How to Hand to Hand - Morrowind Build and Start Guide

Hand to Hand in Morrowind is a tough skill to master, but overpowered once you've done so. This build guide will teach you EVERYTHING you need to know about the Hand to Hand skill itself and will walk you through a monk style build to put you on Morrowind's path to pugilism.
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► How to Mage • How to Mage - Build an...
► How to Warrior • How to Warrior - Build...
► How to Archer • How to Archer - Build ...
CHAPTERS 📚
00:00 Intro
00:20 Name Thy Self
01:33 Hand to Hand Explained
05:30 Choose This Race for Normal Brawler
08:30 Choose This Race for Hybrid Monk
09:58 Choose This Race for Caster Monk
12:14 Custom Class Creation
17:34 Birthsign Selection
18:43 Stats Example
19:05 Steal The Thing, Sell the Thing
21:10 Head Here for RING
25:23 Join These Guilds for Potions (YOU WILL NEED THEM!)
26:50 Visit Everyone's Favorite Scamp
27:40 Buy These Items in Caldera
30:40 Buy Fine Literature for a Quest
31:26 Head to Sadrith Mora for Spells and Join this House
33:34 Head Here for Gauntlets of the...Yeah, The Fist Ones...
35:16 Buy This Final Book for the Quest
36:41 Turn in Quest Here for ITEMS
42:00 THIS IS WHY WE ENCHANT FOLKS
CoffeeNutGaming is a part-time twitch streamer and full-time video game fan who started gaming at the age of five and developed a passion for the art when he encountered his first role playing game at the age of seven. On that faithful day, he got stuck inside the Census Office in The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind while gaming with his brother in their parent's basement, and a way of life was forged. Since then, he has grown into an obsessive caffeine addict, and a stickler for the finer things in all made-up fantasy worlds and gaming universes.
Title: How to Hand to Hand - Morrowind Build and Start Guide
#morrowind ‪@CoffeeNutGaming‬

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

We Got the Monk

[@adhdraw]

HOLLERING at the Shaolin Soccer clip

[@ihavenoclue9756]

I made a midget monk lol

[@Dedric444]

Everybody gather 'round

[@crafalgar9719]

Got back into Morrowind after watching your videos (hadnt played it in almost a decade), beat the main quest again with my unarmed Khajiit hobo, Dagoth stood no chance, hand to hand broken.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

That's awesome! Love hearing that the videos got people back involved

[@SilverstringsMusings]

I always assumed hand-to-hand was completely unviable after realizing it has to do fatigue damage first, it's good to see someone pushing back a bit against that presumption.

[@BinaryBard64]

Yea! Also, I didn't know about the paralyze trick 😆

[@ToasterDsG]

Its actually considered the strongest melee combat skill. It just takes a while for it to become really broken. And it becomes even more silly if you're a fist wizard.

[@Valkod23]

It's unviable due to the bug present in unpatched vanilla Morrowind where Strength isn't used and the skill isn't calculated past 40. If you use the Morrowind Code Patch, you can fix those issues and suddenly brawling becomes far stronger.

[@viraleffectz]

I always liked hand to hand because if you could KO someone in water, the water would kill them for you 😂

[@andrepezzutti5952]

Another wonderfull race for a monk is the imperials. Their racial power with the lover sign is an absolute beast! You can paralize someone with the lover’s kiss and then absorb all the fatigue back with the Star of the west racial power

[@sokilphantom2026]

Imperials are also a great choice. They get +5 hand to hand and have an absorb 200 fatigue greater power. Man i just hope that TES 6 will reintroduce stuff like hand to hand, spear, medium armor and unarmored. As always keep up the great content. Oblivion builds next maybe?

[@Schwitzmaul]

They won't finacialy it not as good working às skyrim. Good rpgs are expensive. And to keep all easy and broken down to the smalles things everyone wants works to well. Makeing good game art we know thx to steam isn't worth it. But gone be ok thx to comunity

[@sokilphantom2026]

@@Schwitzmaul Even If it will be only half the Game Skyrim was(and with a completely new magic system), i would still play it. I Just Hope Bethesda won t make TES 6 into some kind of stupid Hack and Slash Type Game.

[@Schwitzmaul]

@@sokilphantom2026 yes i hope so too.

[@chriswhinery925]

@@sokilphantom2026 Skyrim was already about half a step away from being a stupid hack and slash game. If you play any kind of non stealth non mage character it basically is that already.

[@sokilphantom2026]

@@chriswhinery925 I agree playing a warrior build became boring after a while( the shield charge and bash stuff is hilarious though). All the devs need to do is to balance combat,add a more weapon types and skill trees and make the enemy AI smarter and more unpredictable+ plus Bethesda needs to chill out with the crafting skills because those were absolutely broken.

