Is unarmed a viable specialization?

[MaceInTheFace]

I put this here because the answer to this question might be considered a spoiler.

 

Can unarmed, if you create your class correctly, be as powerful as other weapons? Or at least, is it possible for unarmed to not suck?

[revan1988]

On vanilla? Or heavily modded?

 

If it's the former, then unarmed is definitely not worth investing in, especially if you mean it to be your main DPS source on higher levels.

[MaceInTheFace]

On vanilla? Or heavily modded?

 

If it's the former, then unarmed is definitely not worth investing in, especially if you mean it to be your main DPS source on higher levels.

Are there any mods that enhance unarmed in a balanced way?

 

Edit: Nevermind, there aren't any.

Edited April 20, 2011 by MaceInTheFace

[Striker879]

Hand to hand is my last major skill to not reach max, so I've been using it a lot more now than the past. I think once you get past that level 25 hump, and you're leveling past all the monsters and bad guys you could do it. You'd probably want either some good mage skills to help with the tough fights or have a good set of legs for getting out of Dodge while you're a lower level guy. You'd be able to max your gold intake by selling all the loot. :thumbsup:

[Deleted1848331User]

Hand-to-hand? The max damage you can do on vanilla is around 12, I believe, and thats with 100 skill level and strength. A good mod I use to fix this is here (I use the 34.esp), if you'd like to check it out. Its also fun to use this along with it. This is also one of my favorites to use with both of those...

 

I wouldn't use it without mods in Oblivion... Its too weak.

Edited April 21, 2011 by Guest

[MaceInTheFace]

Hand-to-hand? The max damage you can do on vanilla is around 12, I believe, and thats with 100 skill level and strength. A good mod I use to fix this is here (I use the 34.esp), if you'd like to check it out. Its also fun to use this along with it. This is also one of my favorites to use with both of those...

 

I wouldn't use it without mods in Oblivion... Its too weak.

ooo... I will try that mod out. Ty.

[Daledge]

It isn't very good, you'd want to have a good armor skill to go along with it, and prepared to be healing a LOT. But bear in mind that is fun to go around punching people, or kicking. :thumbsup: (Through mods.)

 

-Daledge

[Ghoulz]

What if you combine it with the unarmored skill mod?

[Chunhwa]

I'm a fan of the Better Hand to Hand mod found here: http://tesnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=3290. I've been using it for a long time and it feels very balanced. Increased damage to be a little less than that of a melee weapon (because your fists drain fatigue), block absorption increased to that of blocking with a melee weapon and no shield, slightly increased range and a higher chance of disarm on the sideways power attack. Very early on (like levels 1-5) it may feel a tad stronger than using a weapon but it quickly changes and can be remedied by simply adjusting the difficulty during those first few levels.

[gpstr1]

To me, it depends on what you mean by "viable." I think h2h is actually balanced fairly well and works fine, so it's definitely viable in that sense. From what I've read from other people over the years, the problem seems to be that they try to use h2h the same way they would a melee weapon - just stand there and swing away. In the first place, unless you have good armor skill, a shield and preferably an uber weapon that'll make fights short, just standing there and swinging away is almost always a bad strategy. And that's doubly true with h2h, just because the fights last so much longer, so you're going to get hit more often and take more damage.

 

The first step to using h2h effectively is to keep moving. You're better off stepping in, getting off a shot or two, then stepping back out again than you are just standing there hitting and getting hit, and that because your opponent will almost certainly have a melee weapon and will potentially be doing more damage to you per hit than you're doing to him. So you want to avoid being hit as much as possible. But that's where one of the advantages to h2h comes into play - not carrying a weapon, you're going to almost certainly move faster, so it's going to be easier to step in and out of range.

 

As the fight progresses, you'll be doing fatigue damage as well as HP damage, and that's the other advantage to h2h. Once you get their fatigue whittled down far enough, they'll be doing quite a bit less weapon damage, and you'll be able to spend more time in close. And once you get them down to zero, you'll knock them down, and from there on out, it's a cakewalk. They might, barely, be able to get a hit in on you (which won't do much damage anyway) but mostly you'll just be hitting them a few times, then they'll get up, then you hit them once and they go down again. Just repeat until they're dead.

 

But that, to me, is where the biggest problem with h2h comes in. Particularly later in the game, that whole process takes a tedious amount of time. You're doing so little damage that it takes forever to kill something. Yes - they're spending most of their time on the ground and if they do manage to hit you, they're not going to do hardly any damage anyway, but still, you just hit them and hit them and hit them and hit them and hit them and......