I started a discussion recently on what a waste of time the Lockpicking skill is in Skyrim, with all the other useful perks to choose from there is no chance i'm ever going to invest valuable points into being a locksmith unless i am doing some very serious thief roleplaying. Bethesda could have easily turned the whole lockpicking skill into one simple 3 tiered perk and merged it with either the stealth or pickpocket skill.
Example: Lockpicking, 25 - 50 - 75% easier.
Apparently i was not alone in my opinion but this got me thinking about what skill Bethesda could have used instead to beef up the green side of the skills constellation.
The 'Monk' class seems to have fared the worst since Oblivion, Skyrim has one perk in the heavy armor skill that allows you to do extra damage with your fists but who runs a monk in heavy armor? They also removed the Athletics/Acrobatics skills and i really miss acrobatics especially.
I think "Unarmored" would have actually been a great skill, they could have included perks like:
Imagine adding perks like this to your assassin/thief builds!
Thats all ive thought of up to yet, but im hoping some other people come up with ideas and hopefully someone from Bethesda is reading this and takes inspiration for ES6.
Lets bring back a viable monk class!
Aye, I agree. I was a bit disappointed that the only unarmed perk was placed in heavy armor. I guess it was based on all those real life martial artists that wore heavy armor, such as shaolin monks; or maybe it was based on all the movies featuring stars in full plate, like Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and so forth.
On the other hand, movement is faster when unarmored. Also I have a khajiit that I created, he fights unarmed when in melee and kicks butt (he's still low level, so I don't know how that'll work out).
I kinda miss unarmored too, it was kind of unfair though, being able to have decent defense without the encumbrance, which is probably why they ditched it. I think the heavy armor-makes-stronger-punches thing was more along the lines of "if you punch someone in the face with a metal glove, it hurts more than your bare hand". I don't miss acrobatics or athletics in the least. Running faster than a horse and jumping over houses was just ridiculous. Acrobatics was fun in Morrowind, since there were ways to access rooftops easily, then have Assassin's Creed style escapes, but in Oblivion and Skyrim they are not, so the skill was more or less useless. Besides, in Skyrim you can jump up almost sheer slopes without any skill whatsoever :P
I currently have a lvl 33 Khajiit ranger and when she isn't sniping people from the shadows she is going toe to toe with them unarmed the finisher moves are pretty sick and the extra boost with the racial claws lets me match most found 1h weapons for damage, I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a stealth unarmed kill, could have been easy to snap someones neck as it is to slit it.
as for the unarmored thing I haven't actually added any points to light armor and I haven't felt the need to either as long as I have high stealth I could run around butt naked and the mobs still couldn't best me.
I'm one of the crazy ones who haven't actually played the game yet. Holding out til Christmas! Anyway I like this idea. I'm not sure what the options are, if any, for increasing the speed/agility of your character. Sounds like you are a little faster the less armor you are wearing, but it would be nice to actually level it up. I like to play a bosmer with light or no armor and speed is a major factor in making me a competitor against stronger enemies.
Interesting.
I haven't tried unarmed combat at all yet, but it sounds a fun character for a second or subsequent play through. Are there any gloves, gauntlets or other things that enhance a monk character?
As for Mason's points, yes I agree that Bethesda could easily reintroduce unarmed if they wanted. But will they, I wonder?
Its more of a role-play thing ponty. See RuneReds first comment which sums things up perfectly.
If you want to fight with your fists and (traditionally) without armor i would want a range of perks that compliment that side of play, the ability to move faster around sluggish opponents in (ironically) heavy armor, maybe perform a double jump or sumersault to avoid attacks/spellfire? The list goes on...
The idea for this post was born out of distaste for the lockpicking skill which so far adds very little to the Skyrim experience and deserves few/no perk investment.
yup! gloves of the pugilist, (Light armor, fortify unarmed by 10 points) you find them on a guy down in the ratways with all the skeever in the traps,
if you find the gloves you could disenchant them to then place the effect on other things as this is the only item in game to 'buff' unarmed.
The thing that I can't quite fathom is how I would level with an unarmed character
If I wear the Gloves of the Pugilist then I'll presumably level a bit in Light Armour, but that's about it. I see myself on Level 2 after about 40 hours of battering people to death
What skills would I use to be able to level up at a reasonable rate?
Yeah its a tricky one that.
I would have it that attacks with fists and any damage you take whilst unarmored increase the unarmed skill (increasing both attack and defence) simply making it versatile. Sneak exp in skyrim behaves a similar way, it increases when you move undetected but also increases when you perform sneak attacks.
Considering the current skills/perks available to us a good monk build would be one who specialises in Alteration (for its defence bonus's) Restoration (its a monk man), the proposed "unarmed" skill, and sneak for its attack and stealth advantages. So in answer to your question you would exclusively look to level those 4 skills paul, leveling wouldnt be a problem.
EDIT: ALCHEMY - All monks should carry their herb bag! :-)