I checked with Duelist style and it worked fine so the problem is with Fisticuffs proposed change or some weird interaction with the metal gizmo. I'm not smart enough to figure that out.
Here's the proposed change to fisticuffs.
foreach pick in hero from BaseWep where "IsWeapon.wUnarmed"
eachpick.field[wAttBonus].value += 0
eachpick.field[wDamBonus].value += 2
nexteach