Considering the distance that NPC mages can strike at, the high amount of damage & the constant bombardment they do, no.

It's just that it's easy to break the game with enchanting, smithing, and alchemy put together. So even with something as seemingly not viable as hand to hand, over enchanting those gauntlets would do the job. Especially if you're sitting around 1300 armor, holy crap.

Heavy armor is the Unarmed skill in this game, it has damage enhancers and everything. Not wanting to play a heavy armor H2H in like only wanting to level and put perks in 2 Handed but only using 1 Handed weapons.

That said the Pugalist Gauntlets are pretty easy to get and should be enough to keep a Khajit unarmed viable for a long time, at least until they can get the heavy gauntlets perk.

sooo i was messing around with weapons and i realized that even though my gauntlets say they are at 260? armor that isnt translated into damage... im not sure what its doing but it definitely doesnt do the damage of my gauntlets... i used the console to make my heavy armor 10,000 (this gave my gauntlets around 3k armor) then i hit an npc.. didnt do any more damage than i normally do ;\

*edit*
upon further testing upgrading ur gauntlets with smithing doesnt cause them to do more dmg either... it seems like the only damage you get from the perk is the base armor of the gauntlets ... fail ;\

My level 25 heavy armour dual-wielding Nord wearing Legendary Dragon Plate armour(not enchanted) without all of the heavy armour enhancement perks, and I can beat dragons and giants to death with my gloved fists. I clear out dungeons without weapons and barely take any damage in the process. I haven't used a potion or food in forever, and the finishing moves are just straight up awesome..

So yeah, one handed is actually more powerful in this than it ever was in Obliv/MW.

So if damage is based on the base damage of a pair of gauntlets, is damage still effected by your skill in Heavy Armor? Or can you simply smack the Gloves of the Pugilist enchantment on a pair of Plain Jane Daedric Gauntlets and only level up your Heavy Armor skill high enough to get Fists of Steel and still get max damage?

Hand to hand is not a viable combat style.

Not in the game and not in real life.

The fortify HtH enchant has very low magnitude; even with enchant abuse. And you cannot break blocks.

You'll do more damage with shield bash spam; with greater range and stun lock. :laugh:

The Khajiit hand-to-hand bonus goes a long way to allowing you to be Hand-to-hand, serving well into the mid-levels. I get owned by Khajiit bandit thugs that use their claws.

I think H2H ignores armor...