So I was thinking of a unique, for me at least, playthrough involving a spiritual martial artist on a journey to transcendence through combat. I'm thinking Breton, and using restoration and alteration to represent his abilities of channeling. My question is will this be viable on later levels? I know you can boost some gear with unarmed fortifications, but each race except the khajit start with 4, unarmed, right?

May have a bit of trouble beating Draugr deathlords to death with your bare hands.

If you use the exploits for crafting, you should be fine.

If it gets too hard as the game progresses you can always drop the difficulty level. If you enjoy hand to hand fighting and your enjoying your character try that rather than give up. It's all about the enjoyment...no?

Very true.

Good luck with dragons.