I was brawling Unthgerd earlier, trying to get a new companion and win some easy cash. Well, on Master, brawls take a while because you deal very little damage.

It took me 5 attempts. I did not die on any of them, but what did happen was everybody in the Inn at the time thought. "Oh look, two people fighting, how about I run in front of him!!!" and I accidentally hit Saadia 3 times and Idolaf once and then I succeeded on the 5th time.

STOP RUNNING IN FRONT OF MY FISTS!

When I do a Brawl, I now go to a part of the area where no NPCs can walk by. I have had three large scale riots, all directed at me, come from Brawling and having someone walk in front of me.

Now, I start the brawl and go to an area of town where there are no NPCs walking by or there is no way for an NPC to get in the way. Then I wait for the one who wants to brawl me to show up.

Heheheh. Happens all the time. NPCs are too stupid to steer clear of people that are swinging their limbs around.

I got into one of them brawls a stray fist hit someone it wasnt supposed to. My follower started killing people and I had to fight my way out of the city and got a huge bounty on my head.

I really don't like brawls. They take a long time, are really easy, and as you said, often cause me to hit specators.

Brawls are poor IMO, at lower levels I cant survive toe to toe so am forced keep hitting them then running away casting heal before going back to attack, at higher levels I can just stand and press attack until they die, zero challange, zero skill required and the same rewards every time. Utterly pointless.

One of the best thing in skyrim. I would of liked to be able to challenge people in inns, but it's not a huge part of the game.

You should be able to brawl (to the death or till they take a knee) wih anyone in Skyrim. It would have been a much more legal alternative to Nazeem.

I've only brawled a few time, cause I find it rather annoying to trade punches for a few minutes. Uthgerd, Cosnach, that racist guy in Windhelm (I was playing a Dunmer), and Borkol.