An Unarmed Specialist needs no weapon; the Unarmed Specialist is the weapon.
—Jedi Unarmed Specialist mantra
The Jedi Unarmed Specialist was a mode of service and a Prestige Class available to Jedi Consulars who eschewed the use of the lightsaber or other weapons in favor of hand-to-hand combat.
Channeling the Force through their movements, Jedi Unarmed Specialists executed precise attacks while effortlessly dodging an opponent's blows, swings, or shots. As this prestige class required many years of study to truly master, paired with a deep-seated connection to the Force, few Jedi Consulars specialized this mode of service during the Order's history, though a number of Unarmed Specialists served the Order during the Jedi Civil War.
Unarmed Specialists, deprived of the deflective capabilities of the lightsaber, were forced to rely on their own control of the Force to throw up a Force shield around their body to defend against ranged weapons and melee attacks. These Consulars spent many years studying hand-to-hand martial arts, including the Echani arts, bolstering their unarmed attacks with the use of offensive Force powers. By the time of the Jedi Civil War, Unarmed Specialists were among the few light-side Force-users to truly master dark-side powers like Force lightning, Force insanity, and Force plague without fear.
Revanchist General Meetra Surik was familiar with basic Unarmed Specialist training, which she later employed upon her return from exile at the end of the Jedi Civil War, and the Zabrak Lost Jedi Bao-Dur, though technically a Jedi Guardian, was a master of the standard Unarmed Specialist hand-to-hand abilities.
Behind the scenes[]
The Unarmed Specialist is a feat that can be learned in Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords by the Jedi Exile and Bao-Dur. A play-through as an Unarmed Specialist is notoriously difficult.