Gawd again with the realism. Its a game people, play anarchy online(sci-FI mmorpg) and theres your unarmed class build just as strong as a soldier.
Arguments like: "I should be able to kill everybody with my minigun because my crafter alt invested many hours of gamaplay to be able to build it, while my main character that uses it did absuletely nothing." ....Is not valid. I hope i dont have to explain why, but get this: The unarmed character invested just as many hours to grind up to lvl 20-ish as well.
*cough* Anyways back to topic:
I agree with Badger, but my opinion on the matter is, that unarmed needs a boost to sneak and ac, because of a slimmer body and only the opener hits should be more lethal(Silent Death), not the average hits.
Melee needs better stamina, to be able to survive and do something. The question is how this can be achieved. IMO new perks would do the trick, because perks like toughness, and dodger, well anybody can get those, and it doesnt make much of a difference :/
Everybody that has a high skill in something should be able to specialize his character somehow, to make them more powerfull, not just a higher chance of hitting, or higher chance of a succesfull use of doctor or whatever. This ofc applies to ranged characters too.
The skill requirement for HtH evade for example should be upped, so only unarmed specialisied characters could get it, and the AC boost should be much more significant that would actually mean a difference.
Sneak should be made valuable, but still have ways to counter it. The FAV penalties and the 3 hex radius thing kills the skill.
Silent Death should do a guarenteed crit, not do double damage, so the opening hit from sneaking would give a higher chance to cripple someone.
Melee characters cant use sneak, they need to rely on endurance, but they cant, because a big gunner can get the same perks as he can. Toughness and lifegiver should be tied(and scaled) to melee skill imho. But the ultimate perk for the tank would be to be able to wear power armor.
And before some ...... duh ....... *cough* sorry.. So before a big gunner comes yelling overpowered, remember, that while unarmed took perks to become harder to hit, and melee character chose perks to get more DR and HP, the ranged guys took perks to be more effective snipers/damage dealers.