Fallout New Vegas Chracter Building Help?

[Keiichi Morisato]

I recently purchased Fallout New Vegas from steam (steam sale hell yeah!)and well... I have never played a game like it at all, I primarily play JRPGs where it's done for you, so I need help building my character. I want to be offensively and primarily use guns at mid range. I want to know where should I allocate my points, and what perks should I choose since I want to focus playing offensively.

 

[Vern5]

Tag Guns, Repair, and Speech.

ST:5
PE:6
EN:5
Ch:5
IN:6
AG:7
LU:6

That's a balanced enough build for your first playthrough.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Put points in things. Make one of those things intelligence. Make another a type of gun (since you want to do guns). Done.

Like really, that's it. You have so many levels as long as you put 8+ points in intelligence you should eventually be able to max out everything of consequence. Beyond that, just do what you want. You will need strength to use some of the larger weapons, so if you want to use those consider investing in it, but other than that the skills and stats are fairly self explanatory. As for perks... the merit of those is best explained individually, and I don't know most of them off hand, so I'll leave that to somebody else.

Edit- I'll add that you should probably put one of your tag skills in your gun skill of choice. I prefer Energy Weapons, but go ahead and do guns if that suits you.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Woot. I'm very proud of my New Vegas build and now I get to show it off. I can't remember exact numbers so I'm throwing out guesses

Perception = 1 it's not that useful, get ED-E as a companion and his radar perk will let you see enemies very far away
Charisma = low, I don't find that useful either
Luck = medium, it can be extremely helpful for gambling to earn infinite money but I'd rather put it into other points but it's up to you I guess
Intelligence = 10, it gives you more skill points to distribute everything you level up
Strength = high, more melee and unarmed damage
Endurance = high, resist more damage and do more unarmed damage

For skills, it depends on what you like when it comes down to guns/energy weapons. There's more guns so you might want to stick with them but lasers are lasers. I'd also go with a close up fighting skill, unarmed and melee both have good strong weapons but there's more variety with melee while unarmed let's you kill people when you have no weapons which is fun. In New Vegas, there's a lot of fucking speech checks so I'd get that to 100 as soon possible

Also, a trick I like is using the console commands to make lockpicking 100. It's annoying to run into high level locks that you can't even attempt to pick. Thus I find it a bs skill

 

[momijirabbit]

Just put points in the skills that sound the most useful to you, want to shoot people from mid range increase perception a little and increase your guns skill.

Also don't install too many mods, game will crash like hell.

Catchpa: Ride the Subway, Playing Fallout 3, have ya?

 

[sextus the crazy]

Dump most of your special into Strength and Intelligence, as the carry weight and skill point boosts that they give are very useful. Speech is a very useful skill to have high all the time, as speech checks are omnipresent and require a high stat. They're good for everything in general.

Melee weapons and explosives are both very good in this game, but then again, everything is with investment.

 

[SillyBear]

I'd recommend tagging guns, repair and sneak. Sneak is the best skill in the game.

 

[Ryotknife]

intelligence is probably the most important stat (also get the skill point perk as early as you can, I think it is like level 6). You will need strength to use the big guns like rocket launchers or miniguns, but there are perks to decrease the strength requirements on weapons by 2 (I think) and you can use perks to gain more STR. Perception is kinda crap once you get ED-E.

 

[Legion]

S.P.E.C.I.A.L:

Strength is for if you want to be melee, unarmed, large weapon focused or enjoy hoarding loot. 6 is good or most weapons, 8 is ideal if you want the largest or melee/unarmed focus.

Perception sounds useful, but is less so if you like companions (ED-E for example as others have mentioned). Basically if you want to go solo then it is better to be higher, otherwise not so much.

Endurance is for health, resistances and toughness, if you want to get into the thick of fighting you want it to be 7+.

Charisma is worthless unless you want to be a smooth talker or have companions buffed up. If that kind of thing is your style then it is good to have it high.

Intelligence gives you more points per level which is why so many recommend it. If you want to max skills then it is a good way to go, but it really isn't "needed".

Agility helps with stealth and makes you harder to hit. Very useful for sneaky and close combat types, not so necessary if you are dragging around big guns.

Luck helps with criticals both yours and reducing the chances of the enemies getting them. It also raises all skills slightly and helps with gambling.

