Hand to hand any good?

[Lord Sunnycool]

I am rather a newbeginner in the Elder Scrolls, and I have a level 9 combat-oriented character so far! I chose Blade as my "weapon" Major Skill, and I have not been disappointed, as I am using swords as weapons for the biggest part of my adventuring. I just wondered if Hand-to-hand is any good and what benefits it has to blade and blunt melee weapons! What would make it worth having as a major skill?

[Crono]

Hand-to-hand is actually quite decent in Oblivion, from what i've seen of it. Seems to deal a fair amount of damage, and the blocking function works great. That's about all I can tell ya since I only just started a melee char myself.

[Kirwin]

I am rather a newbeginner in the Elder Scrolls, and I have a level 9 combat-oriented character so far! I chose Blade as my "weapon" Major Skill, and I have not been disappointed, as I am using swords as weapons for the biggest part of my adventuring. I just wondered if Hand-to-hand is any good and what benefits it has to blade and blunt melee weapons! What would make it worth having as a major skill?

Hand to Hand isn't all it's cracked up to be. You still take damage when blocking opponents weapons and you can only damage Fatigue until your opponent becomes Unconsious; only then can you start hurting "him".  Also, If you use Hand to Hand you miss out on all the enchantable Weapons you get later in the game.

[metamay]

...and you can only damage Fatigue until your opponent becomes Unconsious; only then can you start hurting "him".

Not true, you do damage to both health and fatigue when you hit with hand to hand in Oblivion. In Morrowind it was as you described.

I also quite like hand to hand in Oblivion, it's fun, and it has its uses when you are disarmed for example.

[Thuraya]

As a main form of attack its pretty much uesless. When its Lvled up its pretty good

[Lord Sunnycool]

So damage to fatigue is the biggest addition. Good. Doesn't seem like I missed a big thing then. Thanks for information! I prefer having a shield and enchanted weapon

[Misere]

Hopefully the devs will look at bringing in some Nuckle dusters or mailed gloves that can be enchanted.  Anyone ever play a savage in DAOC you will know what I mean.  Untill some thing along those lines I cant see myself being a fan of hand to hand.

[squapple]

me being a master of hand to hand i find it to be a desen wepon when i block i usally disarm my opponent i paralyze them also when a punch and nock down my opponet durning the fight and i do a decent amout of damage i have kill many minatuor lords well yo have to be a high lvl to fight them but i can fight 3 at a time in the arena.  After you kill every one in the arena you can fight monsters and make some decent cash

[Misere]

That does sound pretty cool Squapple but I dont think I would have the patience to master hand to hand:))

[squapple]

That does sound pretty cool Squapple but I dont think I would have the patience to master hand to hand:))

yes the way that i did it is i am master of illusion so i paralyzed a minitour lord in the arena and then i attack him alot then healed him and kept repeating that

[Lingam]

From what I understand you don't have a higher chance of performing disarm or paralyze move.. maybe what you say about draining stamina is true though. But since you can't ever get any magical items like you can with weapons I feel that hand to hand is currently quite useless unless you pick if for a roleplaying reason or such.
There are mods out there that try to balance this out though by enhancing the hand to hand skill in various ways.

[Lord Sunnycool]

yes the way that i did it is i am master of illusion so i paralyzed a minitour lord in the arena and then i attack him alot then healed him and kept repeating that

I'd never be bothered to do that 

Then I prefer to just use my blade - it's too late to take hand to hand as major anyways!