“The Unarmed skill is used for fighting without a weapon, or with the few weapons speciafically designed for hand-to-hand combat, like Brass Knuckles, or the Power Fist.”

The quality of this skill largely depends on whether you have the expansions installed, namely Broken Steel. In the vanilla game, this skill sucks. Can it be good? Yes. Is wasting three perks on Iron Fist worth it in the end? No. Not compared to the V.A.T.S.-enhancing skills you could buy with those perks. If you have Broken Steel installed (and the 10 extra levels though it bestows)… well… why not invest in Unarmed ?

Some of the unique Power Fists (like Fisto!) and the Deathclaw Gauntlet can do some downright wretched damage, And with Robotics Expert , machines you attack in melee won’t know what to do! So, the Unarmed skill can be good-especially with Paralyzing Palm . In fact, Paralyzing Palm is the easiest way to deal with stronger enemies like Albino Radscorpions and Feral Ghoul Reavers, making this skill easily the second-best weapon choice in the game. Get Iron Fist early on, put on some knuckles or get a Power Fist, and you’ll make your life very easy by doing some good damage without fretting over ammo.