[@mephistophelesthesilentchi3446]

Thank you so much for these videos! I'm currently on my first playthrough, making a build inspired by your spellsword and spearman builds.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

Glad you're enjoying them!!

[@BubblewrapHighway]

Enjoy your vacation in Vvardenfell! Thankfully we haven't invented smell-o-vision yet because the Bitter Coast reeks. 🤢

[@MrRDRII]

If only DnD monk was this stronk

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

DnD monk is all about that movement speed - Ki points OP

[@MrRDRII]

@@CoffeeNutGaming they do have the zoomies!

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

​@MrRDRII you should've played them in 3.5, class was legit busted. Especially with a few particular multi-class options that got hilariously stupid, like Sorcerer with one particular feat.

[@emanuelseibert3790]

@@CoffeeNutGaming Yeah, Ki points are OP. But we need some more, omfg Why didn't they make them Monk Level + Prof. Bonus? T_T

[@worthlesstrash9662]

For an even more powerful build. it's critical to name your character Lester the Sister Fister.

[@karabaja4]

Found you on KZbin homepage, love your Morrowind videos. This channel is very underrated! Keep up the good work.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

That's great to hear. Thanks for watching!

[@neongirluk]

A channel with new Morrowind content think I might have died and gone to heaven. Time to have a binge fest

[@Bloodycupcake54]

Hand to hand was and is my favorite play style "how can you kill a god?" Apparently with my fists lmao

[@afilthywarlockmain1447]

Thanks for giving us all a HAND, with this build guide…. I’ll see myself out.

[@Gitshiver]

Oh man, the WKUK gallon of PCP sketch is still hilarious! Good reference!

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

Glad someone got it!

[@BubblewrapHighway]

😮 Frost damage/paralyze amulet! Can you say Fist of the North Star? ❄️👊⭐

[@DraconiusDragora]

Fun thing, you can get better armour rating than Daedric armour if you raise your Unarmoured Skill to above 200.

[@AlexGoesBoom280]

The quality to channel size ratio on these videos is insane! I've been getting into Morrowind again and these guides are so fun.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

That's great to hear! Thank you! Glad you're enjoying the vids 🤘

[@kbroomall]

Super pumped Coffeenut is back with a new "How To..." video for us to enjoy and then spend weeks playing!

[@bobgrimes8618]

You are my go-to for builds and artifacts!

[@robertamaya6090]

Thank you for helping us all become mad gods of limitless power with every new build video! 👍🏽

[@neongirluk]

Side note, I adore how much you like Balmora. That is my ancestral home. Where I store things I might need later, it’s where I feel safe and happy. It’s where I want go. I might spend hours never progressing the main quest doing many other things instead but I still need to be mainly based in Balmora, to all,of these things. It’s special.

[@SpicedSkooma]

Awesome video man. I really love The Elder Scrolls, most of all Oblivion that I digged in thousands of hours But I never really got into Morrowind since usual beginner issues, bad building then missing all attacks etc Simply by this very specific video on a single skill I learned about a lot of other things in this game, and it makes me really excited to reinstall it and give it a chance again. This game seems very VERY rewarding about the earning of power, but you have to deserve it. Loved your commentary too, you're a golden guy. Cheers from France bro 🎉

[@exigm]

love your videos so much. Thx to you I Ended up getting into TES3MP server nevarine prophecies and I'm level 10 already. SO much fun playing morrowind with others

[@selfsaboteursounds5273]

Why use a sword when I got THESE GUNS? *kisses biceps*

[@Judgement_Kazzy]

"Horny is like spiky, it's supposed to hurt" Learning more about Coffee's personal life than I planned to today.

[@Jurbroman]

Love your vids, great work again!

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@RGSTR]

I love the style of your videos. You're having so much fun making them that it's infectious. (I wonder which mods you have...) All the best 😄

[@JoeJoe2123]

Dude I love your videos. Just had to tell ya if I haven’t already. A+ amigo 🙂

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

I'm glad you're enjoying them. Thank you!

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

I've been putting off getting Morrowind again, but this video has convinced me that the time is soon. Definitely building an Arcane Fist once I get a modlist set up and ready to go.

[@steveo3947]

I did a spiky haired wood elf and basically made a DBZ character out of him. Constant effect levitation enchantments with destruction and hand to hand in the 1000s. Destruction spells with Max range and damage. Super fun build. Gives me a reason to fire up the old Xbox once in a while

[@Juxxize]

Yey a new morrowind vid love this mega old game ,the oldies r the best 🎉❤

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

Always room for more Morrowind!

