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?
Best Answer
I played through the start of the game unarmed (Khajit), and never increased my one-handed or two-handed skills.
If only comparing pure damage, yes.
The sneak perk Backstab applies to one-handed weapons, which bare-handed is not.
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.