ti-legacy.com

Hi there.

I'd like to propose that wearing gauntlets (the actual armor item) buff the damage you deal with unarmed attacks based on the quality of the gauntlet, like so:

Steel Plate Gauntlet: 100% of normal weapon damage
Iron Plate Gauntlet: 4/5th the effect of Steel Plate
Steel Chain Gauntlet: 3/5th the effect of Steel Plate
Iron Chain Gauntlet: 2/5th the effect of Steel Plate
Leather Gauntlet: 1/5th the effect of Steel Plate

Or hey, you could just go by material type. Or armor type and ignore the material type.

Point is, I'd like wearing gauntlets to make punches hurt more.

While interesting, I doubt this would be approved due to balancing issues.

Unarmed has a couple of advantages that is offset by its decreased damage compared to weapons:

First, it works equally against all defense styles. Most other weapons can be negated heavily by choosing an appropriate defense, but unarmed can't be.
Second, it is always readied. It takes no turns to switch to fists. Say you're using a sword and someone is a master of the defense that negates them. You can remove the sword and punch in the same turn. Wield/wear takes a turn, so switching to a dagger and stabbing would take two turns.
Third and similarly to the second point, it can be used as a dual attack without penalty to the main weapon. Dual-wielding weapons decreases your effectiveness in both, but using dual with your fist as the off-hand attack only reduces the unarmed. If you're using a weapon and they use a countering defense, you can still pummel them with your other hand for little penalty, without giving up any possible other advantages of the weapon in your main hand.

Buffing the damage of unarmed in any way would make it overpowered.

What might be interesting, however, is having some mechanism to change the damage type without modifying the damage dealt- say spikes gloves/brass knuckles to cause some sort of bleeding wound instead of a bruise, but even that might be a little unbalanced.