questions about unarmed combat

[Madscientist3]

- If you have nothing in your hands, does unarmed combat count as dual wielding?
- If yes, does unarmed attacks profit from dual wielding talents?
- If no, should you use unarmed+shield?

I liked the monks in Pillars.
Since you do not have a recovery time from a weapon you should attack fast and some gloves seem to have good damage.
As downside, you use always crushing damage and you cannot have special on hit effects from weapons. (maybe there are some good combat gloves (like spiked gloves that cause piercing damage and cause bleeding)). I am still very early in the game.

 

[DrDuckman]

You should be aware, Unarmed uses dodge instead of block at all times, even in melee. This is a very good thing, since you level only one skill much faster. Block is basically useless to a monk.

Unarmed does not count as dual wielding. I've not tried to equip a shield.

For the talents, check on the description if it specifically mentions Unarmed or All weapons as eligible. Otherwise it will not work. Slice for example does not work with Unarmed. Neither do the dual wield bonus talents.

 

[Keldor837]

Look at the weapons skills as if you're making a character. Choosing a weapon style equips them with the associated configuration. That's it. Unarmed style grants only Unarmed. Two-Handed grants only Two-Handed. The only overlap in weapon skills comes with thrown weapons. Thrown weapons use their individual Thrown Weapons skill when throwing at range. But, since they have reduced range and can function in melee. They then use One-Handed weapon skill when engaged in melee combat.

Talents in this game are a bit unusual. You'll find several skills that can be used by most/all weapon types. Even when the skill would normally (stereo-typically) be for one type of fighting style. For example, Thrust is given to everyone to use no matter what weapon they have equipped and it adapts based on what you're using. So someone with a bow could still use thrust in melee. Or Sunder for example. My main uses thrown weapons (Javelins) and yet I took Sunder for when an enemies armor rating is too high for my tank to get through. I run up and pop him with Sunder. If Unarmed is listed in the skills weapon types, then the talent which grants it is then viable in some form for Unarmed.

As for your shield inquiry. They made a change from PoE when it comes to equipping weapons. You cannot equip a shield without first equipping a weapon. Conversely, you cannot unequip a weapon without first removing the shield. This was done intentionally, to prevent pairing unarmed combat with shields. Something they saw as an oversight with PoE.