It's not that hard of a challenge. For one, you still have the bow. Two, the gloves really aren't bad! I was hitting for 20-25 damage, and you get two hits per turn. Also, the Warden is tanky as hell. That barkskin did a lot of work.
Ring of Accuracy so I could punch things better. I got almost every ring this run, and half were +1. I used Accuracy the most.
In order to hit +17, had to wait until I reached the troll blacksmith and spend his favor on two upgrades on the gloves before I could spend any upgrades scrolls. This meant the gloves were useless for most of the first half of the game. So I was using a +1 mace for a long time.
The +3 plate was quite the find.
Spirit Hawk is soooo good! Makes punching Scorpios a breeze due to the crippling and blindness the hawk inflicts. Plus the insane move speed it has. Once in a while I could blind an Evil Eye and avoid getting blasted, but rarely had time to move the hawk away, and it took the blast. Kinda makes the blindness not matter. Just taking aggro was enough for me not to get hit.
Which makes me wonder, why not curse infusion on top of +17?
Why not, indeed! I always forget about it.