I've started a new character for the newest version. I've had several characters who invested somewhat in Explosives just for the heck of it, mainly to get good mileage out of the landmines which are very very useful in some situations. For this character I made it one of my tag skills, and I have bought all 3 ranks of Demo Expert. My findings when trying to use explosives as a primary attack...

- Explosives in general seem extremely hit or miss. Sometimes I can seriously damage or outright kill an enemy, at the very least crippling their limbs. (I took out 3 Viper Gang bandits with one 40mm grenade). And other times I take maybe 10% off my target's health and leave them otherwise unscathed. Is there some kind of invisible dice roll that involves explosive damage? Other weapons don't have that...

- Thrown explosives in VATS are very good for engaging single targets (it lands right at their feet pretty much, even if you 'miss'), but are suicide for engaging multiple targets. The one you actually threw at will be temporarily immobilized, but everybody else is still moving while the fuse runs down. Kind of strange.

- I'm up to level 13, and 40mm grenades are simply too rare to really rely on them. Each merchant carries between 5 and 10, if they have any at all (usually not). The low cost, direct-fire, and contact explosion of the 40mm launchers make them seem like Explosive's bread and butter, but there simply isn't enough of them. Dynamite and grenades are more powerful, but also fifty times more expensive, and as noted their use in VATS is problematic. Mines are handy but can really only be effective against the first enemy of a pack (and they're also crazy expensive like grenades).

I've wound up using melee to do 95% of my fighting (go go gadget rebar club), with a few explosions here and there for novelty. Explosive weapons are powerful, but also difficult to use, and expensive, and heavy, and rare. Now more than ever I believe the Flamer and Incinerator should be under Explosives just to give that skill something to use which isn't so incredibly specialized.

:(

What do other people think?

40mm grenades are powerful enough that you don't need a whole bunch of. If you have trouble finding them you should pay the Boomers a visit.

Some NPC have their "base" stuck at the bottom of the ground, you simply cannot kill them with explosives because of that.

If you compensate by aiming high you can get a lot more range.

Demolition Expert is a double edge sword that cuts yourself 90% of times.

Using a Grenade Machine Gun in V.A.T.S. on an approaching Molerat is suicide because of this.

Not sure I understand the problem. What "base"? And what does this have to do with explosion radius?

I think he's refering to where their movement scripts are placed. Their placement markers basically.

Basically that is the point where line of sight is traced, distance from explosion determine et cetera. Essentially the geometric reference point of the actor.

Perception is important to Explosives and I'd make sure my Luck is high too. I just made an Unarmed character and went for Unarmed/Melee/Explosives to make sure she had enough going on for close and ranged combat. I used the Tag! Perk for Explosives to raise it up and that helped. It's a great build and my first time to really explore those skills...having a great time with it. Unarmed is great because you don't have to search for ammo and I've done plenty of that in earlier games. I just think the 3-way combo helps more. Check Silver Peak Mine and Ruby Hill Mine for explosives.