As you know with the low delay and damage of unarmed strikes creates an issue with breaking the armor threashhold of many mobs.
Easy fix - Just give Monk/Desciple some bonus damage for every so many points of unarmed and dexterity skill they have when indeed fighting unarmed. /fixed class.
PS* mastering Ice Armor would be nice as the other desciples get 2 masterable special abilities and Ice Desciple gets one.