[@ZebraOnYourNose]

"I over-tuned this actually" So the standard Morrowind experience?

[@Gitshiver]

First time seeing you and you're punching Umbra to death... subbed!

[@japanimetales]

I love these Guides thanks dude.

[@nobodyyouknow1065]

HtHtH is a pleasingly symmetrical set of letters.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

Perfectly balanced. As all things should be.

[@user-yg5xi3gd2y]

Awesome style mannnn, greetings from Poland

[@idanluz2]

Dude i am in love with your Morrowind videos

[@infanzer]

I have never seen anyone crack themselves up as much as this guy does. Geeze.

[@wyldeman7]

Morrowind. Dream theater shirt. Subscribed.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

A fellow man of culture I see 🤘

[@wyldeman7]

Caught them and devin towmsend a few months back. Still incredible. First time seeing hevy devy and that was so good.

[@cam0x195]

He wont catch anything but *THESE HANDS* !

[@TheBlackWizaard]

He did it! Let’s goooooo

[@paddywackyakkaydaddy]

Thanks so much for doing a hand to hand monk that has different options.

[@laionegan]

A ghost with fatigue..strange but true

[@son_of_the_heavymetal1142]

Only big detail that's missing is that the usual patch-mods for Morrowind (OpenMW and maybe tge MWSE stuff) allows you to toggle an option where Hand-to-hand scales with STR. That is there because werewolfes use H-to-H to do damage but they have a bs amount of STR. You can choose if it can only affect only humans or affect even werewolfes. Absolutely beware that the latter makes Bloodmoon a real challenge.

[@DerrikIsImproving]

Lets gooo I love these videos

[@masterneloth]

When I get home tomorrow I am so going to watch this and make a niche build around it lol

[@jimfromdiscord.8904]

Now I'm just picturing a very angry Lizard Woman going through each tomb/dungeon punching everything with her fists just like the Greater Bonewalker in the tomb near Seyda Neen lol

[@ilari90]

You can easily level up vs scribs, kwamas and mudcrabs early game, unarmed is free to level up when you get your first enemy staggered, just wait the enemy's fatigue to come back a bit. When leveling up, check the progress towards next level, make few successfull hits, then check the progress again, and calculate how many hits you have to make for the next level.

[@ahmedbeziz2681]

Amazing

[@altimagobrrr3838]

Great video as always Coffee! Was wondering, do you think you'll ever do a throwables build? I remember you mentioning in the Archer build that throwables could be a build of its own and ever since then I've wondered what that would look like lol.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

Yes. There are still so many builds I want to do. I'm sure I'll get to Throwables at some point. Still on my radar. I've tried to knock out some of the more highly requested topics in the recent How To's.

[@altimagobrrr3838]

@CoffeeNutGaming totally get it man. I'll watch em all no matter what build you do next. Thanks for helping keep Morrowind content interesting!

[@gamertime4949]

pov: irish pub simulator

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

If only there was a headbutt attack, that'd be perfect for the theme.

[@BubblewrapHighway]

37:04 Sounds like Gnisis just opened their first dispensary.

[@Lkymn]

Love the shirt 🤘

[@Baillee-cc9oe]

I love you, mr. Coffee 😄

[@z3122]

Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.

[@zech007]

One punch Monk-ing Mage, Cast Drain fatigue…punch away 😂

[@Junglebellzzz]

Should've named Russell Crowe fightin' round the world

[@NoMastersNoMistress]

Unarmored synergizes with strength, i.e. strength potions are easy to brew and you can falcon punch your way through whole ares if you jack your character's strength up enough. It's why the stock monk has it as a skill.

[@timvallier9701]

I’ve always dreamed of making a Stendarr ’s hammer build. Still havnt done it though.

[@nicholasfarrell5981]

What skills and such would you use for that build?

[@tivvy2vs21]

​@@nicholasfarrell5981 probably need alchemy to even carry that hing

[@rorysimpson8716]

Great vid all about my favorite class. I used to go Breton with high emphasis on defensive magic, but I was not aware of the hidden benefit of paralysis. You clearly know your s**t when it comes to this game. Any tips on how you can speedrun to the Fort HTH spell in early levels? I know the DLC areas are leveled for postgame but Im sure you know a route ;)

[@MochicoArtemis]

can you make a video on which builds you's reccomend for each race?

[@xzanderain]

boxing drains fatique stat of enemies. if you cast a custom spell drain/absorb/damage fatique ahead of fighting unarmed youll make them dirt nap almost instantly.

