Unarmed in Skyrim (New Formula) - Help me out if you have some spare time. Thanks.

[Argonian alchemist]

Khajit Claws add 12pts

Fortify Unarmed Damage
This enchantment can be applied to your Gauntlets and a Ring. The base is +5pts damage.
Max Enchanting seems to be able to improve on the base to 362% the base which would give 18pts damage per enchanted item.

Adds 36pts

You'll want Daedric gauntlets which have a base defence of 18. However, if smithed with maximum smithing and wearing heavy armour you can get a much higher defence.

To get this number I will reference Min - Maxing Armor / Weapons using Crafting in Skyrim.

If you add up the base Daedric armour you get 144 defence.

Of the 144 base armour, 18 or 12.5% is from the gauntlets.

Full Daedric Armor: 2469 Armor

12.5% of 2469 = 308.625


Level 100 heavy armour = +40%
Perks = +150%
Fortify Heavy Armour (Neck, Chest, Arm, Finger) = 4 * 29% = +116%

Adds ~1250 Damage
Adds 18 Damage

Total

Base Attack = 10pt
Khajit Claws = 12pts
Fortify Unarmed Damage * 2 = 36pts
Daedric Gauntlets = 18 Damage

76 damage per hit

Note: There may be mistakes in the above calculations. If you see an error please point it out so that I can correct it!
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Sorry if this is confusing to anyone. Any input, questions or add-ons would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like some help with this. I'd be able to remake the entire Elder Scrolls Unarmed page.

 

[soren7550]

Soo... pretty much this then?:

 

[Argonian alchemist]

What..? I've already seen that. But this guy has no idea how to build characters. Yes, he's entertaining but him building a character build is like a dog operating a submarine.

I want to see if unarmed can be a viable combat variant late-game.

 

[soren7550]

What..? I've already seen that. But this guy has no idea how to build characters. Yes, he's entertaining but him building a character build is like a dog operating a submarine.

I want to see if unarmed can be a viable combat variant late-game.

Works though.

 

[Argonian alchemist]

What..? I've already seen that. But this guy has no idea how to build characters. Yes, he's entertaining but him building a character build is like a dog operating a submarine.

I want to see if unarmed can be a viable combat variant late-game.

Works though.

Not for serious players.

You wouldn't get past mid-game with that build. Even on novice.

I'd like for someone to check my calculations and see if it all checks out.

 

[soren7550]

What..? I've already seen that. But this guy has no idea how to build characters. Yes, he's entertaining but him building a character build is like a dog operating a submarine.

I want to see if unarmed can be a viable combat variant late-game.

Works though.

Not for serious players.

You wouldn't get past mid-game with that build. Even on novice.

I'd like for someone to check my calculations and see if it all checks out.

Reasonably certain that he beat the game with that playstyle, but alright, whatever floats your boat.

 

[Argonian alchemist]

What..? I've already seen that. But this guy has no idea how to build characters. Yes, he's entertaining but him building a character build is like a dog operating a submarine.

I want to see if unarmed can be a viable combat variant late-game.

Works though.

Not for serious players.

You wouldn't get past mid-game with that build. Even on novice.

I'd like for someone to check my calculations and see if it all checks out.

Reasonably certain that he beat the game with that playstyle, but alright, whatever floats your boat.

No, he didn't. Check his profile.

Now unless you have any productive input towards my question. Don't fill the page anymore. Thank you.

 

[SoranMBane]

This is a much better video for actual advice on this:


That's a pretty in-depth build guide right there, with lots of math and even some recommendations for Shouts to use and things like that. If you don't want to watch the entire thing, though, it turns out that the max damage you can do unarmed with a Khajiit character, the Fists of Steel perk, Daedric gauntlets, and enchantments is only 68.

 

[Argonian alchemist]

That's a pretty in-depth build guide right there, with lots of math and even some recommendations for Shouts to use and things like that. If you don't want to watch the entire thing, though, it turns out that the max damage you can do unarmed with a Khajiit character, the Fists of Steel perk, Daedric gauntlets, and enchantments is only 68.

In that case could you possibly take a look over my calculations? What exactly did I miss? Because mine ended up at 76. Any idea?

Also, I wish there was a way to make this skill better. I have no idea why they removed it. A lot of people loved the monk builds.

 

[Luca72]

I get the feeling your goal is to make unarmed viable within vanilla Skyrim. I tried something similar (unarmed has always been one of my primary skills in past games) and it seems like you can do respectable damage. You're not going to be maxed out like you would with the best melee weapons, but for Skyrim it's not like you necessarily need that amount of power.

I highly suggest you investigate some mods, like SkyRE or the Way of the Monk. I'm sure there are more, but I haven't been keeping up with mods lately. If you want the links, I can grab them when I get a chance.

My point is that you can min-max unarmed within vanilla Skyrim, but it's not going to be that rewarding in the end. The community has done a lot more with unarmed than Bethesda.

 

[piinyouri]

Yeah isn't 76 the cap in vanilla Skyrim? That is, the highest damage you can acquire using all the mechanics in the game?

I had an unarmed character that I played till around level 30 on adept, never had an issue.
One thing I found that makes everything much easier, is to carry a shield. The double power strike for unarmed is too slow and not powerful enough to warrant using it, having a shield will allow you to stun enemies with a bash, then punch them to death.

