I think I finished everything worth doing for my character and am going to start again soon. I've never done hand to hand before and might want to try that next. Anyone have experience on what kind of character to roll? Any fun mods out there for this? Or any good gameplay mods in general? Usually I just use MCA + adventurer's + graphic/sound stuff

Cheers

Aragon's Monk mod is worth looking at:
http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Mods.Detail&id=7525

It might be looked on as a minor cheat but it really just makes it less tedious to get a kill after the knockdown.

I've played h2h characters a couple times; it's good if you want to rp a nonviolent character, as you can knock folks unconscious instead of killing them. Some versions allow you to pickpocket them while they're unconscious, but I can't remember if that's from a mod.

h2h can be more challenging as it's very weak at the start, but once it's levelled up it works great. Try for a light and fast kungfu type stealth character with either light or no armor; acrobatics & athletics; sneak; maybe alchemy & some other stealth skills. If you're using h2h & unarmored, then you have no use for armorer skill.

Also note that your hands count as magic weapons for fighting undead. I don't know why.

See my profile for some of the MW mods I use.

It might be a bit an extreme, but I think BTB's game improvements might be a good mod to look at. Not only does it increase the amount of AR you get from unarmoured, but also changes the governing attritube of H2H from speed to strength.

What is the best non-beast race to play?

I believe the only non beast race to get a hand to hand bonus is Imperial.

If you aren't using MCP (Morrowind Code Patch), then check it out. It has an option to allow strength to count in hand to hand. It also has an option to pickpocket unconscious NPCs. MCP provides a description of what the option does.

Use enchantments and spells that damage fatigue. They're especially useful against animals, most of them have uncommonly high fatigue.