[@anprabh1]

Even before he said "Tyson", I remembered my hand-to-hand Redguard build with whom I pulverised every main villain called "Mike Tython" lol!

[@IcarusAO]

Love your content dude! You got a discord I can join?

[@lucasjerez2137]

I started a khajiit named "Daddy" monk class,clapping everyone in the bitter coast

[@beaupeterson188]

How to? Find mud crabs and keep clicking.

[@xlayer5]

as a morrowind on the original xbox player yes the name is everything

[@isaackarr6576]

I'll often take hand to hand as a minor skill for when I want to top off levels

[@henryarbaugh7255]

Well Coffeenut, you always mention how important a character’s name is, so I made an argonian monk following their naming conventions: Claws-In-Cloud’s-Shadow

[@EmeraldDragoon]

So, as much as I do appreciate the morrowind content, I do gotta ask : Ever think of doin this for Oblivion too?

[@adamshea5062]

So have you done an enchanted item build yet? ( basically its a build where your only source of damage is from 'cast when used' item effects)

[@geralt7144]

Mista Fista is a good name

[@YourBoyNobody530]

So, what I often do starting off is only use endurance skills plus atheltics and acrobatics till endurance is maxed out making sure to level acrobatics and athletics to get +5 strength, speed, and endurance every level. Once endurance is maxed you'll still have to level acrobatics, and athletics a bit more, so I recommend buying skill training for an agility skill once you've gain the prerequisite levels in acrobatics and athletics by running around and questing. Once you've maxed out your acrobatics and athletics you can simply focus entire upon skill training whenever you have the money for it making the leveling process incredibly easy and efficient. The starting build should look something like this. Major/Minor Skills: All Endurance skills plus one skill for each attribute (You may need to double up if so double up on a strength skill), and make sure athletics and acrobatics are not major/minor skills. Birth Sign: Lady because +25 endurance will make this process much easier Specialization: Warrior because that's what you'll be using most early on. Favored Attributes: Strength and endurance to max out endurance faster, and to generally deal more damage. Race: Nord, redguard, and orc because they have the highest starting strength and endurance. However, the Nord is what I would recommend the most due to the immense usefulness of resistances, and the increase to pole arms Conclusion: You will start the game using whatever heavy armor, medium armor, shield, and pole arm you want. However, you'll be very slow, and have low agility. The speed isn't much of an issue as you'll rapidly level your acrobatics and athletics, and your first order of business will be to pick up the boots of blinding speed which will be tough to make work. I recommend having a bed close by, using the fortify willpower potions from the mages guild plus the mentors ring, and some patience. As for the low agility You'll have maxed out endurance by level 4 at which point you can start training levels into an agility skill like sneak or marksman, and let your endurance skills level you up. After athletics and acrobatics are maxed out you can level whatever skills you want.

[@Lowco5]

At south wall cornerclub? but that's where the good guys are! Clear out the Council cCub though.

[@ThatOliveMrT]

You could go wild with a beast character. Mods to put poison on your claws

[@LlywellynOBrien]

32:40 the exact moment we find out that Ol Coffee would have been a Confederate.

[@ihavenoclue9756]

Spellcrafting on touch: drain fatigue & damage health (Quivering Palm)

[@MagpieMcGraw]

I played a female Breton Healer in Open Morrowind. You start the game with sanctuary, shield and heal which really helps you stay punching. And you can enable strength damage bonus for your fists. At 100 skill and 100 strength you pretty much one shot everything. And then you make a spell - Fortify Strength 50 pts for 15 secs...

[@quickpawmaud]

Nightblade build next plz?

[@YourBoyNobody530]

So, on every build the first thing I do is get the boots of blinding speed.

[@Jendor_IV]

Perfectly balanced!

[@zac4941]

We all know kung-fu hustle was the best old school movie

[@ma2perdue]

I love using h2h ... I can hardly believe that you forgot to mention "fists don't have condition" and don't need to be repaired

[@jordanweaver3448]

I didn't know you needed one piece of armor for unarmed to work but the best single piece of armor is the ebony mail so join the temple and Imperial cult for the enchanted items

[@kitosjek9541]

You can aquire ebnony mail without the temple questline, just pray at the shrines

[@punhosdepano5805]

I always start with 100 hand to hand,i like to train this skill on the paralyzed nord,you can just start with the ultimate power to kill a god.

[@chowderpower7192]

Can we get a sort of powerful unarmored, non-stealth build?...

