Im just trying to get my character to fight strictly with fists, anyone know the fastest way to bring up hand to hand skill? I fight in the Arena right now just with fists and its working pretty good, but I die alot lol.

All I can say is don't use a shield, and get your skill leveled up as quick as possible. Run around the forest and pummel enemies that wont hurt you too much, as bare hands leave your defences down, but using a shield drastically slows your attack speed.

http://www.awkwardzombie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2922

Just keep in mind that Oblivion's hand to hand mechanics rather svck.

i usually love h2h, but in oblivion the mechanix svck, as said above. also, imo, it should be a skill governed by agility, not strength. i generally like my characters to require strategy to overcome difficulties, so they usually have lowest strength and endurance.

if u wanna get this skill up fast, concentrate on a rather dull quest: finding ur nirn roots. basically following the tips on the uesp site works well. at lower lvls u will fight mudcrabs and fish... big deal - but good for h2h training.

i would try to develop some sort of 'dark monk' class, using illusion, restoration and destruction touch spells to complement h2h...

Why not just the monk class?

Anna my character plays H2H exclusively, she's taken down modded and Vanilla boss type creatures at level 11 and under by hand the list is..

Minotaur lords, a souped up mino lord with a shock spell, Gargoyles, an ancient gargoyle, couple of hundred guards, vampires, daedra, werewolf, ogres.. so on.
She's a custom race she has no actual strengths in combat, and is incredably weak to magic such as shock and frost, but still outfights most.

How does she do this sneak, h2h, block, restore fatigue potions, items that add to strength and timing to pace your enemies attacks, this is what you'll need as well in vanilla oblivion even though its tougher.
You'll also need a decent armour rating as well, so heavy, or light + shield spells armour, or outfits enchanted with shield spells are the way to go.

Stats are Sneak, h2h, block ( vital ), acrobatics, light armour, security and blade to represent punch daggers.

Mod wise there are a few that add to h2h, OOO comes with a great upgrade among its features, so if on pc check out these sites.

http://planetelderscrolls.gamespy.com/
http://www.tesnexus.com/

Edit: Anna does not use them, but damage fatigue, and drain fatigue are very good to have, poisons on bows or daggers, and or destruction spells to help KO opponents are a good way to go.

Vital for my old H2Her was a high Agility, as I was staggered dramatically less than usual. Get those fists of fury up to level 50 so you can beat down the undead. Anticipate when to block. I've found that if I hold the block button down constantly, the enemy is letting loose with power attacks. So I drop my guard occasionally, and try to time the block, as they don't seem to do as many power attacks when I do it this way. Warning: If you screw up the timing of the block, you could seriously get owned. I suggest bringing a blade, so at least you can have an out.

Illusion is your friend as Paralyze spells are pretty effective with Hand to Hand. Don't forget to steal the Bands Of Kwang Lao in the Arena District as they add 20 points to HTH

not necessarily, using hand to hand is more like boxing style fighting, where strength is more important than speed. but if it were martial arts style fighting then yeah i would say its more agility than strength.

As I see it, the real problem with H2H during early levels is the lack of defense. You'll need to turn down the difficulty slider, use magical shields, be good at heavy armor or be mind boggling fast at dodging. Probably more than one of the above.