Cestus does (1d-1) as a melee strike

[warhorse11h]

Originally Posted by Skarg

In that context, the +1 and +2 damage for Brawling seem fine, but I think the +2 outside of brawling seems too much compared to weapons such as clubs, daggers and cestus at +3 (especially if some people think a cestus should only do 1d-1 outside HTH, since ST 11 +2 for a brawling punch would be 1d+0!).

My main difficulty interpreting the Brawling rules is that it seems to me like it did not have the 1/2 damage in mind, as it suggests using Dirty Brawling would escalate to others using Dirty Brawling and weapons, but doesn't mention the more important level of escalation which is whether people are doing 1/2 damage or not.

So far, I think what I would do is:

Friendly brawl: +1 damage for Brawling talent (all damage halved, round down)
Dirty brawl: +2 damage for Brawling talent (all damage halved, round down)

Serious combat: +1 damage for Brawling talent (damage not halved)

Non-lethal Cestus combat: +3 punch damage, halved, round down

Lethal Cestus combat: +3 punch damage

Punching someone with mail/plate gauntlets without Brawling or the Cestus talent: +1 damage, an additional +1 if you do have the Brawling or Cestus talent

Absent any additional rules or clarification from the designers, I think that will work.