Skills & Perks Heavy ArmorĪs mentioned earlier, you’re going to want to be outfitted in Heavy Armor.
If you don’t have enough padding between you and their hits, it doesn’t matter how hard you can throw a punch. That means you’re pretty much leaving yourself open to longer-reach sword strikes, ranged attacks from their allies, and hard-hitting blunt strikes from hammers. Unlike other methods of combat, you’re going to be right in your opponent’s face, punching with reckless abandon. Still, the main one is that Heavy Armor dramatically improves your defense much more than any other base armor type. Heavy Armor has several different benefits for an Unarmed Build (some of which we’ll get into during the Skills & Perks section). When it comes to what you will want to be wearing, it may seem crazy considering your character’s race, but you’ll want to be completely outfitted in Heavy Armor. Argonians are a distant 2nd as their racial bonus bumps them to a +14, but yeah, it really is no competition. Sidenote: Just so you are all fully aware, every other race has an unarmed attack of +4. Yeah… and that’s before you even leave Helgen. To put into context, the Dragonbone sword, the most powerful weapon in the game, in its standard base state, +15 points of damage. If you’re counting, that means these mean kitties have an insane +22 to all their hits. Not only that, but, as Beastfolk, the Khajiit have an additional +10 to their unarmed attacks similar to the Argonians. This is because the Khajiit has a unique racial ability known as Claws, which essentially gives them a +12 on all unarmed attacks.
Those are the number one-hitters when it comes to hitting. The furry, sneaky cat people are described as super thieves and assassins. The best-unarmed combatant race, by far, is the Khajiit.
Now, while one might instinctively consider the Orsimer Orcs, the Redguard, or even the Nord to act as a viable combatant option, you’d be wrong. First thing’s first, you’re going to have to determine what race your character is.