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Wolf Stance monk feat (CRB p159) :

You enter the stance of a wolf, low to the ground with your hands held like fanged teeth. You can make wolf jaw unarmed attacks. These deal 1d8 piercing damage; are in the brawling group; and have the agile, backstabber, finesse, nonlethal, and unarmed traits.
If you’re flanking a target while in Wolf Stance, your wolf jaw unarmed attacks also gain the trip trait.
(emphasis mine)

Even if you have the Monastic Weaponry feat, Wolf Stance does not give you any benefits if you do not have a hand free. But if you have a hand free, you can use Trip anyway.

So what exactly is the point of the highlighted sentence of the feat?

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2 Answers 2

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The trip trait allows any item bonus that would be applied to attack rolls with your wolf jaw attacks to also apply to athletics checks to trip.

The trip trait reads (CRB p283):

You can use this weapon to Trip with the Athletics skill even if you don’t have a free hand. This uses the weapon’s reach (if different from your own) and adds the weapon’s item bonus to attack rolls as an item bonus to the Athletics check. If you critically fail a check to Trip using the weapon, you can drop the weapon to take the effects of a failure instead of a critical failure.

While most of this doesn't apply to unarmed wolf jaw attacks, the bolded section does.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Well, specifically the item bonus, like from handwraps \$\endgroup\$
    – Delioth
    Nov 20, 2019 at 17:54
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    \$\begingroup\$ I just found another benefit: Wolf Jaw is agile, so after such a Trip your MAP only worsens by 4. \$\endgroup\$
    – András
    Nov 20, 2019 at 19:08
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    \$\begingroup\$ After the errata, Agile and using the Item Bonus from the weapon seem to be the only primary remaining benefits. \$\endgroup\$
    – ESCE
    Jun 21 at 18:53
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You can use your Dexterity

By having the Finesse trait in addition to the Trip trait, the Wolf jaw attack will allow you to use your Dex instead of your Str when making the Athletics check for trip.

In addition, if you have Handwraps of Mighty Blows, you can add the bonus to hit from that item to you check.

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    \$\begingroup\$ Where does Finesse say this? \$\endgroup\$
    – András
    Nov 21, 2019 at 6:20
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    \$\begingroup\$ @András Finesse says it adds dexterity instead of strength for attack rolls, which are rolls made as part of an attack action. Trip has the attack trait and is therefore an attack action. \$\endgroup\$
    – Delioth
    Nov 21, 2019 at 16:55
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    \$\begingroup\$ @Delioth Trip has the action type, but is still a skill check. Finesse only applies to attack rolls. Where does CRB says that "attack roll is any roll made as part of an attack action"? \$\endgroup\$
    – András
    Nov 21, 2019 at 21:00
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    \$\begingroup\$ @András CRB 446 where it describes what an attack roll is: "When you use a Strike action or any other attack action, you attempt a check called an attack roll." (and then goes on to describe the common attack rolls, melee and ranged strikes) \$\endgroup\$
    – Delioth
    Nov 21, 2019 at 21:43
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    \$\begingroup\$ This is not true any longer due to errata: see paizo.com/pathfinder/faq - Core Rulebook errata (the first one), page 446. @András as a heads up \$\endgroup\$
    – ESCE
    Jun 21 at 18:50

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