All right so im not here to complain im just sorely confused about hand to hand combat in skyrim. I have looked over the net in various places trying to find out if Hand to hand benefits from any perks other then fist of steel.

I know there are enchantments for unarmored dmg and i know that khajit get a racial bonus to their unarmed with the claws so all of these suggestions dont need to be said here. What i am wondering is do the power attacks perks and passive of weapon types apply to unarmed.
I only ask this cause i have read on several different sites that Two handed perks such as Barbarian,Devastating blow,Sweep, and Warmaster do apply and i have also seen people stating the opposite.

I my self do believe that the perk in the one handed tree "Dual Flurry" does apply to unarmed as my fists do seem to fly faster while it is active. The other perks such as passive dmg bonus are a little harder to tell and while i can save up points and spend alot of time training with both weapon types to see if the power attacks do indeed apply id much rather spend that time punching dragons in the face and enjoying the game. So if any one has any more insight to add to this i would be glad to receive it.

Also i think it might be important to note that sense every race but Khajit has no inherit bonus these perks that increase dmg based on a % may have nothing to build off of for the other races. I dont know if developers comment on the site or answer questions like this but a clear cut official answer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for reading this wall of text. I hope to see unarmed improved in future updates or expansions

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Would venture to say the perks don't apply. Fists/claws are just there as a backup.

It's hard to say, Bethesda pretty much spat on people who enjoy hand-to-hand so I wouldn't count on anything working that doesn't expressly say it does like the HTH perk for Heavy Armor.

To anyone who's played the older TES games, was hand to hand viable there either? the short answer is no, it was not. In Morrowind you did stamina damage first and had to knock everyone out before you could even hurt them. In Oblivion you're so weak compared to any weapon what with a low mack damage and no enchantments or poisons.
Trust me, I've tried to play as a monk in both games, it isn't a good choice.

They should have improved it, not slashed it out of existence.

Hand to hand is for when your only decent weapon gets voiced out of your hand by a boss/midboss and you get to flail around fighting them off until you can find it on the dark ruin's floor assuming it didn't fall into a lower level.

Also fistfights.

They pretty much cut it, yeah. The notion of being able to beat up dragons with your bare hands, while amusing, did not fit into their picture of what this game was going to be.

But as always, mods will be able to fix this. For now, you'll have to make due with figuring out which perks also coincedentally affect your fists. But don't be surprised if your damage output is going to be next to nothing late-game, methinks you'll have to resort to actual weapons eventually.

Though I guess you could always try to combine hand to hand combat with shouts? Sort of like a Greybeard.

they are worried about what their game is pictured? they must be crying with all the mods on FO 3 and Oblivion.

the animations are top notch BEST GOD DARNET FIGHTING ANIMATION IN ANY BETH GAME TO DATE, and they remove hand to hand.

not Bethesda without 2 steps forward and one step back.

Well i played all thru daggerfall with out armor or weapons and that worked out fine. i played oblivion as a Vampire monk and that worked out great. I never really understood this "is it viable question" we are playing a one player game not a mmo viable is what you make it. if you use every thing to your advantage u come out on top every time.

The thing about a monk class is it is a stealth class you suppose to sneak into a room pull out a bow shoot one or two then go in and take em out. In games like daggerfall playing unarmed was easier because your speed was so much higher u hit something 12 or 15 times before it ever hit you. I have been playing skyrim as a non khajit with total unarmed and im lvl 19 with exquisite orcish gauntlets with a plus 10 to unarmed enchantment and 52 armor rateing which lets me hit stuff for 62 dmg every punch. not so bad if ya ask me.

i used unarmed on my char for about 30 levels as my main source of damage... i didnt realize there were hand to hand damage enchantments... knowing that I think I may need to find those and see if im still viable without a weapon... ive killed dragons to the point that I would just leave when I saw them because they weren't a challenge.. (ive been playing on master from lvl 1 btw) at around lvl 30 i started boosting my mage skills though due to my unarmed damage being quite weak.... but until that point I was just fine
currently my char is 42 and with maxed smithing/enchanting im able to destroy everything i run into.. melees dont hit me for anything and i can cast restoration/destruction spells without any mana cost..

When I get home I'm gonna see how high I can get my unarmed damage to... I dont expect it'll be as high as a sword but considering how fast unarmed attacks are I think its a decent trade off...

Im surprized you think its fast seems really sluggish to me. but have you seen if any of the power attack perks apply to unarmed yet?

i dont normally do power attacks to be honest.. i shield bash and smack em more than anything... as far as the attack speed goes it seems much faster than swords as long as im not wielding a spell...
currently my gauntlets have 204 armor, ive got two items enchanted with +12 to unarmed damage and im khajiit... so in theory i should be hitting for 243? per swing... somehow it feels weak tho ;\

i think it may just feel weak because ive been using magic which is imo very strong... (at least when it costs 0 mana to cast and i can throw spells around like nothing...)

i just beat the [censored] outta two giants without a problem so i guess my dmg isnt too bad...

as far as the speed goes.. as long as im not charging a spell i hit very fast..

something ya may consider doing is editing your char with the console (save first) and see if you notice any difference... i may end up doin that but atm im not quite bored enough to do it

ill say this much... I really dont think that my dmg is lacking at all... id say that im on par with destruction at least and currently im sitting at around 1300 armor soooo idk the char is strong enough and hand to hand is viable imo

There is a perk in the heavy armour tree which adds the armour rating of your gauntlets to your fist fight damage. The result can be pretty damn awesome if you're good at smithing..