I just got my copy of FO 1&2 today, I haven't installed yet, (trying to finish up Broken steel first) It's been a long time since I've played a pnp RPG (played AD&D in highschool) and I understand these are pretty close..

Anyway I was hoping maybe some FO vets could give me a few tips on character build for a first timer, and possibly game tips that won't spoil thing too much.. I usually like to play stealth type roles but I know that in some games it is pretty hard starting out that way, anyway I'm kinda looking for a character who will be halfway competent at least until I get the hang of things and can customize one completely to my liking..

Any help would be much appreciated..

I apologize if this is a repost of some sort and all the info I need is on here already, If it is I didn't see it...

Thanks in advance

A good place to start with your character when you're not sure what build to use are the pre-made characters. I think there's 3 to choose from (if memory serves, there's a combat guy, a stealth build, and a charismatic dude.) Those are usually pretty good starting points to at least see what the developers thought was a viable build.

A good rule of thumb if you don't want to limit your options is to keep all your Attributes at at least a 5, and no lower than 4. There's occasional opportunities to raise those a bit through Perks, but in the originals you only get one every 3 levels, so pick carefully when you do get them. Weapons have a minimum STR (you can always use them regardless of STR, but having a STR lower than the minimum will give you accuracy penalties.) So it might be a good idea to check out the Fallout Wiki and look at the weapons you might want to use to make sure you're high enough. (STR 5 usually suffices for most stuff unless you plan on using Big Guns, I think.)

I maintain that you really can't "mess up" with making a character, but that said you can make likely make things more difficult for you your first time out. Just keep everything 4 or higher and you should be fine, though. If you want a stealthy character, then INT and AGI are good stats to raise (you'll need the INT for the extra skill points, as stealthy characters have a lot of skills to focus on.)

Tagging works a bit different than in Fallout 3. You get an immediate bonus to your tag skills, and then they gain points at double the rate. (2 points for every point spent up to 100, then 1 point each after that - regular skills advance at 1 point every 2 after 100.) So keep that in mind. Most skills won't need to get higher than 100, so keep in mind what skills you really want to get over 100 (for a stealth character I'd recommend tagging at least 1 combat skill, and Stealth.)

You'll want to raise your primary combat skill first thing. Focus a lot on that the first couple levels until you can actually hit your enemies, and you'll have a much easier time.

Other than that, make sure you fully read through the manual and remember that you can press F1 to get a list of hot-keys and such. And remember to quick-save ALOT - these can be very unforgiving games, and it's very easy to get killed. Hope you enjoy them, though.

If you're going to use a custom-character consider a melee guy. Because with strength you don't need good weapons early on, in which you can do a lot of damage without the super weapons, so easy time, also you can take a lot of damage with high endurance and strength. But only use this tactic on fallout 1, because it has more melee weapons later on IIRC.
If you're going for the gun approach, have high perception and agility, the more agility the better because you can shoot from far away and do a nice bit of damage. Also consider taking the perk that allows you to shoot more with less AP (don't know the name anymore) you can't aim for body parts but you can shoot more often.

That's a bit of my advice.

The main thing for both games is to remember, have fun. Now when it comes to character creation, the three skills I always tag are 1.) Any weapon skill you want, 2.) lockpicking, and 3.) speech. 1.) The reason for this is because I don't want to svck and not be able to pack a punch when I attack, 2.) not being able to open up locked doors or containers will annoy the hell out of you, and 3.) things become so much easier if you can pass a speech check and bypass quest run-arounds or ask for better loot.

My stats generally start of as ST 5, PE 7, EN 4, CH 6, IN 7, AG 10, LK 8
Note: with the gifted perk all of your stats go up one point, so really at character creation they would look like ST 4, PE 6, EN 3, CH 5, IN 6, AG 9, and LK 7. Then when you choose gifted they go up to the beginning stats.
Perks I always choose are Gifted and Finesse, Gifted I explained already, Finesse increases your Crit chance to 15% compared to 5% or so.

Once you get the hang of things its rather easy (like knowing where to get the power armor pretty much at the start of the game in F2)

Thanks for the input everyone.. I installed last night before bed.. I'll be starting after work today, I think, still never finished Broken steel.. Kinda burned out on that game tho.. Thanks again...

It's called Fast Shot, and only take it if you are going to use weapons (kind of obvious, but thought I should mention it) because you can't use targeted shots, even if you're using melee or HtH, even though you don't get the bonus for them.

Apparently Charisma acts similar to FO3, in that it adds bonuses to your speech and barter skills, as well as finding the number of followers you can have. If you aren't planning on taking a lot of followers, a lower Charisma may be okay (number of followers equals half your charisma, rounded down). The idea here is if you have a charisma of, say, 4, then you can drop those extra points into intelligence, off setting the loss of skill points that goes with gifted.

