Unarmed Combat

Unarmed Combat is combat without any primary weapon equipped - it consists of punches and kicks. Pawns with no weapon will only undertake limited combat.

Additionally, few skills performed with weapons also have parts of their attacks performed as kicks or punches.

Overview

If the Arisen has no primary weapon equipped, they will instead resort to basic punches and a kick attack. There are no fist-based weapons in Dragon's Dogma, so the only way to use unarmed combat is by unequipping the primary weapon. The damage done by unarmed attacks relies on the base Strength of the user, and it can be assumed that kicks and punches are classified as Blunt Damage.

Skill	Description
"Punch"	[Light Attack] twice. A right hook is thrown. An additional input will deliver a left hook.
"Kick"	[Heavy Attack]. A forward kick. This is actually a fairly effective way of knocking back enemies.
"Aerial Punch"	[Jump] , [Light Attack]. A swipe made mid-jump.
"Overhead Smash"	[Jump] , [Heavy Attack]. Both fists are brought down on an enemy from above.

Whilst unarmed, the Draw and Sheathe commands are also present, and when toggled will change the stance. People will react the usual way to "drawn" fists as they would to a weapon, and the Watchfulness augment should work the same way also.

Secondary weapons such as Shields and Bows can still be used alongside regular unarmed attacks.

Climbing

Whilst climbing a [light attack] results in a single punch, like the first grounded punch. A [heavy attack] causes dismounting with an a "Overhead smash" like attack.

Just like when using melee weapons, unarmed climbers get a species specific (up to +50%) damage boost when climbing certain dangerous foes - this includes Golems - making unarmed climbing combat a good choice for Mages and Sorcerer's when facing Golems.

Other "unarmed" attacks

Some offensive weapon skills contain attacks that are performed much like an unarmed attack in that any Elemental Attributes or debilitation associated with the weapon is not transferred. Additionally the attacks are always blunt damage irrespective of the weapon. However the attack power still scales with weapon power, and damage is not boosted by Bloody Knuckle. These skills include:

• The follow up hit of a sword or mace user's Takedown attack.
• The kicks of a dagger user's Back Kick, Escape Onslaught, Shirking Offensive, Stepping Stone, Leaping Stone, and Soaring Stone.
• The sliding attack of Strider's Mad Dash.
• Follow up kicks of a daggerist's Engrave, and the final hit from from Scarlet Kisses, Hundred Kisses, and Thousand Kisses.
• Sorcerer's Magick Billow attack.
• Warrior's Pommel Bash and Pommel Strike

Grappling smaller foes allows a follow up kick to release.

Pawns

Pawns without weapons equipped will generally have a much reduced role in combat. They will still grapple foes if their vocation allows it, and climb enemies - whilst climbing they may use unarmed attacks; otherwise they will not attack foes, and will not come to the aid of the Arisen if possessed by a ghost.

• A special case occurs when a Pawn attempts to catch a thrown human size target. In this event Pawn performs a punch instead of the catch.
• Even without weapons Pawns will continue to smash objects such as crates and barrels, usually with a kick.

Use of throwing items is unaffected by being unarmed.

Notes

Unhanded Sheltered Assault vs Chimera ...

• When Magick Boosting Equipment is worn it adds a magick component to the unarmed attack. This effect is usually insignificant. (The addition of the magick component causes strikes on Ghosts to 'connect', whereas without any magick attacks pass straight through.)
• The four unarmed attacks are not named or mentioned in-game.
• Daggerist characters can still use Forward Roll and Double Vault when unarmed.
• Melee characters can still use Controlled Fall when unarmed.
• Strength boosts from equipment and rings and so on still boost power and damage.
• The Dark Arisen item Bloody Knuckle doubles barehanded damage - two of which will multiply the effect.
• Sheltered Assault when performed without a sword unleases a flurry of punches - damage is multiplied by Bloody Knuckle.
• An unarmed [jump], heavy attack, [double vault] exploit gives extended Jumping range.

Gallery

Unarmed combat demonstration

The bad : Level 200 Arisen with Strength 677 (unarmed), with Clout, Vehemence, Ferocity, Eminence, Adhesion, Opportunism. Even with two Bloody Knuckle rings, unarmed combat yields underwhelming results whether unleashing mounted, standing, or jumping attacks. Moreover, unarmed characters are unable to damage enemies vulnerable only to magic, such as a Living Armor's inner spectral aura

Fighter vs Death (FULL HP) all pawn SAFE - Dark Arisen -DDDA-

The good : Fighter with Dread Aspis, two Bloody Knuckles, Hellfire Gauntlet with "Boosts the power of [..] shields", with 4x Strength Boosted and numerous strength boosting augments defeats Death in under 15 seconds (Though is actually using the shield)