I couldn't finish my second play through as a mage, just too darn easy (I reached Edon and decided to roll a new toon).

For my third run, I decided to try an unarmed/monk style toon. My only requirement was absolutely NO armor and NO weapons. Rings and pendants would be my only adornments. It's been great fun!!

I made sure I had a good starting roll with 14's in Str / End / Wis and at least 11-12-13's in the rest (took a while). I took Nefarious Nor'lander for extra End boost and that tasty 50% damage nefarious attack.

Other than 1 point to give 15 Wis for Divination spells, I put all remaining stat points into End. Once I hit 50 End I started adding some into Str/Dex.

Similarly for skills, I started with 5 points in Unarmed and I think a couple points in Divination for buffs, but saved the rest. At level 2 I put another 5 into UA for the excellent 4x damage Fury feat (the best damage feat in the game) and stayed with UA skill until I reached 32 for 4x damage every 5 rounds. I've used trainers for Alchemy/Forage/Divination/Cartography and spent a few points on Mercantile to make money a little easier (money is not a problem anyway since I get to sell everything I find).

By level 10 I had nearly 200 hit points and was striking mobs for 25-40 (power mode only of course) with each swing plus a mind blowing 150-250 damage with Fury.... all while practically nekkid. I wear a pair of UA rings and a mercantile hat. I use the Animal Rage Amulet for a small boost in HP/Damage.

What WORKS:
- Spectacular melee damage. Now that UA is > 32 nearly everything dies in one hit.
- High Endurance means huge hit points and great resistances to everything.
- Buffs from Alchemy and/or Divination are a great compliment. I find Bless, Cats Eyes, Lore, etc to be my most used spells. Spells/Potions for Stoneskin, Haste, Ogre Str, and the occasional Invis for retreats is handy too. (+Wisdom ring/amulet makes 2nd tier spells easy to learn with just 15 base Wis)
- Massive carrying capacity. With no armor/weapons to pack around, my encumbrance is always very low... tons of room for packing out loot and reagents.
- Plenty of coin for trainers!

What BITES:
- Multiple mobs are deadly. As long as I can space out enemies by a couple steps I mow through everything, but as soon as I get 2 or 3 in reach at a time, I take a beating (I am nekkid after all)
- So are Ranged Attacks. I'm considering investing a few points in Elemental magic just for Chameleon & Dense Nimbus, otherwise I spend a lot of time using the environment to keep ranged attacks to a minimum.
- Some might miss the shopping. Finding that oh-so-cool piece of armor/weapon at the shop is a nice thrill. Since this is my 3rd time through, I'm a bit over the phat lewt phase, but it could be sad for first timers!

I'm level 13 now, on my way to Durnore. I imagine I'll continue to concentrate on maxxxing UA/Str to see how high I can get my damage numbers. I might also try a little Dodge just because it seems fitting for a monk build. It's a fun challenge!

At level 13 it's probably a bit late, but a good 30+ in dodge is very usefull once you can hit like a nuke.

Probably can't make 30 Dodge, but 20 should be easy! Thanks for the info!

Just smacked a Taurax (think it was Captain Rukka) for 415 damage with my hands! *flex*

This is a great build! Lots of fun!

I tried a variation on it - a ninja type. With no armor and lots of carrying capacity, I started developing not only the unarmed combat but also the throwing skill right from the start. There's lots of room in the inventory for knives and such.

I'm currently at level 19, and I've gone everywhere except Fathamurk, Picaroon, and Amireth. I used the rogue as the character base, and here's my stats:

Str - 47
Dex - 25
End - 30
Speed - 27
Int - 10
Wis - 10
Per - 15
Con - 15

Unarmed combat: 36
Thrown weapons: 12
Medicine: 9 (helps hit point regen)
Hide in Shadows: 12
Move silently: 8
Pick locks: 10

I've also got points in Lore, Cartography, Spot Hidden, and Repair.

To Hit: 26 (normal combat mode)
Max Damage (normal combat mode): 32+2 (thanks to Viscerator amulet)

In power combat mode, max damage is 42+2. My problem early on was remembering to switch to power mode before using the feat.

I like the Viscerator amulet rather than Animal Range because it adds 5 to speed, which also increases damage.

One thing I noticed with the Unarmed combat skill is that additional points in UA beyond 32 increases the To Hit and Max Damage stats, so even though you still only get the 4X damage feat every 4-5 rounds, combat skills do improve.

Many enemies do die with a single blow, depending on the random generation for the amount of damage your hit does. Those that don't will die with one or two extra punches. I like to soften up an enemy with a volley of knives before they reach me, and then deliver the fatal blow by hand.

There are some enemies that are much tougher, like the Dwarves and Taurax, but fortunately I can usually hit them, then back away for a few rounds until the feat recharges, hit them again, and repeat until they go down. The Hide in Shadows skill really helps with that.

Defending against ranged attacks was fairly simple once I developed the Hide in Shadows skill. I just carried lots of Predator Sight and Cats Eyes potions with me into dark dungeons and used the dark to reduce enemies' to-hit.

Defending against many multiple enemies is challenging, as you say, but the ranged attacks with throwing weapons helps with that. Plus I rely on the Hide in Shadows skill, Invisibility potions, and Haste potions.

I do find I have tons more coin to spend, so I keep an ample supply of useful potions in my inventory. And if I don't find any knives in the dungeons, I'll buy them from vendors. But I'm sure I'll have tons of unspent treasure before this build is done - much more than other builds!

Wow! I just pummeled the Stone Golem to death!

Using potions of Ogre Strength, Predator Sight, and Cats Eyes, and beat him with nothing but my bare hands! Took about 5 hits with the 4X feat, plus punches in-between the feat hits. That was cool...

Nathan, you mentioned that you took the nefarious trait. Does anyone know what that really does? I was going to take it in book 1 but im not sure what it does. Somewhere i read its just an extra 5% chance to critical. Would that mean that your regular chance of 5% goes up to 10% chance of angry damage?

Here's what Book II says on character creation:



Hope that answers at least some of your query. I screen captured the quote above so as to type it in here. I've never used it so I can't answer much more.

Nefarious damage is a separate and additional damage to any critical hits, as far as I recall. It is possible to get Critical and nefarious damage at the same time.

My experience with playing two Nefarious builds so far (one bow spec and the other piercing spec) is that it provides a 5% chance to do an extra 50% damage. Pretty sure it worked for both ranged and melee attacks. I don't recall if it stacked with Critical hits or not. Very cool benefit for any non-magic spec build