Hand-to-hand in skyrim.

[Death Knight]

So, i was playing as a kajihit, and then I realized you do an additional 15 damage with claws ( though im not sure the base damage of hand-to-hand attacks...) plus the heavy armor perk for damage from gauntlets, plus hand-to-hand enchantments, would do great damage, though no block or armor from a shield. Is there a way to tell how much your hitting for hand-to-hand damage ? or a ay to increase it ? like would one handed perks increase it all does anyone know ? i don't beleive it would, i just miss the hand-to-hand skill from oblivion.

[David]

The "Fists of Steel" Heavy Armor perk increases the damage output to 18 with Daedric gauntlets, which is the most you can gain from using it. It only takes into account the base armor rating of the gauntlets, so even if you improve them with smithing the damage increase will still be 18.

The "Gloves of the Pugilist" can be found in The Ratway on Gian the Fist. They fortify unarmed damage by 10 points and can be disenchanted, which allows you to apply the effect to other gloves and rings. This enchantment can be boosted to a maximum of 14 using the alchemy/enchanting loop that we have a guide on.

So, assuming you have those two things, that's about all you can do. According to the wiki:

The maximum amount of unarmed damage a player can reach is by being a Khajiit with the Fists of Steel perk, Daedric Gloves and a ring both enchanted with the Fortify Unarmed Damage enchant (14 damage per piece). This brings us to a total amount of 68 unarmed damage consisting of 10 (base damage) +12 (Claws passive) + 18 (Daedric Gauntlets) + 28 (enchants on gloves and rings).

That's going to be lower than any other type of combat obviously, but that doesn't stop people from trying it on their characters. Since there's no skill you don't have to create a new build around the idea, either.