 

[digital_critic]

That's a pretty in-depth build guide right there, with lots of math and even some recommendations for Shouts to use and things like that. If you don't want to watch the entire thing, though, it turns out that the max damage you can do unarmed with a Khajiit character, the Fists of Steel perk, Daedric gauntlets, and enchantments is only 68.

In that case could you possibly take a look over my calculations? What exactly did I miss? Because mine ended up at 76. Any idea?

Also, I wish there was a way to make this skill better. I have no idea why they removed it. A lot of people loved the monk builds.

Fists of Steel is glitched, it won't count improving the gauntlets or other perk AC changes, but there is a mod that fixes it on the Steam workshop, that's why your calculation was off.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

0 skills required only items:

use alchemy to make ++restoration potions.
use enchanting to make ++alchemy items

use alchemy items to make better restoration potions to make better alchemy items to make better restoration potions.

Use superpowered alchemy items to make superpowered enchanting potions.

Enchant gloves or whatever items you want to increase unarmed damage to however much damage you want.

My end level vanilla character does 37,000 damage per hit while unarmed. If you want to be less overpowered you could raise it to 100 or 200 damage. Whatever you want. Seems a lot easier than fumbling around with character builds. It's not like the game is difficult anyways.

Yeah isn't 76 the cap in vanilla Skyrim? That is, the highest damage you can acquire using all the mechanics in the game?

Nothing is capped in skyrim in terms of damage. In fact as far as I know there are only two caps, the level cap(removed I guess?) and the amount of damage reduced by armor rating.

 

[piinyouri]

0 skills required only items:

use alchemy to make ++restoration potions.
use enchanting to make ++alchemy items

use alchemy items to make better restoration potions to make better alchemy items to make better restoration potions.

Use superpowered alchemy items to make superpowered enchanting potions.

Enchant gloves or whatever items you want to increase unarmed damage to however much damage you want.

My end level vanilla character does 37,000 damage per hit while unarmed. If you want to be less overpowered you could raise it to 100 or 200 damage. Whatever you want. Seems a lot easier than fumbling around with character builds. It's not like the game is difficult anyways.

Yeah isn't 76 the cap in vanilla Skyrim? That is, the highest damage you can acquire using all the mechanics in the game?

Nothing is capped in skyrim in terms of damage. In fact as far as I know there are only two caps, the level cap(removed I guess?) and the amount of damage reduced by armor rating.

Right I know, what I meant was you can only get the damage so high with all the tricks, mechanics and what not.
Like there is only so much you can do. Have daedric gauntlets, smith them to legendary, have the fortify unarmed enchantment,and some others I can't quite remember. Point is, after all that, it will still only be 76 right?

Then again I'm forgetting about the DLC's, as they may have added some things to boost it further.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

Right I know, what I meant was you can only get the damage so high with all the tricks, mechanics and what not.
Like there is only so much you can do. Have daedric gauntlets, smith them to legendary, have the fortify unarmed enchantment,and some others I can't quite remember. Point is, after all that, it will still only be 76 right?

Then again I'm forgetting about the DLC's, as they may have added some things to boost it further.

Enchantment can raise it to however much you want using in game mechanics and does not require any DLCs to do so. The only limit I have found is that when you increase your bonuses to an absurd level the game will buffer overflow and crash. But you get to that point you have to have like 1,000,000,000% increased restoration skill. But as the damage becomes pointless after you deal like 20000 damage per hit there's no reason to increase it much past that anyways.

If you don't bother with any tricks to boost enchanting power though then yeah it's probably about 76 that you can get to.

 

[piinyouri]

Right I know, what I meant was you can only get the damage so high with all the tricks, mechanics and what not.
Like there is only so much you can do. Have daedric gauntlets, smith them to legendary, have the fortify unarmed enchantment,and some others I can't quite remember. Point is, after all that, it will still only be 76 right?

Then again I'm forgetting about the DLC's, as they may have added some things to boost it further.

Enchantment can raise it to however much you want using in game mechanics and does not require any DLCs to do so. The only limit I have found is that when you increase your bonuses to an absurd level the game will buffer overflow and crash. But you get to that point you have to have like 1,000,000,000% increased restoration skill. But as the damage becomes pointless after you deal like 20000 damage per hit there's no reason to increase it much past that anyways.

If you don't bother with any tricks to boost enchanting power though then yeah it's probably about 76 that you can get to.

*smacks head*
Oh yeah, I forgot about that exploit.

Dear god that is ridiculously powerful.

 

[SoranMBane]

That's a pretty in-depth build guide right there, with lots of math and even some recommendations for Shouts to use and things like that. If you don't want to watch the entire thing, though, it turns out that the max damage you can do unarmed with a Khajiit character, the Fists of Steel perk, Daedric gauntlets, and enchantments is only 68.

In that case could you possibly take a look over my calculations? What exactly did I miss? Because mine ended up at 76. Any idea?

Also, I wish there was a way to make this skill better. I have no idea why they removed it. A lot of people loved the monk builds.

Comparing the numbers from your post and the video, it seems like it's the enchantment numbers your miscalculated on. The video says the max added damage is 14 per item, so only 28 total, not 36. It's also important to keep in mind that Fists of Steel only counts the base armor rating from your gauntlets, so it doesn't matter if you have any other heavy armor perks or if you've improved the gauntlets to legendary or not, you'll never get a damage bonus higher than 18 from a pair of Daedric gauntlets.