As the title says, would hand to hand combat be viable late game?
I am currentry playing khajiit, and the extra hand to hand damage is just insane in the beginning of the game, but since there is no hand to hand skill i am worried that fist figthing will be worthless soon and i will be left without any weapon skills. So, does the hand to hand damage increase with level?
I also know the are enchanted items that increase hand to hand damage, and these can be quite powerful. Currently i am planning on disenchanting the Gloves of the Pugilist (+10 hand to hand damage) and enchanting another pair of gloves, using stronges souls as i level up. Do you think it might work?

Bumping...

It's not supposed to be used for general purpose. It's mostly just for brawls. If you can eek it out for longer, more power to you, but don't be surprised if the curve turns against you.

I have the strategy guide and from what I've read about hand-to-hand, it's not viable at all, late game. It doesn't appear to be meant to be a 'main' weapon play-style.

There's a heavy armor perk that adds the armor rating to your H2H attack power. Not sure how well it helps though.

so... while we are at it, what other skills or abilities are "not viable"?

If unarmed is only one of few... I strongly believe bethesda should make it viable since this game professes you can be whomever you want to be.

There's a heavy armor perk that basically turns heavy gloves into weapons. I don't know how effective it is.

there is a heavy armor perk where you get to add the armor value of your gloves to damage. Take that and combine it with those spells will get you part way.

No it doesn't. It's "You are what you play." You can't be a naked schizophrenic that goes around accusing people of stealing your eyes, either. The naked thing is possible, sure, but don't expect it to last long.

I'd also like to play as mario. But jumping on people does no damage whatsoever. Bethesda hates my ideas.

Spoiler?











There are some gloves that increase HTH damage. Won't say where

Even though it should.
Eh, I really hope that they improve H2H in Skyrim (wouldn't like to wait until Elsweyr for a proper H2H).

I'm definitely going to try this sometime. Disenchant puglist, and enchant my entire set with fortify H2H and take the heavy armor perk too.

Taking the heavy armor perk that let you use gauntlets armor rating to increase damage, or using HtH damage increase gloves can't be enough. When you use weapons you have the same bonus plus your skill and perks bonus. Imagine you didn't invest any perk in weapons and you mantain your starting skill at later levels and then try to fight with weapons in such condition.

You can only put that enchant on gloves, necklaces and rings. As far as I could tell.

What was that perk called again? Heavy Handed? But ya like others have said that perk stacks whatever armor rating from the gloves into attack. I'll tell you right now, that perk owns in bar brawls.

im a lvl 44 khajiit unarmed (heavy armor) fighter and i love it... ive played on master since level 1... ummm i do have smithing/enchanting so that probably has a bit to do with it idk... i didnt do any of the crazy alchemy/enchanting/smithing loops (tho i did make 4 + smithing items) my gauntlets are currently 210 armor and i have a ring and the gaunts enchanted for + unarmed damage... im sitting at 249 dmg with 1300ish armor and tbh the game is too easy lol... as it stands I've not ran into anything I cant kill... so yes its very viable

My Legendary heavy gloves have around 65 armor.
I say thats not bad damage.
But if there is no skill to go with it it makes no sense.

This perk by the way, is extremly stupidly implemented as it is a prereq to get the perk where heavy armor wont weight anything, which is a must have.

So we are forced to take a waste perk, while light armor have awsome perks straight through.

It is kind of effective. It is more for winning brawls at about 99% of the time. My friend and I have fought Frost Trolls and low-level dragons with fists (when I was on Adept difficulty), and we have won those fights, though the trolls got a good amount of hits, and we are wearing upgraded Daedric armor.

Mainly, I use it to get rid of small creatures I do not want to soul trap, but I would not advise it for potentially serious fights (boss battles and the like).

its perfectly viable for boss fights... like i said i've yet to find a mob i cant kill... a few min ago i killed two giants, a couple mamoths, a dragon ect ect...

I punched Alduin to death with my light armor wearing khajiit thief. So it can be done.

It took some creative uses of Fus-Ro-Dah + cliffs and Stealth to get past the armies of undeads and other minions on the way though. With the heavy armor perk, I guess it'd be easier. Adept difficulty.

I seriously doubt you punched things until you were able to get that heavy armor perk AND upgrade your gloves AND enchant them until you were well into your level 20s. And what of the players that do not want to wear heavy armor or use a glove to facilitate their hand to hand combat?

This. Those who do not use heavy armor will be in for a rough road with their hands.

I'd imagine using the Alchemy/Enchanting/Smithing exploit loop, along with the Perk that makes better gauntlets do more damage, that H2H combat would end up being decent. What i don't get, is why Khajiit got the extra claw damage, and Argonians didn't. Argonians got some pretty wicked claws too, especially if you've read the books and read what Mere-Glim could do with his claws. Probably gonna be modded in.

i didnt start enchanting until I was in my 30s... up until that point I was entirely hand to hand combat... when i started enchanting i enchanted some - cost destruction and played as a mage for about 5-10 levels... at around 40 i enchanted some armor for + heavy armor and unarmed damage and ive been killing everything I ran across since then...
as far as people not wanting to use heavy armor.. well hey thats their choice... if ya dont wanna use heavy armor then no id say its not viable but if youre willing to use heavy armor it is a perfectly good weapon to use

you dont need to use any exploit loops to make unarmed do good damage... now granted idk how hard other weapons hit but i imagine 250 a swing isnt a bad #... especially considering how fast unarmed