[@IceDruid23]

I starded a h2h some time ago, got h2h to 100, getting some 150 str with enchantments to do some dmg but fights got boring, I'm just punching potato bags, I swapped to 1h swords for some faster kills. H2H can be good for knocking tough enemies and then finishing with regular weapon.

[@anablanco8780]

How did you enchanted that Shirt? When I can't set 70-90 h2h at 30 seconds

[@BubbyBoy]

I never understood why Bethesda later made hand-to-hand an afterthought. It's one thing to get rid of it like spears, but it's always teased at with fantastic kill cams or grandfathered into random perk trees. Sure, you can resto-loop a Skyrim fist build for guaranteed death, but that applies to every build. Not to mention, it gets incredibly stale.

[@timvallier9701]

If you do it right you can make a pretty solid HTH build in Skyrim. My Vampire Khajiit Kibbledorf Pwent hits like a truck with my pugilist’s enchanted Daedric gauntlets.

[@BubbyBoy]

@@timvallier9701 it's honestly just the lack of variety fists offer in Skyrim. There's no unique mechanics like Ordinator or Oblivion offers, just mashing the attack button or occasionally holding it. I'm aware of the necromage exploit for fists, but necromage is just a straight upgrade for everything you do, magic included.

[@timvallier9701]

@@BubbyBoy you are correct the combat does tend to get stale. Though the suplex insta kill makes me smile every time. I mix it up with Auriel’s shield from time to time for some captain america shenanigans when it gets boring.

[@BubbyBoy]

@tim Vallier honestly, if you can guarentee a specific kill cam animation for fists, it'd be a much greater build.

[@tivvy2vs21]

I think they sould combine it with unarmored to make martial arts

[@unkeptvoid]

So why lovers kiss? I get the paralyze but damage 200 fatigue on self? You don't want to damage your own fatigue when trying to hit someone?

[@isidro_]

I was thinking of making myself a boxing orc, do you think it could be viable? I was thinking of making a character that hits hard, resists a lot of rounds and is agile, I'm not interested in using magic or anything like that.

[@CoffeeNutGaming]

Could totally be viable but there are pros and cons. Pro is Orc is surprisingly fast and nimble at the start because of how Morrowind scales player movement speed, so they are surprisingly evasive. Nice and tanky with higher endurance early. Con would be that the very start will be rough since your hand to hand and agility would be really low at the start so hit chance would be brutal. May want to train some agility skills early or rush paralyze effects for early leveling. Also, Berserk is not great for H2H since you need to get through two health bars, so you cant use it to glass cannon someone to zero before they stagger lock you from the Berserk agility debuff.

[@isidro_]

@@CoffeeNutGaming My plan was to take advantage of the early game to improve and increase strength, hand to hand, agility, acrobatics despite the fact that as he is going to be a boxer he will not jump much, the unarmed and trying to avoid using the berserker mode or use it as a last resort, I know that maybe it can be an extra difficulty but I will trust your guide and your most important teaching, the strength comes from the name so it will be known as Iron Riki XD.

[@mtguitar5150]

I just created a character named Chuck Norris, with 5000 hand to hand

[@ham8426]

I think it was hand to hand that taught me to use the crappiest weapon in a class for training manually since morrowind skills level up on success and using a daedric battle axe for everything doesn't afford many successes, like one hit and you're done so it takes longer to hone your skill

[@boomenbuttfuckens288]

how the fuck am i suppose to grab the mentor ring if it shoots fuckin fire and kills me instantly

[@chrisbingley]

For a hand-to-hand build, I'd have to go with a Kajiit named Ms Kyle, wearing Brotherhood armour For the sole reason of "Michelle Pfeiffer in skin tight latex". Yeah, I'm old.

[@timvallier9701]

Respect!

[@Schwitzmaul]

Team telvani yeah.

[@fushigiman140]

I grind hand to hand skill in tutorial by beat everybody to dead with fist it very risky unless you able keep stuntlock them

[@omegasupreme2200]

I would like if you could make a real TANK build in Morrowind, using heavy armour and shields, no magic whatsoever. Just an idea for a build and video.

[@TheMichaellathrop]

Chuck Florist

[@Waupn6]

I feel like a Hand to hand/alchemy build would be funny 😂 just a guy on a cocktail of drugs going around punching people to death 😂

[@SmokeAndGnomes]

Forgive me if you cover this later but I’m 17 minutes in and hadn’t heard you mention it yet and didn’t see anyone mention it scrolling through the comments either: Don’t khajiit and argonians ignore fatigue bar altogether and damage health immediately because they have claws? The same as werewolves? ….. or is this the Mandela affect and my childhood memory is lying to me?

[@povilzem]

A reminder that Teutonic knights also count as monks.