Overall on a first go, I'd recommend keeping them all at 5 and just raising some in the areas that seem to fit your style.

Skills:

Tag the three skills that you think you will use the most. I recommend at least one attack skill such as Guns, Energy weapons, Melee etc. One passive skill such as Speech, Medicine or Repair and one technical skill being either Lock Picking or Science.

That will make you nicely balanced. Most skill points when levelling should go into those, with the occasional points elsewhere for perks.

Perks:

Whenever you level up keep an eye on what is required for each perk. Make sure to invest skill points in those areas so you can get the ones you like. As for what to go for? Just read them all when you level up and pick what you think seems cool, don't worry about "optimal" builds on a first run.

Just my two cents. I prefer to not try and get the "best" build on my first play through as it is more fun to experience it and learn what works for yourself.

 

[Karoshi]

Charisma, Int and Perception are important for some speech passes, therefore if you enjoy being a crafty diplomat, do try not to set those three too low. If you are mostly into shooting things, then you can mostly ignore those.

 

[vv85]

Just have fun. You can replay the game alot.

Playing offensively - put most points into perception and strength, and tag guns definitely (sneak is a good option too)

The game is really meant to be fluid tho, so dont plan just play. Enjoy!

 

[theheroofaction]

Well I'm a bit of a munchkin and here's the build I use
Strength:5
perception:3
endurance: 10
charisma:1
Intelligence: 10
Agility:10
Luck: 1

With the tags of : guns repair and science.

obviously you'll have different desires than me. But I've found that Charisma and luck are effectively pointless.

Intelligence should be high because it determines how many skill points you should get

Endurance Is pretty important unless you're going to usually attack from long range.

Other than that strength changes how much you can carry, your melee weapon damage and your accuracy with heavy weapons
perception changes how much your hud shows and your accuracy with energy weapons.
Agility controls your accuracy with small guns and your ability to sneak

 

[ItsNotRudy]

Honestly, a lot of advice in this thread isn't great. An all-round build is going to be bad on your first playthrough. Find a weapon build you want to focus on, and then I can give you some solid stats.

 

[Tweg]

Honestly, a lot of advice in this thread isn't great. An all-round build is going to be bad on your first playthrough. Find a weapon build you want to focus on, and then I can give you some solid stats.

I don't see the point why you would want to minmax everything like that on your first playthrough. I would maybe understand if the game was actually particularly hard, but it's not. Just do what you feel like doing.

 

[Benpasko]

Max every single noncombat skill. Lockpicking, Science, and Speech especially. They are absolutely vital.

 

[Guy from the 80's]

If you want easy mode, max out strength. You will kill everyone pretty fast, and as you level up use the skill that allows you to add more points to attributes.

you wont be clever, but you will be a powerful brute.

 

[Mossberg Shotty]

Sure, you could always do one of these builds that people have mentioned, but if you're like me, you'll get bored before too long.

To break the mold, I decided to make a character who completely forgoes weapons and just specialized in unarmed. Once you massage your skill enough, and get those specific people to teach you the special unarmed moves (you can Google where to find them) you'll be next to unstoppable. Of course you'll have to put a lot of points into strength, 'cos it's gonna be your bread and butter, but high luck is also important, especially at those Blackjack tables.

And for added fun, choose to sympathize with the Legion and wander the countryside punching insurgents in the face. It's definitely the road less traveled, but I can promise you won't get bored.

 

[ItsNotRudy]

Sure, you could always do one of these builds that people have mentioned, but if you're like me, you'll get bored before too long.

To break the mold, I decided to make a character who completely forgoes weapons and just specialized in unarmed.

Unarmed is actually a path taken by a ton of people, you make it sound really exotic

Honestly, a lot of advice in this thread isn't great. An all-round build is going to be bad on your first playthrough. Find a weapon build you want to focus on, and then I can give you some solid stats.

I don't see the point why you would want to minmax everything like that on your first playthrough. I would maybe understand if the game was actually particularly hard, but it's not. Just do what you feel like doing.

I'm absolutely positive that a newbie to the genre would find HC mode or even the highest difficulty quite the challenge.

 

[Tweg]

I'm absolutely positive that a newbie to the genre would find HC mode or even the highest difficulty quite the challenge.

Yeah, but why would a newbie play on hardcore mode?