So yeah, I saw "that" video about the crazy swedish guy making a H2H character. I thought it looked bad ass and so I created a killer looking Orc tonight. I want to punch my way through Skyrim.

My question is, can I actually get by doing this? Has anyone out there done it and enjoyed the experience?

You can get by with it for quite awhile but at some point there's simply not enough ways to increase your hand to hand damage.

However, if you're on the PC there are already mods that change this by adding hand to hand damage that scales with level and the ability to enchant fortify unarmed onto everything.

Otherwise I think you could get to level 20-35 depending on difficulty before you hit a wall.

sometimes when i forget to equip a weapon, i punch because im too lazy to push a hotkey. I have the heavy armour perk which makes it pretty effective, and my daedric gauntlets look spiky on the knuckles when i form a fist, which looks cool. you can also find the gloves of the pugalist, which should help.
Sorry about my crazy sentence structure, im pretty tired.

There's really only one way to maximize a hand to hand character.

1. Khajitt for claw bonus.

2. Heavy Armor for unarmed bonus.

3. Enchanting for fortify unarmed.

I'm pretty sure these stack, at least a combo of two anyway. I've noticed more damage.

4. Werewolf (Optional)

This is for when the $@%^ hits the fan, and I'm not entirely sure the other bonuses even matter in beastmode.

If you do all that, it is possible to play Skyrim Tyson Punch Out on any difficulty other than EZ mode.

i saw that vid of a guy doing a crazy viking just running around and punching people. He did have heavy armour and his h2h combat upgraded

I think it's dumb orcs don't have racial bonus' for H2H. I can't even look my new character in the eye he's so [censored] bad ass! I'm planning on getting the gloves of the pugalist and then putting the enchant on to daedric gloves. How much damage will I be putting out then?

I was actually satisfied with Orc bonuses, one of the few that actually fits the race and the lore.

How much more damage? No solid numbers, conjecture from my own experience mind you... BUT

I would put it at about 10 - 15 percent more with the enchant, its not a HUGE difference but its there.

Berserk and that should go a long way to helping you, but berserk is once a day.

Khajitt bonus is passive and never goes away.

Enjoy the slug fest!

I might see how it goes, if not I'm just going to use dual wielded axes like in the Orc loading screen!

Dude, whole reason I made a dual-wielding 'zerker was because of that screen.

Once a day berserk makes my orc wait, a....lot.

I quit my hand to hand character once I realized that punching levels no skills. Not sure why it bothered me, but it did. Do let us know how it works out for you in the long run, though!

Side note: Argonian hand to hand attacks seem to have the same clawing animation as Khajit. I wonder whether they have a bonus too – or were once supposed to.

iirc argonians and khajits both have a higher unarmed damage then all races,
khajit still has highest because of passive though