Fallout 4 – Does the Iron Fist Perk Affect Melee Weapons in Fallout 4?

The displayed damage is the regular damage. Power attacks do extra.

The Nukapedia page on Melee Damage states that

• Melee and Unarmed attacks in V.A.T.S. do twice as much normal damage, but this doubling is done before Strength is added.
• Power attacks in real-time combat also double normal damage.

The damage was doubled in previous Fallout games, but the Damage Resistance page says that, for close combat damage in Fallout 4,

PowerAttackMulti = 1.5

So it's possible the multiplier may have changed. Regardless of the multiplier, power attacks do more damage, rather than normal attacks doing less.

You're not going to achieve the same level of damage resistance without power armor as you will with it. However, there is more to it than just the perks available on the perks screen, throughout the wastelands and the buildings in it there are a variety of books, here are some that I've found so far that will help:

Collectable books:

• Astoundingly Awesome 3 - Take 5% less damage from robots
• Astoundingly Awesome 5 - +5 poison resistance
• Astoundingly Awesome 10 - +5 radiation resistance
• Wasteland Survival 2 - Take 5% less damage from insects
• Wasteland Survival 8 - Take 5% less damage from melee attacks

Note that all of these "5% less damage taken" perks aren't included in your overall damage resistance rating, but the specific damage type resistance ratings are showing on the STAT > STATUS screen in Pip Boy.

Then you've got your perks:

• Toughness - +10 damage resistance per level
• Unstoppable - +1% chance to avoid all damage per level

From there you're looking at building up every piece of your armor to resist as much damage as possible. But you should know, even with the armor I've found so far I'm nowhere near power armor levels.