I know there are a ton of monk questions and I read as many as I thought might apply but I'm still not sure I understand.
First, I am wondering if you can use your Monk Unarmed Strike as a basic attack? It is defined as a weapon in the unarmed category so I'm wondering if it can be used as my weapon. For role-play purposes I don't want to wield or use any weapons so I plan to only use unarmed attacks. So if I make a melee basic attack can I use my monk unarmed strike as the weapon? That is to say would I roll 1d4 or 1d8 for basic unarmed melee attacks?
Additionally, would the bonus attack be triggered if I were to use the monk unarmed strike as a weapon?
Finally, is there a way to negate attacks of opportunity against me when I make unarmed attacks?