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I was wondering if by attacking bare handed, you increase your 1-hand (or 2-hands) weapon skill mastery. Also, do that weapon's branch perks apply to unarmed attacks?

Since there are items like armored gloves and skills like Iron Fists that boost unarmed combat, I thought the developers wanted you to take interest in that option (since Khajit as example, deal even more damage thanks to claws), and that fighting unarmed would affect at least the 1-hand skill increase.

Yet, I never ever saw my weapon (nor 1- nor 2-handed) skill bars increase while fighting unarmed.

And by the way, do the Khajiits's +15 claw bonus mean that every one-hand weapon below damage 15 is useless? (Aside for reach, magical bonuses, and any one-hand skill you bought of course.)

What about Skills? Does, as an example, "Backstab" skill bonus apply just to any 1-hand weapons, or to barehand too? Can I, say, do a stealthy instant kill from behind when unarmed? Like breaking the neck maybe?

And do other Skills like Paralyzing Strike, Bladesman, Bonebraker apply to barehands as well?

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  • Welcome to Gaming SE Angelo! You may need to trim your question down to one answerable problem. If you have more than one problem, feel free to ask more than one question.
    – au revoir
    Dec 1, 2011 at 16:00
  • Thanx for all the answer, I'll try to pull the unarmed backstab special animation! I'm try to have a sneaky Khajiit that fights unarmed, but that can also deal decent damage with 2-handed sword. Like a sort of barbarian were-tiger.
    – user15715
    Dec 2, 2011 at 8:14

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I was wondering if by attacking bare handed, you increase your 1-hand (or 2-hands) weapon skill mastery.

I played through the start of the game unarmed (Khajit), and never increased my one-handed or two-handed skills.

[...]do the Khajiits's +15 claw bonus mean that every one-hand weapon below damage 15 is useless?

If only comparing pure damage, yes.

Does, as example "Backstab" skill bonus apply just to any 1-hand weapons, or to barehand too?

The sneak perk Backstab applies to one-handed weapons, which bare-handed is not.

Can I, say, do a stealthy istant kill from behind when unarmed? Like breaking the neck maybe?

You can sneak attack while unarmed (and with a two-handed weapon) for extra damage. If you do enough damage to kill the opponent in one shot, you may be treated to a special animation. IIRC, there's an unarmed neck snap one.

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    just to add to this. Indirectly, the heavy armor skill affects unarmed damage simply due to the steel fists perk. Unarmed sneak attack still benefits from the default 2x multiplier.
    – l I
    Dec 1, 2011 at 18:05
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In Skyrim, Unarmed combat is not tied to any skill. The damages don't get better with skill level, only some perks and equipment can give you more hand-to-hand damages.

You can have more details about improving your fist damages in this question.

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    as a bonus though, you can use the extra perks you save towards something else. So its a tradeoff
    – l I
    Dec 1, 2011 at 18:04
  • Don't forget Khajit get a damage bonus as a permanent racial.
    – JClaspill
    Dec 1, 2011 at 21:23
  • @yx. it's a pretty bad tradeoff, considering that weapons soon become infinitely better than unarmed even without spending perks, not to mention weapon skills contributing to your level.
    – kotekzot
    Mar 20, 2012 at 20:40
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Khajiits actually have a base damage of 10 (alongside argonians) whereas every other race only has a base damage of 4. Unlike argonians, the khajiit get a bonus 12 (not 15 like the game states) unarmed damage, giving them a base damage of 22. This makes unarmed combat for khajiit very useful early game as it has higher damage than many weapons.

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You know that if you level up one-handed you unarmed levels up as well. Like with duel fighting, get that perk and you'll hit faster. You are using one hand at a time so should it be a one-handed weapon? But "if" you have a PC not an Xbox you can now download a "Monk Mod". Which fixes all of that. Upgrades unarmed and unarmored (for protection), also there are claw like weapons for unarmed weapons. Having one equipped just like a sword will allow you to block, have to and you can just rage face one them xD It's worth it and a lot of fun.

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