I'm just starting to play through it again (I didn't finish my first play through, I kind of gimped my character with a low intelligence, and poor choices for tags). Just an FYI, if you tag a non melee/Hand-to-Hand combat skill, the early part of the game can be tough because you have no access to fire arms.

makes sense.. although I don't really plan on making a melee character, so I do't wanna hinder myself later on........ AHHH, what to do........ I guess I'll finish Broken steel while i contemplate..

I suggest having 10 Agility and at least 8 Intelligence. The rest don't really matter, as long as you have 5 STR for the minimum small guns n stuff, and 5 or 6 Charisma for a few allies (every 2 charisma offers an ally, though you can increase it by like 2 or 3 in game permanently)

10 Agility is a must I think, then you can use a 5 AP shot twice, or once and have points to reload and move. And later on it'll max out at like 13 with perks, and with another perk it drops the AP use of all guns by 1, so you can use a Gauss Pistol (4 AP a shot) for 3AP, and thus FOUR shots, which is devastating, or three aimed shots, which usually guarantees a kill at higher levels. I do not recommend tagging Barter, Gambling, Outdoorsman, or Throwing. You should also make sure to get the newest patch and Restoration Project which adds many elements missing from the game. Both are musts for the full experience.

Hehe been waiting for this post:

Int at 7 is almost mandatory, you lose a lot of dialogue choices with out it however you can use mentants

You can get +1 to str int agi per end from BoS +3 str power armor and +1 LK from a tarot reader in the boneyard

Gifted is almost mandatory as a trait.

Finess is good for a sniper, Fast Shot is good for a more tankish spraying ammo type person (You cant get the ap reducing perk if you take it though), and Bruiser? the trait that lowers/stops crits is actually a great trait eventually you will get slayer which makes all your melee attacks crits!

For Fallout 2 the wiki walkthrough is misleading in regards to special it adds +1 because of the perks that can boost special.

Quicksave a lot I have a prime save, a secondary save I use on entering towns/big decisions, and check save before doing speech checks etc (F6 is quicksave F7 is quickload so having back up saves helps with mistypes)

Hold in shift to run.

Stealing is how you get stuff from your followers

In fallout 1, the waterchip quest is easy to do the hardest part is saving necropolis you have a 110 days from start to do it or 30 days after you kill the mutants for Set to kill the master.

The waterchip is in necropolis the wiki does a pretty good job about it.

The Master is in the cathedral south of the Boneyard, and going in guns blazing is a bad idea with out the mental block perk, you just have to sneak until you get a mental nulifier from the crazy scientist on the second? floor. Also bring a purple robe!

For fallout 1, right from the start go down 9 squares and over 1 you hit junktown.

Quick save and sell all your stuff to killian after you kill the assasin.

Go to the back of the town to the first craps dealer in gizmos and save on a different slot, get a stack of about 10 nickels and 4 quarters and a small notebook in real life of course!, open dialogue.
Stack half of the nickels on your 1 and the other on the 4 keys and even amounts of quarters to each then put the notebook on on top and watch it for a little you should rake in a ton of caps but you could lose it all before you can build up a big pile. After a few minutes walk away and go play football or fallout 3!
After a million or so caps go buy basic stuff at killians and get the Hub put on your map, go there go down a screen and to your left find the arms dealer on the second house he has good stuff. Then go to the house facing down the street quicksave before you get in, you have to pass a speech check, buy 2 rad-x at least and whatever you want.
Go back out to the second area, find the book keeper above the guns store, this place will keep restocking!
Go to the midget next door buy a rope and tons of stimpacks.
Go to the crimson caravan and read untill the next caravan departs, after talking to the guy in charge, 17th and 3rd are the departure days. Take the one to the BoS.
Ask the one guy to join, take the quest. Return or dont with the caravan. He will mark the glow for you. Go to the edge take 2 rad-x and go in, use the rope on the beam hanging over the crater get the stuff off the BoS guy, you have to circle around to find him. Run out and go back to the guy.
Micheal on the second floor will give you ammo and better combat armor, go to the third floor and find the named Knight next to the Power Armor talk to him about getting the armor.
Go find the room with Rhombus in it, go into sneak mode, open up the action menu go to his locker unlock it while spamming the action button he wont move.
Return to the Knight, you have to repair the armor on the table! I thought you had to have x amount of repair
Next go back to the hub and go south to the boneyard, go into town and find the guy with a smock on hes southish get a quest from him, now go to the gate area and use your map to find the entrance to the right zones on the second to the right you have to be careful there be deathclaws loot the merchant.
Keep going to the goo agree to help kill the deathclaws with the gunrunners first (Not that it matters) for a 15 discount from the midget, buy whatever but get a plasma rifle at the least.
Go back to the smock guy with the gear you got off the merchant, he give you a quest upgrade your power armor, the blacksmith will upgrade your plasma rifle.
You should still have plenty of time to kill the master/get the water chip and the best armor/weapons and tons o caps

IIRC you can walk through the hall immune for simply being not very perceptive

When I pick up a new RPG I generally make up a character build according to some silly gimick in my head and try to play for an hour or two with the difficulty turned down to normal, or easy.

