It would be interesting if the more a character would be able to carry the larger it would be. With size comes power and strength with that hand-to-hand damage multipliers.

So a weak character would be slimmer thus have lower strength.

So you could even distinguish stronger enemies from weaker ones.

In the trailer there were ordinary characters but the two dudes dueling looked quite a bit larger and more muscular.

I'm glad so many people care about hand-to-hand.

This gives me hope it was given some attention in this game.

im with you (even though id play with a slimmer guy) but devs would never implement it

but then again slimmer characters should have higher agility or speed

I'm a Martial Arts fan, I'm always enthused when hand-to-hand is introduced in a game. Look at some on Assassins Creed and Uncharted. :wink_smile:

Personally, I'm hoping that enhancing strength has no effect on appearance. Why you may be asking (assuming you aren't sneering)? Because do you really want to have the option to change your character the way you want, boost their strength a bunch, then look again and they look rather...odd with muscles suddenly everywhere? Especially if you're a slender rogue, mage, or whatever.

Unless your appearance changed upon changing your abilities pertaining to appearance and they showed a before and after picture, asking if you'd like to change accept the new you. Then nevermind.

Now, onto whoopin' up on some bandits! :toughninja:

Heavy people can have brute force but less finesse with their attacks. Light people may have more finesse and less strength. Just means that if each type focused on their style of combat, there would be no difference in damage output, right? If you're using Hand to Hand as a skill, that means you're focusing on it and your specific fighting style inRP. Easier just to leave any body-mass related bonuses out of it seeing as the end result for a well trained character of either build would be the same.

Perks that give you special attacks that diverge either into 'brawler' or 'martial artist' would be awesome though. Like massive brute-force power attacks for brawler and lightning quick palm strikes for martial arts. Also, please, please give the Kaijits retractable claws as a built in Hand-to-Hand melee weapon!

I really want Hand-to-Hand to be a more useful skill. It's irritating using it in Oblivion just because it's so useless compared to the other combat skills. Despite that, I'm sticking with it. I'd hope Skyrim could make it a genuinely fun skill. I'm thinking Hand-to-Hand weapons, special moves that can be learned by quest or perk, damage being affected by the gauntlets you're wearing and other little bonuses that differentiate it from the single handed and dual handed weapons.

Body type is a cosmetic feature in the game, a skinny martial art expert would be able to take out a big lumberjack, enemy strength is based on equipment and level.
One day you run into a small Bosmer lady in lower-class clothing, she is a master in destruction and expert in conjugation and illusion.

i would rather our actual strength be seperate from our body type/looks. If you want your character to be strong and muscular you can do it. Don't take away peoples options to create a strong wirey thief.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4_tOiLB_Ko
But I want them to definately have plenty of stuff for h2h to do.

Um, I know of many folks 5'6 who can carry 75# for 20 miles or more. Or even 100#. I think that qualifies as not large, yet strong.

Also, regarding hand to hand, knowledge of where to hit and how can be just as important as the strength.

So you're basically saying that the higher your strength, the bigger you get? I like that, it would tell me how screwed I am if I don't manage to kill somebody with my sneak attack. The only problem is that I like assassinating as a monk, so if my size affects my ability to sneak around, it would start hurting my ability to stalk targets, but it WOULD be that much more insulting to get sneak attacked by someone 7 and a half feet tall and looks like he could bend you in a pretzel, and I love adding insult to injury, so being big and sticking to the shadows would be kinda challenging and fun.