Shifters and Epic Weapon Focus: Unarmed

[Wildman42_ns3]

Does anyone know if this feat should (or should not) work with shifters in unarmed forms?

Obviously, my tale of woe involves me taking this feat only for it to appear not to work.

Yes, I checked the combat window.
Yes, I logged off and logged on.
Yes, I re-equipped everything.
No, I didn't level up while shifted.

Is this feat just not supposed to work? The regular weapon focus feat DID work, which leads me to believe this one should as well. Any ideas?

[Wildman42_ns3]

Well... after some searching through the BioWare forums, it appears I might have shot myself in the foot. They all claim that weapon focus and epic weapon focus:unarmed will NOT work with shifter forms. Which certainly agrees with what I'm seeing now.

However, I could have SWORN that I thoroughly checked out weapon focus back when I was low level to make sure that it worked. I distinctly remember checking my base AB and actually modified AB while in wyrmling form, taking my level with weapon focus: unarmed, noting that my base AB did not change, and then attacking something and seeing that my modified AB did change by 1. Was I halucinating? Can anyone offer any insight?

Or am I looking at a rebuild to reclaim two wasted feats?

[Arawindor_ns3]

(epic) focus on unarmed attack works with all forms which don't use any weapon...that's 2/3 of all shifter form (construct, dragon, ...). If your shifter form uses a weapon, like Risen Lord, you have to take focus on that type of weapon to get the AB bonus (so focus on scythe if you play Risen Lord)

[Wildman42_ns3]

Actually, weapon focus:unarmed DOES NOT work with the unarmed forms. I have done some testing between my shifter and another shifter toon (Blaskor). The only difference between the two toons was that Blaskor had epic weapon focus: unarmed. We both dropped all of our gear and buffs and shifted to golem form. For both of us, our actual (in the combat window) modified AB was 13 (I think) higher than our base attack bonus.

The conclusion is that epic weapon focus: unarmed DOES NOT work with unarmed forms. Research at the bioware site suggested that this is because the unarmed forms are actually using the 'creature' weapon type, which is seperate from true unarmed. So far, the only weapon specific feat I have found that DOES work with unarmed is improved critical:unarmed.

Weapon specific feats DO work with weapon using forms. For instance, weapon focus: scythe will boost your risen lord, etc.

[Bob_ns3]

Part of the confusion with epic weapon focus: unarmed is that at one point a couple patches back, it DID add AB to (say) golem form. It wasn't the last time I tried it out, but that was before the last patch & under the stock NWN shifter script.

Should be easy to test if you can grab a DM who doesn't mind de- & re-leveling you, for the sake of testing of course...