1) I've seen quite a few unarmed builds and almost all of them seem to pump strength. Why? Bonus damage is based on skill not stat, right?

2) I get the impression that unarmed is strongest with a stealth build and focusing on SACs. If that is so, how do unarmed characters deal with groups of enemies or cazs...or worse, groups of cazs...without getting torn to shreds.

3) Is light armor viable with unarmed on hard/hardcoe? If so, how do you survive?

1. Endurance and Luck is part of what's used to set the initial level of the skill. Strength has no impact on this skill, only on the weapons you would use with it. However, all of those are low in Strength Requirements. So, Strength is not needed at all for this skill.

2. Stealth can help any build, with unarmed, it can help you get the first hit, which is key in some battles. Handling groups of enemies? At this point you have to decide if your going pure Unarmored, or your going to have a secondary combat skill. However, I would stay away from things like the Power Fist types of weapons for Cazodors and other soft enemies that swarm as they are slow to recharge (even with upgrades). For them, a bladed gauntlet or even spike knuckles are enough. Also, Love and Hate gives a two handed punch (I think, I gave them to Veronica, she likes them)

3. Light Armor can work, if you use tactics in battle that let you avoid hits or damage. I have never worn Heavy Armor in any game I have played, so I don't see it as a negative for survival in any event.

1) Unarmed as a skill is governed by Endurance, but each point of STR gives .5 points of bonus damage with meleee/unarmed. Not much, but offers some help.

My personal favorite Unarmed build doesn't put any points in STR aside from start. Can rely on alcohol, Sierra Madre Martinis, Buffout, Bighorner Steak, Wasteland Tequila, Powered Armor, and a million other things to temporarily boost STR enough to do what needs to be done. Only reason to set STR to 6 at beginning is to allow it to be raised to 7 with implant so as to get Super Slam.

2) I personally view Stealth as secondary in any build. Unarmed deals with groups of enemies or Cazadors or groups of Cazadors in one way: By being meaner than they are, and living until they're not. Endurance as a stat governs Unarmed as a skill - also governs hit points, radiation resistance, Survival as a skill, & poison resistance. Set Endurance to 9, implant to 10, poison resistance is 50%. Listen to Raul's third story, and that should give you an idea of how to play Unarmed when the [censored] hits the fan.

3) Unarmed is possible with any weight of armor. I personally recommend Light/Clothing for the lack of a speed debuff. Use chems to make up for the reduced DT.

Many Unarmed builds have high Luck for the critical hit chance, not for the initial skill level.

I'm going through another play through with yet another guns guy. I went cowboy style this time, but it's really still more of the same. I'm thinking of scrapping it and going with more of a brawler type. I'm playing with the JSawyer mod, which has these important effects:

1) My health is essentially halved.
2) Most of the Melee/Unarmed perks have conditionals added so either can meet the requirement. In other words, you can get Ninja with Unarmed 80 instead of Melee 80. (Side note, Ninja actually works properly with this mod).
3) My carry weight is also reduced significantly (50+10*ST).
4) My Level is capped at 35.

The health droppage concerns me, especially with low armor. Early on, I can get killed by a radscorpion in just a few hits. It might only take one or two if I get poisoned. However, if it's viable, I prefer the mobility of light armor. I put together this build and could use some critique:

S 6
P 5
E 8
C 1
I 6
A 6
L 8

Tags:
Unarmed, Repair, and probably Survival
Traits:
Skilled and either Good Natured or Built to Destroy
Perks:
Light Touch
Educated or Comprehension
Travel Light
Super Slam
Finesse
Piercing Strike
Silent Running
Better Crits
Paralyzing Palm
Ninja
Rad Child
Slayer
Nerves of Steel
Tunnel Runner


My only hang up is that I'm a side-quest/completionist fiend, so I always keep up my non-combat skills so I don't lose out on anything.

I envision this character as someone was has a surly/misanthropic (hence CH 1) handyman (or handywoman) that liked to hit the bars and brawl a bit. Getting bored with that life, s/he decided to become a courier, and has been doing that until this mess. I'm leaning towards Comprehension for the second pick. It's a bit better for this concept, and probably more effective skill points when you think about it. This build is obviously crit-oriented, because I read that it works well with unarmed, but I have no idea why. Only a handful (no pun intended) have a better than x1 crit bonus or do bonus crit damage. I've also heard that unarmed is great in VATs, but I'm not sure how. The AP costs rival that of most rifles, nevermind pistols.

There are some perks I don't have that concern me somewhat. Strong Back is one. With the dropped carry weight, it leaves me with a tight fit. People say that you save space on ammo with melee/unarmed, but a power fist weights as much as any gun/ammo combo I would carry. Also, I was thinking of supplementing my tactics with explosives when necessary, and those can be pretty hefty. Jury Rigging would be handy, too. Weapon HP seems to be pretty low for unarmed weapons and a lot of them can only be repaired with only other versions of them, or WRKs (but I don't want to have to carry around a stack of those, too). I'd probably feel more comfortable with a couple ranks of Toughness, though it won't matter for Cazs and DCs which are my biggest worries, so it's not a major concern. I'll tell you, though. I don't think there's enough Med-X in the wastes.

