I am loving my Argonian mage, don't get me wrong, but my first intent was to play a khajiit monk, ala Morrowing and Oblivion.

I know you need heavy armor perks to make this successful, but, if I'm going armorless, other than gauntlets (those that I can find that still show claws, like Imperial Steele gauntlets, etc), how can you raise heavy armor besides paid training?

If unarmed attacks don't level up any skill, do you advance incredibly slowly in levels?

Also, unlike enchanting and alchemy, I'm having difficulty with smithing. Any tips? I can never seem to find the materials necessary, anyway.

Lastly, are there any perks in the combat categories that affect unarmed other than heavy armor?

Thanks!

Isn't there a trainer follower for Heavy Armor? i.e. Free Training (to a point)?

I expect past that point, you'd need to actually wear some to train it. Sure, you could do it with JUST the gauntlets... but that would take far longer than necessary.

First off, everything about your name and avatar is [censored] awesome. I love It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

To answer your questions:

You should level just from being hit while wearing the gauntlets, but as SotiCoto said, it would be slow. You can also use 1-2 skill books for minor increases. Don't forget the Warrior Stone and Well Rested bonuses from sleeping.

As you are not raising an actual combat skill from fighting (besides heavy armor), it will be slower to level. As an alternative, level up an additional skill that you wouldn't normally have leveled like Speech or Alchemy. Or just settle for not leveling as fast.

Unless you just spam Iron Daggers (not advised), smithing actually requires a bit of work to increase. Grab a pickaxe and look for mines and ore veins in the wild. You will need to do a bit of adventuring to level the skill without buying stuff from vendors. I find the best place to do this is in the Reach, as there are a lot of mines by Markarth. Also, you are going to need to kill a lot of wolves, foxes, bears, and saber cats for leather.

The only perks that affect H2H is in Heavy Armor afaik.

Enchanting.... you can enchant unarmed strike damage to rings and gauntlets.

To level smithing and enchanting without OVER leveling.... you need to restrict yourself.

For smithing, collect pelts from slain animals and craft leather armor for sale. leather bracers will provide more XP per pelt, while leather armor provides more $ per pelt. Additionally just collect any ore you see and craft that as well. If you aren't perking into smithing, you can just use the Ingots you get to improve weapons you find. If you do this MOST of your levels will come from smithing the leather armor... but it works.

For enchanting, do NOT enchant smithed items, but instead use your petty gems to enchant valuable basic weapons you find/loot (after improving them first if you have the mats ). You may also want to use your lesser gems this way. This will be your primary form of enchanting xp. Use lesser and common gems to refill charges on your followers weapons and on staves. Use greater gems to enchant weapons you are giving to followers, and grand to enchant gear for yourself.

The thing to avoid is buying up iron ore & ingots to smith daggers that you then enchant... this will powerlevel your character too fast and remove a lot of fun and challenge from the game.


Other areas to get XP and get character levels since you'll get little to none from combat....

Cast muffle a lot while moving through dungeons to increase your Illusion.
Use Alteration for every fight to increase armor via flesh spells
Craft potions from acquired ingredients
Collect as much loot as possible and sell a lot to level speech
Pick every lock to raise lockpicking
Casting Soul Siphon to level conjuration while filling gems
Sneaking up to enemies and getting sneak attacks
Use restoration for healing over potions as much as possible

Many of these will level slowly, and you'll also not want to perk into probably sneak, conjuration, illusion, or lockpicking... but skill levels add to your character XP which, lacking destruction, archery, and 1/2 hand skill levels, you'll need to level up as many trees as possible.

Also... you may consider using followers that can train you in those skills you aren't using... just for the XP. Obviously Heavy Armor should be first to get that perk, but you can also train up all the other combat schools except light armor.

Biggest problem I see you having is armor rating... using heavy armor gaunlets will nullify mage armor... meaning you'll have a very low armor rating. You might almost be better off giving up the damage bonus from the gauntlets to get 3x strength to your flesh spells it you're dedicated to wearing cloth.... that or wear full heavy armor (or more at least... maybe skip the helm).

Alternatively you could wear light armor for chest and feet. A number of leather/hide/fur types might look light enough for you to not look too much like armor.

Eh...with my H2H Khajiit I just threw on a heavy armor briastplate whenever a fight started until I reached the appropriate Heavy Armor skill level (35?).
Then I went back to no armor except the gauntlets.

You want to smith effectively without buying out the iron stocks, AND get plenty of cash into the bargain?

Dwarven Bows.

Loot Dwemer ruins, grab all the scrap... melt it down... Pickaxe a few Iron deposits for the bare bones iron supply you'll need... Make Dwarven Bows and upgrade them (once you've got the perk for it)....
Best done with that perk from the quest started by the argonian outside Riften... especially since it involves going through a Dwemer ruin anyway! =p

I am going to try a level 1 H2H monk who travels the land doing miscelaneous quests. I don't really like the H2H system though so I might wait to tweak it when tthe CK is released.

You don't have to level generally the game will keep npcs within a certatin level range. There are exceptions however such as Dragon Priests, some dwemer machinery and dragons.

If you just happen to be on the PC you can download and install this mod.

Glowing Ore Veins 300
http://skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/file.php?id=193

For smithing i crafted Iron Daggers witch needed 1 iron ingot 1 leather strap.I think i ended up useing rougly 500 iron ingots n leather straps. i also held onto a good portion of thoes crafted daggers so i could use them to lvl my enchanting for when i finaly get around to it lol.

Helpful tips, all. Thanks!

One more question, is there a way to "favorite" or quick slot your fists? As it stands, whenever i switch to a heal spell, I have to hit Q, then deselect both hands from the heal spell. A minor nuisance.

Speaking of ore, I've only found one smelter where I could melt down my ores for ingots, butI forgot where it was! What are some other locations?

Many mines have smelters next to the entrance.