Anyone planning to do this? Or at least taking INT to about 7/8 to allow for buffs from gear/bobblehead?

My line of thinking is that although there is no level cap, it may still pay to gain XP quicker because you'll have more perks and SPECIAL upgrades for the same amount of content completed, as compared to a low INT character.

Since content is finite, this would allow you to experience the greatest variety of gameplay during that content.

Or are you guys generally just going to play multiple chars?

My plan is to take it to 9 in case the bobblehead gives a point, but there's been no proof of any exp boost due to INT that I'm aware of.

This. I'm also planning to not spend my first few perk points till I know what I need. For example dos lockpick or hacking perks allow you to attempt harder locks or does it make it easier? First then it will be needed, second I'll risk it Simlar with crafting, if I don't have ammo or the parts to make the weapons yet it's a bit of a waste so early.

I'll have to wait and see just how much of an overall increase in exp it gives. If it's just 50% more I may not bother but if it's over that I probably will.

I would never max a stat until I've found its bobblehead, so at most I'd start out with an intelligence of 9 and no less than 6, most likely 6 or 7...more xp is nice but I don't think I'll just use up a third of my points to one special.

This is a Bethesda game. This means I'll be playing multiple characters for years (I'm still making new characters in Morrowind 13 years after I bought the game) and will continue to make new characters for many more years to come.

I roleplay, so I put SPECIAL points into stats that make sense for the character I intend to play. I'm sure I'll be playing a few characters with high Intelligence, others with moderate Intelligence, and some characters with low intelligence. It all depends on them.

Intelligence definitely is tied to experience points gained, just watch the official video "Fallout 4’s Character System" where he scrolls through the SPECIALs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsFpH4jm-QI- one of a few sources on this info.

"Intelligence is a measure of your overall mental acuity, and affects the number of Experience Points earned.

Well there actually is a exp boost, you can look it up in the discription of intelligence

Huh, I missed that. Thanks for sharing!

Okay, so INT does effect EXP. Cool. Now we just need to know how much and about bobblehead effects.

We do know there's only 20 bobbleheads, so there's not enough for each PERK.

I used to go with max INT (9 + bobblehead) so I could have the most number of skill points possible (also got Educated and Comprehension). I also do generally like playing intelligent characters and there are the occasional dialog options only available with a high INT. But that said, in Fallout 4 I am likely to "only" get maybe 4 or 5 INT to start since most of the higher perks do not interest me and there are a LOT of other perks that do interest me which require other stats.

"Just" getting more experience diminishes the importance of INT to me, which is a GOOD thing, really. I used to feel obligated to get a high INT since it would determine how good I was at Guns, and Explosives and Lockpicking and Speechcraft, and so on. Now it, properly, is mainly important to people who want INT-based perks like SCIENCE!

It would be nice to get more experience since that would let you level faster and get more powerful (more perks, possibly more hit points) but I've always preferred being able to do NEW things over doing the same old thing slightly better.

I guess how much extra XP will be the deciding factor for me.

If, for example an INT 5 character reaches level 20 after completing a certain chunk of content and an INT 10 character reaches level 25 after the same chunk then INT will be the way to go.