Anyway, this is what I'm thinking so far. I would appreciate some input.

1) Strength governs carry weight and some Unarmed weapon require high Strength; Unarmed Perks also have Strength requirement.

2) Sneak attacks are just minor bonus, punch in the head its how things get done most of the time; anyways, there are Unarmed perks that enable a special move to knock enemy down, another knock them down by chance. Keep on moving also helps, use cover and try to face enemy one by one.

You don't need Endurance 9, start with 7 and 8 with implant is plenty; with decent Survival you regen fast enough to counter the poison and you can make anti-venom.

3) Drugs, Hydra is great. Not to mention moving faster with light armour would help you take less hits.

That only applies to FO1/FO2/Tactics. Since Fallout 3/NV it has been Luck and Endurance. None of the associated perks in this game have a Strength Requirement.

Your build seems pretty solid to me - though I would go for Comprehension over Educated as +20 to a skill from a skill book can satisfy a lot of skill checks. If you have OWB using the saturnite fist super-heated in conjunction with Pyromaniac makes it arguably the best unarmed weapon (the industrial hand from LR potentially being better). Apart the industrial hand, it has both the highest damage and DPS out of any unarmed weapon (including the ballistic fist), and has a fairly low AP cost to boot - just something to think about.

The more I think about it the better Comprehension sounds over Educated.

What about the build's focus on crits? Would I be better of taking a pass on those perks and instead building to be more consistent? Maybe something built around Heavy Handed (20% all the time seems like it would be pretty sweet). If so, what would that look like? I don't really see the strengths of a crit build with unarmed. I just went with it as I have more experience with crit builds than anything else.

As long as the Critical Chance does not go down (like it does for one of the Perks or Traits) then I would choose what buffs the Criticals. With Unarmed, in some fights, each hit counts, so having some give a Critical would be a good thing, as long as you don't reduce how often they can happen.

Well, Heavy Handed doesn't nerf your crit%, but the crit damage (by a wopping 60%). However, nless you're critting at least 30% of the time and relying on SACs, I imagine you're probably better off the the +20% base damage. Then again, everything I've read online says to stay away from this trait though nobody says why. I eyeballed the math, and it seems like it would pretty much balance out. But, with heavy handed, you can skip out on Better Crits, Finesse, Ninja, and Light Touch, instead taking other perks. I'll have to develop and post a Heavy Handed build for comparison.

I'm also starting to consider Melee over Unarmed, if only because the powerfists just look kinda silly.

Don't take Heavy Handed if you have a primary Unarmed build. For Melee, at least with 2 hand melee weapons, it is golden since the crit damage for most of them is only half of base damage.

Be aware however, crit damage ignore DT; you also get a higher spike damage, which means you are likely to kill instead of taking punishment.

Don't forget to compare about about Critical related perks and Luck to low critical build that you are planing; needless to say you would have a hard time founding ways to do more damage without crits, unless you are looking at Explosives.

You're probably right. I took another look at it and didn't take into account crits bypassing armor. That helps with deathclaws, but you're still pretty stuck with cazs. I haven't found a reliable way to generate med-x or antivenoms. I suspect med-x and slasher are kings for CQ builds, especially when light armor is involved.

So's Buffout. 60 hp above your normal total for the enemy to feast upon before you need to use healing items.

Provided you own LSR: snakebite tourniquet > antivenom. Much easier to mass produce && the kicker is the 85% poison res for 30 sec

Melee wouldn't be better of against Cazadors, reach aint much further.

Antivenom is more ready available than Snakebite Tourniquet, the former is all over Mojave and Zion.

Be well stocked and counter the poison with regen is what I do with my Berseker character.

I do , and pick up every bit of surgical tubing I can find, which is not much. With my ranged character, I usually have less than a half dozen of these on me at any given time. I expect I'd be begging for it with a CQ fighter.

The best feature of the snakebite tourniquet is that it gets automatically applied whenever you get poisoned so very little or no health is lost at all. Although this does mean it gets used up quickly if you get repeatedly poisoned.

I rather have my poison cured once it hit a certain point. IIRC you can't get the same poison effect twice, i.e. you wouldn't get double Cazador poisoning.

Some great info especially on dealing with cazadors. I have yet to go full melee. Way too much scary stuff out there. I dont mind using a melee weapon like an axe or razor blade when trying to save ammo but hand to hand is out. One of my favorite things about FALLOUT NEW VEGAS is just how dangerous enemies are. Makes even running away feel like a victory

Contrary to visual clues, melee/unarmed usually end up keeping PC from getting damaged, aside from DealthClaw who knock backs on hit and deadly poison.

The one reason i can think of for high strength is to meet the STR requirement for the ballistic fist (which is 9). Considering the ballistic fist is one of the highest damaging unarmed weapons in the game, this isnt a suprise.

Well, you might also want to qualify for Piercing Strike (STR 7).

That too. Both good reasons to have high strength.