I then figure out where the game might be limiting, and what kind of builds may or may not work, based on the gameplay experience I have. Then I build a chracter keeping in mind what the game might punish me for (in the case of fallout: having 4 strength, and 4 perception was not condusive to a fun game), and crank up the difficulty. Usually, unless you are a power gamer, games do not seriously penalize you for descisions you make at character creation.

Specifically in the case of Fallout 1 and 2, do not play with traits the first time around, they just bring about consequences you were not expecting.

Tatics is a little bit different then FO1 and 2 remember that agilty and perception are key in tatics, str is improtant too, but not to the extent of perception and agility. Don't really need use the other skills that much early on.
FO1 is easier than FO2, for first timers the small frame and the one that gives use more strength combo are pretty good for beginers, that as well as skilled and gifted combo. have to agree about lockpicking though just a pain in the butt with out it.

Jeez dude, he said he just got it today and you're spoiling everything for him.

How about putting spoiler tags on some of that post?

That's ok I skimmed most of it, although I may reference it once in a while.. UGGHH I've been busy as hell trying to get done with job I'm working on, haven't had time to do anything the last couple days.. Just tried to finish broken steel, Got the alien blaster in the crawler and then promptly got killed.. So I'm hanging up FO3 for a while, and am now starting Fallout, Thanks for the tips everybody, I will definately be referencing, Feel free to add more, I'll keep checking, and I'm sure I'll have questions once I start.. I've been a console gamer for quite a while now, haven't played a game on pc in probably 20 yrs, aside from majong.. this'll be interesting. . . . . ... :ph34r:

Reckless of which game ya playing, this tip always applies: Save Often.

I Fallout 2, try to play as a hot chick, with stats (I forget the stat) that can make you to became a porm star in New Reno. You can also flirting to reach your goal.

Something that Fallout 3 missing. I hope New Vegas has a lot of fun in it.

Duly noted.

I guess one needs high Charisma for that? Or uhm, high Endurance...

You don't need need any particular build to play Fallout. The game is playable with low int, high int, with fighter skills, without fighter skills, with low str and agility, with high strength and agility. It's a decent crpg inspired by GURPS role-playing where your character is free to play the game with the skills he choose without being imposed choices. Unlike Oblifall which is 50% Oblivion and 50% Fallout.

Definately sounds like it's worth trying, got started on FO1 the other day, just exploring mostly, haven't had much time to play, although I've found a couple side quests, I should probably do (need caps)... I got wasred by a radscorp first time out of the caves, been lucky since then,

My advice? Steal! Especially in Fallout 2, the Steal skill makes the game so smooth it's practically cheating. :celebration: Not only can you steal tons and tons of that much-needed ammo, but you can sell the loot for whatever your little heart desires, and you can steal weapons and ammo from people before shops make them available to you, giving you an edge. But on top of that, it can make a strategic cleaning out of baddies incredibly simple. Steal as many of their weapons and ammo as you can before you fight them, and they'll be rather short-handed when it comes time to fight. Steal is also a great way to assassinate people. Sure, you can super stimpack them to death ... if you don't mind wasting lots of super stimpacks. But it's far more entertaining to use Steal plant live bombs on them. Steal is one of the best skills to invest in.


Basically only the combat skills have a point over 100%. With ranged weapons you'll still need over 100% to have decent long-range hits, especially when using pistols. And with either ranged or melee, you'll want waaaaay over 100% if you like doing aimed shots. Which, you do. Aimed shots have a much higher chance of doing critical hits, which means you'll do a lot more damage. But even better than the extra damage of frequently using aimed shots are the crippling blows. Nothing says "easy pickings" like shooting people in the legs so that they can't run up to hit you. And nothing makes those boxing and San Fran's martial arts scenes easier than punching people in the head to knock them out! :facepalm: Aimed shots make the world go round.


Yes indeedy! Save often!


Worst suggestion ever. Aimed shots will more than make up for the ability to shoot more often. This is basically the worst perk ever to take unless you're making a non-combat character. (And if you're making a non-combat character, then why take a combat-based perk?) Avoid this perk like the plague. Especially when you get to high levels in the game and you've got your non-combat skills basically all flushed out, throwing your skill points into putting combat skills well over 100% will make aimed shots to the head 95% likely to hit. It makes single aimed shots almost as deadly as burst fire weapons, saving you tons and tons of ammo.

And speaking of burst-fire weapons, I don't know if it's true or not, but it seems to me they're far more likely to cause massive critical hits when you use them point-blank. Bursts over distance seem to sometimes barely even be worth the ammo. But bursts right in someone's face, deadly. That's been my experience anyway.

The perk "bonus rate of fire" deduces 1 AP from ranged weapons AP rate and you still get the aimed shots. I suggest getting bonus ranged damage, better criticals, more criticals, living anatomy, and Sniper to add lots of deviestation aswell. (you won't get all these until your past lvl 24 most likely. )