How does hand-to-hand work?

[Coolgalwithhat]

I was doing the first fighters guild job and the rats would not die to hand-to-hand. i know you have to knock them out to do damage, but they keeped standing. does it only work on humanoid enemys or something?

[The Flying Rodent]

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Hand-to-hand

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Combat#Damage

Hand to Hand in Morrowind works by first by damaging Fatigue, and then once opponents are 'knocked out' [or Paralysed by some other spell], damaging their Health. Whilst it uses the same 'to-hit' formula as other weapons [Skill + Fatigue Level + Agility + Luck], Strength does not factor into the amount of damage done by Hand to Hand. All unarmed damage comes from Hand to Hand skill.

Given that Hand to Hand only deals health damage once Fatigue is 0, it can be a good idea to pair it with certain Destruction spell effects such as Damage Fatigue and Damage Strength. If you can lower an opponent's strength to 0, they will wear themselves out trying to 'run' toward the player without being able to move. Wait 10 seconds or so before engaging an immobile opponent, and they should be easy to knock out.

Generally speaking: The amount of damage done by Hand to Hand is pretty crappy, and early on it may take a lot of punches to knock out even weak opponents such as rats [I'm guessing this is what happened, you simply hadn't landed enough hits to knock them out yet]. It can take a long time to kill opponents with Hand to Hand, which gives time for mobs of opponents to damage the player a fair bit in long fights. This is exacerbated further by the fact that you can't Block using Hand to Hand in Morrowind.

However: Unarmed is not treated as a normal weapon, so you can effectively punch and kill Ghosts at level 1. Also, due to the fact that a lot of punches have to be landed, Hand to Hand skill levels reeeeeeally quickly, and it's not difficult to get this skill to 100 once you can consistently punch things. Monk characters I have played in the past [i.e. that started with Hand to Hand as a Major, mainly Imperials] have consistently managed to get Hand to Hand to 100 before level 10.

Hand to Hand also staggers opponents a LOT more often than most other weapons [the only other weapon I can think of that comes close is the Daedric Wakizashi], and decreases the ability of the target to hit the player due to the Fatigue Damage. It is very easy to Stun Lock opponents with high Hand to Hand skill, even high level opponents like Golden Saints and Ascended Sleepers.

So for 1v1's, Hand to Hand can be very deadly, and you should be looking for 1v1's when you can, utilising door ways as choke points and the like. Once you start trying to fight 2 or more opponents at the same time, you're leaving room for opponents to get free hits on you, and you should probably disengage the fight or switch targets frequently to keep everybody's fatigue low.

In the case of the first fighters guild quest: You probably just need to punch the rat more. It works against any opponent, not just Humanoids, but it takes time to knock things out. The room upstairs contains two rats, and is quite difficult for a purely Hand to Hand character at the start. If you find the 1v2 too difficult, I'd be inclined to try and raise Hand to Hand a little more just through pure adventuring before attempting it, picking skirmishes with creatures around the countryside 1v1.

http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Morrowind:Monk#Monk

Or you could use some other form of weapon if you have that option. If you're playing the stock 'Monk' class from in game, they have Blunt Weapon and Marksman as Minors, which are probably better choices of weapon than Hand to Hand for fights against multiple opponents.

[Rithm Fluffderg]

On a side note... I really think it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that only one obscure faction and a vampire one at that has Hand to Hand as a favored skill.

Especially since the Fighter's Guild has a freaking hand to hand trainer, so you'd think they'd consider martial arts something that they'd keep track of and reward for, since (in-universe) it's a useful skill if you get disarmed or your weapon breaks. But nooooooo. Can't have that.