Unarmed builds are never viable for any RPGs

>unarmed builds are never viable for any RPGs

I hope they fix it in Etrian Odyssey 3 Untold.

>Expecting punching to be as effective as an axe

>Make monk class
>Give it a fuckhuge stat boost if unarmed
>Dont care if its game breaking if your punching out dragons its clearly overpowered why the fuck not.

It is in examina

Monks are broken as fuck in NWN nigger

Monks were pretty fucking strong in final fantasy tactics.

In Fallout 1 Jinxed Unarmed 10 Luck is not only OP as fuck, it's also hilarious

>make unarmed builds possible and interesting
>at some point of game forces your main character to equip sword because enemies won't take damage without it
>it also fucks over any other weapon build than swords

Unarmed was pretty viable in New Vegas when I played
Also played as a punching character in Shadowrun Dragonfall and it worked out alright.

Why the fuck would you punch someone when you can hit them with a bug hammer?

Fallout 2's Unarmed build can be min-maxed to have the highest single damage hit in the game, even more than using a goddamned rocket launcher or a sniper shot to the face. It's incredible. You literally begin to punch off people's arms and heads.

>MFW I played Monk on Pillars of Eternity

Everything is viable as long as you're not shit

Kotor 2. Pretty sure everyone minus the droids get unarmed mastery for free. Only the pc and handmaiden (and i think atton) get another free perk.
And its pretty fucking good

...

You can punch your way through almost all of the Fallouts.

If you're playing Fallout 1, don't just take Jinxed, take Fast Shot.

It's the only Fallout where it applies to unarmed and melee attacks. That means that a level 1 character with a pair of brass knuckles can punch for 2 AP. And you can pick up Bonus Melee Attacks at level 6, so you start punching for 1 AP per attack.

so you've never played Monk then

>VERY fast lizurd raging at incredible hihg speed

>People say the unarmed build is the best
>They have weapons

Unarmed Ninja with Brawler is even better. You get to punch 2 times. You can speed/power break enemies faster, too.

RPGs tend to place significant value on gear as useful tools and part of progression.

This adherence to that design trope tends to make devs balance the game around that.

So you end up seeing a lot of:

1) This game tends to take away your gear, unarmed specialization is really reliable and is given enough to be a major gameplay option, it's really good (and sometimes even the most OP).

2) Your character uses gear, but is shown punching with their bare hands. Unarmed is more of a stylistic choice. It's intentionally designed to be balanced with other forms of combat and probably not that different from them.

3) Unarmed doesn't let you get gear bonuses or have specific magical/scifi buffs, but other forms of combat get all the good stuff. So unarmed isn't viable.

It's working pretty great for me in Vampire The Masquerade. Better than Melee weapons and Firearms anyway.

except for: fallout 1 and 2 neverwinter nights 1 and 2, baldur's gate 1 and 2, pillars of eternity, temple of elemental evil and many, many more
yeah never

Actually it was one of the most OP builds in Legend of Grimrock.