Behold the power of Balrog Wings!
 

This just goes to show that even the silliest comment about balrog wings will always start a longer discussion. ;)

In the Unfinished Tales chapter The History of Galadriel and Celeborn there is an account of Sauron's attempt to overrun the west of Middle-earth in the Second Age, well before he was taken "prisoner" by Ar-Pharazôn of Númenor. This is in contrast to his later machinations, in that he actually accompanied his army on their march into Eriador.
He was eventually defeated and driven back to Mordor with "no more than a bodyguard" left of his forces. In that fighting were Elves, Dwarves, and Men, and at no time is it said that Sauron himself ever wielded a weapon, though acting as a field general for your army would seem a logical time for doing so. Nor is there any apparent record among his foes of his using any sort of melee weapon personally. I have to think that if Sauron had possessed a weapon, he would have made use of it then, and someone would have noted it.

If he fought bare-fisted, or with his hands wrapped up like the old Greek boxers, think of maybe Jet Li in The One, hands versus bullets.

In pure fisticuffs, Sauron's superior stature and strength would always give him an edge over lesser beings. Being in nature an angelic, embodied spirit, I would think even sword and arrow-wounds wouldn't put him down, unless he received very many of them. Morgoth, though obviously greater in all ways than Sauron, was able to withstand multiple sword-wounds by one of the most powerful of the Noldor. I don't think Sauron would have had much fear of even armed adversaries.

True, but many of his enemies were on a whole other level, being Elves and Dúnedain. Sauron himself was not quite on the level of his master. I'm just watching Full-Metal Alchemist and I think the Dúnedain were sort of like King Bradleys, and of course the Elves generally were like them, except of course the exceptional ones. I mean in the end he was put down by two of the elite of their respective kindreds so I do not see him so much out of their league as to just be strolling in among his enemies, at least at this point in history, and expecting to walk away relatively unscathed.

Remember when Isildur and his 200 or so Men were ambushed by over 2000 Orcs and they still almost wiped them out. They were horribly outnumbered. It took about 5-6 together to take out one Dúnedain, but their methods it seemed involved sacrifice because they needed to try and hold them down to get at them, almost a recklessness. I do think perhaps Sauron had something to help him deal with his enemies weapons, to mitigate their impact to some degree. He also had that heat with which he took out Gil-galad.

He was a master of wolves, I'm not sure about this, but did he make much use of them in the 2nd Age? I'm not so sure. I know some of the Orcs under Saruman used Wargs & the like, but I'd think Sauron would keep such powerful creatures around to strengthen his forces. I can certainly see Sauron going at it with just his own physical tools. It seems for the most part that warriors of note, or at least the famous people/beings tend to have their weapons mentioned. Morgoth did, as did the Balrogs, and various Elves and Men. I suppose Sauron sort of went at it like the dragons did.

Actually the skills of the Dunedain and Elves would probably almost make armor a requirement if Sauron ever planned to be on the battlefield. After all, how could he be sure that his enemies would be so noble as to keep themselves confined to close combat when he was concerned. Up close and personal, he had is power and his fire. But what would happen if they had decided to take him out from a distance. Both the elves and men possesed in thier armies numerous incredibly crack shots with bow and spear; what's to keep them from simply taking aim and riddling him. I imagine that any fear powers Sauron has won't work on intert objects and using his fire to burn them rather relys on him being able to see all of them. I tend to think his firepower requires conscios effort, that his background heat was not so high that arrows and spears simply spontaneously combusted as they got near him (and even if they did, the heads would still get though which would funtionally be the same as the whole arrow or spear. Plus assuming anyone knew about the fire thing (and they probably did. All they'd need are arrows or spears with iron shafts as well as heads). No armor means no defense against projectiles; Sauron would be a pincusion before he got twenty paces out of the gates. If his finger can be cut off, his body can presumably be peirced.

Armor or no, I still think that the lack of any mention of Sauron's engaging in melee action or his possession of any weapon is a good indication he did not carry one.

Denethor laughed bitterly. 'Nay, not yet, Master Peregrin! [Sauron] will not come save only to triumph over me when all is won. He uses others as his weapons. So do all great lords, if they are wise, Master Halfling. Or why should I sit here in my tower and think, and watch, and wait, spending even my sons?'

Oddly enough though, Denethor accused Gandalf of that very thing, yet Gandalf is the one Maia we do see personally wielding a weapon (excluding the Balrog)!
And no, I don't count Saruman's cheap shot at Frodo with his fingernail clipper. :rolleyes:

Well hobbits used appalling weapons also, the universally banned LSB umbrella
of doom, for one. ;)

But the comment above about taking out Sauron long distance with arrows and spears puts another whole in PJs LoTR depictions. In the prequil (actually good overall) why not have those hundreds of elf and Dunedain archers (directed by Elrond) just pincushion Sauron. After all, in the movie he's a rather big target, hard to miss, and the archers were knocking orcs off the top of Mount Doom.

Ha! You mean you overlooked Radagast's Rabbit Chariot? He's a bloody Diomedes in that thing......

The Diomedes of the Trojan War who was amped up by Athena?

Speaking of weaponless angel-like beings, how about Tulkas. I think it would be a good idea to keep him in mind if we are considering Sauron fighting weaponless, or at least in these cases, without a melee weapon. I don't think that like Tulkas physical confrontation was Sauron's strong suit, powerful though he was.

I do think Sauron had to wear some armor. Perhaps, the simple armor aside like a cuirass, he had something else to mitigate incoming threats.

Gandalf had his sword and his staff, if we are counting that as a weapon then Saruman had his staff too.

Lots of irony in Denethor taking leadership lessons from Sauron, but he's still wielding a sword and wearing armor (although lending credence to Inzil's argument, if Sauron had armor or a weapon it would have been mentioned, especially when in battle):

Tiredness I guess. Using those bows are heavy Work. Medieval English longbows had a poundage of 120-150 Pounds (i saw somewhere a reference to Legolas' bow having 150 pounds of draw power; I am unsure if this is canonical but I think so).

An English longbowman could shoot 6 arrows a minute, but after a few minutes you would tire and not be able to fire anymore. Small wonder - you can't keep drawing 150 pounds forever.

Plus arrows gets used up. (English lowngbowmen had something like 10 each.)

Plus Archers were used to fire volleys, not for aiming at specific targets. Not easy hitting moving targets at long distances, especially if it emanates fear :)

Sauron entered the battle at a late stage - doesn't seem illogical to me that the archers were then tired and had used up most of their projectiles.

A mace maybe?like in the movies?or probably an aura of terror.afterall,he is the abhorred dead.or,anything that is evil,finely crafted,and very deadly

Yes.

He was all about sadism, fear, domination, corruption, seduction, and he was, I think, once a servant of Aule. Sauron is attributed to transformation motifs, where 'succumbing' and 'perverting' are his tools. The tools of lore, not weaponry, that allow him to extend his Will in, through and over other beings.

More psychological, in many ways and about enslavement and subordination to 'his lordship'. Also a bit like a tantruming, overgrown child, who didn't know how to share his toys.... :)

Seems like Sauron's weapon of choice is to makes others paranoid or whatever else it takes to make them kill each other due to hate....Sauron is like the "devil" he feeds on hate......

Sauron main weaponmis fear,and he could instill terror in the heart of his foe.secondary,probably his sorcery/shape-shifting ability