confusion than they aleviate.

Basically, when you write your attack routine on your character sheet, write it like this:
Mainhand UAS: +12/+7, 1d8+4
Offhand UAS: +12/+7, 1d8+2

then, when you use Dancing Mongoose, your attack routine will look like thus:
Mainhand UAS: +12/+12/+7, 1d8+4
Offhand UAS: +12/+12/+7, 1d8+2

Done and done.

[Tinydwarfman]

I believe that sage (if you want to trust him) clarified that you can indeed TWF unarmed.

[Pechvarry]

Since Snap Kick is basically a single TWF attack (-2 attacks, as with light offhand, half STR to damage), maybe you can simply convince your DM to have it count as TWF for the Mongoose line and such, giving you 2-3 snap kicks in the same turn.

[Hadrian_Emrys]

The Sage may not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but I agree with his stance that TWF works with unarmed strikes. It doesn't break the game, and it makes more thematic sense than not.

[true_shinken]

Unarmed TWF is dealt with in the D&D 3.5 FAQ. It is legal.

[Fouredged Sword]

The rules are iffy when read, so the best bet is your DM. The system is what it is, but it is his game. It won't break the game at all, so I would let it happen, but again, it's not my game.