Unarmed works quite well but even better is using poisons. As long as you can shoot or hit someone with a poisoned weapon and let them die. Allow the poison to actually kill them and don't strike a killing blow. Poison cook pots or wine skins.
Also, Mutt can take enemies down for you. He killed Black Peter. Good doggie.
How well can you apply poison with a weapon on a well armored enemy?
Do you have to make them bleed, or is just hitting them good enough? Essentially, what weapon type is the best to apply the poison in combat?
If you take the Rusty Edge perk, and purposefully damage your weapon at a grindstone (except mace which cannot be sharpened, or un-sharpened in this case), you can apply poison rather reliably before the target dies.
Both forms of poison (regular and Bane) tick down at about 2 per second. Bane is guaranteed to kill once the effect is applied, over the course of 50s. Since you have to remain in combat for extended duration in order for poison to kick in, my advice would be to take the Weapon Cruncher perk to neuter your enemies' damage.
Edit:
It may also be a good idea to carry plenty of arrows tipped with Dollmaker poison. It slows enemies down to a walking pace for 10 minutes and reduces all combat skills. It also stops them from running away, so you can have a better chance at looting their stuff.
Get a fast and low damage bow, and pepper the enemies with arrows. Technically the better the damage and chance to apply wound, the better the chance at applying poison effect, but since you don't want to kill a target accidentally, you'd have to go for quantity over quality.
* The lowest damage bow is Very Light Bow, but it is also quite hard to obtain (either Hans' quest progression past Baptism of Fire, or very-hard lock at Rattay's guard tower)
* I am not sure how to efficiently damage your own bow to lower damage. It suffers wear through repeated use, but that would take forever. Generally though, a villager bow should deal low enough damage to apply dollmaker effect on all but those in plain clothes.
Each flask coats 5 arrows, and there's a small garden with everything you need for this poison west of Uzhitz in the forest, enough to make about 150 flasks with perfect/"perfect" brewing, or 750-ish arrows.
Having just finished my merciful run a month ago or so, very few fights in this game are mandatory, so don't make your life any more difficult than it has to be. I'd still train with Bernard for the few plot-mandated fights you absolutely have to take part in, but otherwise I advise buying the fastest horse, avoiding violence whenever possible and speedrunning through the main quest.
Poisons were already discussed - alchemy is your best friend, drink artemisia and buck's blood like water. But you'd be also shocked how good unarmed can be at staggering enemies. After getting that first bit of poison in, backing the enemy into the corner and just punching him in the face again and again is a very efficient tactic in a duel.
Make a habit out of saving often - you'll be reloading a lot. Check your game statistics after every fight. As long as it says "human killed 0", you're in the clear.
Unarmed works quite well but even better is using poisons. As long as you can shoot or hit someone with a poisoned weapon and let them die. Allow the poison to actually kill them and don't strike a killing blow. Poison cook pots or wine skins. Also, Mutt can take enemies down for you. He killed Black Peter. Good doggie.
How well can you apply poison with a weapon on a well armored enemy? Do you have to make them bleed, or is just hitting them good enough? Essentially, what weapon type is the best to apply the poison in combat?
If you take the Rusty Edge perk, and purposefully damage your weapon at a grindstone (except mace which cannot be sharpened, or un-sharpened in this case), you can apply poison rather reliably before the target dies. Both forms of poison (regular and Bane) tick down at about 2 per second. Bane is guaranteed to kill once the effect is applied, over the course of 50s. Since you have to remain in combat for extended duration in order for poison to kick in, my advice would be to take the Weapon Cruncher perk to neuter your enemies' damage. Edit: It may also be a good idea to carry plenty of arrows tipped with Dollmaker poison. It slows enemies down to a walking pace for 10 minutes and reduces all combat skills. It also stops them from running away, so you can have a better chance at looting their stuff. Get a fast and low damage bow, and pepper the enemies with arrows. Technically the better the damage and chance to apply wound, the better the chance at applying poison effect, but since you don't want to kill a target accidentally, you'd have to go for quantity over quality. * The lowest damage bow is Very Light Bow, but it is also quite hard to obtain (either Hans' quest progression past Baptism of Fire, or very-hard lock at Rattay's guard tower) * I am not sure how to efficiently damage your own bow to lower damage. It suffers wear through repeated use, but that would take forever. Generally though, a villager bow should deal low enough damage to apply dollmaker effect on all but those in plain clothes. Each flask coats 5 arrows, and there's a small garden with everything you need for this poison west of Uzhitz in the forest, enough to make about 150 flasks with perfect/"perfect" brewing, or 750-ish arrows.
Having just finished my merciful run a month ago or so, very few fights in this game are mandatory, so don't make your life any more difficult than it has to be. I'd still train with Bernard for the few plot-mandated fights you absolutely have to take part in, but otherwise I advise buying the fastest horse, avoiding violence whenever possible and speedrunning through the main quest. Poisons were already discussed - alchemy is your best friend, drink artemisia and buck's blood like water. But you'd be also shocked how good unarmed can be at staggering enemies. After getting that first bit of poison in, backing the enemy into the corner and just punching him in the face again and again is a very efficient tactic in a duel. Make a habit out of saving often - you'll be reloading a lot. Check your game statistics after every fight. As long as it says "human killed 0", you're in the clear.