What if hands were utilized in unarmed combat? What if gloves/boots offered damage modifiers when used in "unarmed" combat? What if there were knuckledusters, bagh nakh, tekagi/tekko, loaded boxing gloves, etc - small hand accessories that assisted unarmed combat? What if the unarmed combat tree had a "hadouken" skill? What if I stopped using "what if" to start sentences?
I think I have to support this just for the "Hadouken" skill.. It would probably make the Unarmed Combat tree better too, since you could switch out orbs or tomes for "hand weapons" when needed, so + 1 from me.
Aside from the obvious weapon-based skill trees, are there any skills that specifically don't work with Unarmed, a la Weredigglery?
I don't know about "don't work", but smithing isn't as useful as it could've been if you don't need weapons.
Not as much as you might think, though. Unarmed builds tend to be defence-oriented, and typically use dual shields - and Smithing has most of its armour recipes unlocked, as well as some very nice shield options (though the Heroic Bronze Aegis does need unlocking). Either way, I'm pretty sure RHM is asking about skills that fail to synergise on a code level, rather than ones which have poor strategic compatibility.
Adding another weapon class would make things even more difficult for melee users. It causes a smaller chance of getting something useful from a Chest of Evil, which they rely on heavily. Tomes and shields are Unarmed's weapon slots.
What if daggers, and some other light throwing weapons to be wielded without losing your 'Unarmed' skill tree benefits? There are several thrown weapons already that could theoretically be useful in combat, and should be light enough not to weigh down unarmed attacks (thrown weapons could benefit from the Throwing tree for melee combat?). That way, there is no more 'junk' for melee users, and if new weapons designed for unarmed combat are added, they could also be thrown weapons making them more useful for more character types (also, it doesn't really make sense to me why you can't smack someone with a throwing axe or a kunai anyways..).
Its just foot based martial arts right? "Unarmed" is just a term.. and besides,, unarmed kicks would work just as good, with or without light weight hand weapons. There are even martial arts based around weapons.. That said, you wouldn't be gaining any bonus's from the weapons, you just would keep your Unarmed bonus.
From a flavour perspective, this seems disastrous, as Samupo laconically points out. Armed unarmed combat? Stone Sole etc. applying to knife stabs? It's true that there is some synergy between unarmed and armed martial arts (for example, Escrima's stick fighting moves train your wrists into weapons of unarmed destruction as well), but I can hardly think of worse matches than kicks and knife moves. From a gameplay perspective, it doesn't work so well either. Either the knives don't give you bonuses, in which case you're just tying up slots for no purpose, or they give you bonuses, in which case you've just turned Unarmed into the Knife weapons skill; a skill which happens to give you its bonuses even before you find a good knife. I do respect the way you have so many original ideas and suggestions for DoD, though. Creativity FTW.
Perhaps a different martial arts skill tree then, but I really do like the idea of light handheld weapons, and I am not will to give up so easily . The bonus's from such a tree, would have to be pretty good to be worth using with such bad melee weapons (aka weapons light/ balanced enough to be thrown) though.. but there are builds that use melee just for things like knockback. A new martial arts skill tree that focuses on lots of stuns, slows, knockbacks, and other ways to buy time would be quite nice. Although, I do have to disagree about the flavor perspective, just because something this outrageous fits the game's style quite well. Unarmed foot combat, with dual wielding knife + throwing axe? I would use that just to get 4 overlapping melee combat tree bonus's (which was one of the main points of the idea anyways). BTW, those ideas are just the ones that I felt deserved needed a post, I still have some.. more creative absurd ideas that still re-thinking ^^
I think that proposal seems more like a usermade mod, perhaps you could try to make one in those terms.
Perhaps, but I would rather make a mod that has a bit more nonsense ^^, like a Juggling tree. If any wants to take any of my ideas, I wouldn't mind. Besides, I am not considering using mods atm, I might reconsider later though.
What about an "Open Hand Monk" skilltree? It be centered around truly unarmed melee with penalties if weapons and armors (outside leather gloves, leather helms, robes, sandals and jewelry... perhaps monk specialty artifacts) were equipped? There would be Monkish spells/abilities. Chance to paralyze, spinning attack, chance to knockback around the player, varous close combat skills and perhaps thrown weapons bonuses. I have no idea how practical or desirable this type of skill line would be. I also like the idea of a Jester type skill tree. They are usually Bard-like, but more sinister. .02
