Erudite Pugilist

Most agents are capable with any weapon on which they can lay their hands, but others are wise enough to avoid trusting in weapons at all. Erudite pugilists focus on only what they have on hand, striking down foes with quick takedowns and sudden strikes, allowing for a tactical advantage regardless of the environment.

Weapon and Armor Proficiencies

The erudite pugilist is not proficient with any armor.

Knowledgeable Brawler (Ex)

At 1st level, an erudite pugilist gains the Improved Unarmed Strike feat. In addition, they are treated as a monk of their agent level when determining the amount of damage their unarmed strikes deal.

AC Bonus (Ex)

When unarmored and unencumbered, the edurite pugilist adds their operative ability modifier (if any) as an insight bonus to their AC and their CMD. These bonuses do not stack with any other class feature or ability that adds an additional ability score to these values. In addition, an erudite pugilist’s insight bonus to AC and CMD increases by 1 for every four agent levels the erudite pugilist gains, up to a maximum of +5 at 20th level.

This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when the erudite pugilist is flat-footed. They lose these bonuses when they are immobilized or helpless, when they wear any armor, when they carry a shield, or when they carry a medium or heavy load.

Discerning Strikes

An erudite pugilist’s discerning strike deals 2d4 damage at 3rd level and 3d4 at 5th level. The damage dice improve to 3d8 at 7th level. At 9th level, and every odd level thereafter, the damage increases by +1d8. This alters discerning strike.

Stunning Fist (Ex)

At 2nd level, an erudite pugilist gains the stunning fist class feature of the monk class although they use their operative ability modifier in place of their Wisdom to determine the saving throw DC of this ability, adding their agent levels to their monk level for the purposes of what abilities they can access.

This ability replaces the throat punch option of the devious technique class feature.