I haven't played the game all the way through yet, but I've started three different characters with different focuses and alliances. Right now I'm playing mainly with a melee character who I plan to ally with Caesar's Legion and I was just wondering if anyone had any good pointers for me (besides the really obvious, high strength, good armor, etc). I've just started with this character, he's level 2 and uses melee weapons almost exclusively (the only real exception being that I carry a pistol for emergency situations). Is it even possible to make it all the way through the game with such a character? It seems to me that Deathclaws may be too tough to take on with only melee or unarmed weapons, especially once they start ganging up. Also, is anyone else playing with a predominately melee or unarmed character? What are your favorite melee or unarmed weapons?

Melee/unarmed is very doable, so long as you get the right gear. Not much can stand up to the ballistic fist. However, fighting deathclaws is incredibly dicey, it's ok one-on-one but if they outnumber you then it can turn very ugly very quickly. Super Slam and Ranger Takedown can help level the playing field though, and if all else fails there's always the unarmed character's doomsday device: boxing gloves. Honestly, I'm not kidding, deathclaws don't have nearly as much fatigue as they do HP.

But yeah, I completed a CL playthrough using strictly only unarmed/melee, and deathclaws aside it was pretty straightforward. Pick your battles and fight smart early on, and by level 15+ you'll be practically unstoppable. Pushy and the Paladin Toaster were my weapons of choice for the end-game, in the early game a set of spiked knuckles did me just fine.

Oh! and invest in either survival or medicine. You will be taking hits.

^ ^ ^ ^ Whoa, no kidding! I wondered what the Boxing Gloves were good for. The have such a laughably a low damage number I just put them back.

I've become an Unarmed/Melee enthusiast after trying it. You save lots o' caps on ammo, too. A little strategic skulking and you can own most enemies with Pushy or Love and Hate or a Fire Axe, or even with generic spiked knuckles. I just armed Arcade Gannon with Oh Baby! and he downed a Deathclaw with it while I was fighting another one-- whew. I hate it when I screw up and get a follower killed, but that is one slammin' weapon.

So a question, then: do followers pick up your knockdown perks like they pick up your stealth ones? It seemed like Gannon knocked down the Deathclaw, and has sent various enemies flying, then stepped over and hit them on the ground.

I actually found Deathclaws pretty doable with a pure melee/unarmed build. Mind you, I was playing on Normal/hardcoe, and if I ran into a whole nest of them (like at Dead Wind Cavern), I loaded up on Psycho, Med-X, and continual healing foods. With Pushy, they all went down in 1-3 hits, and there is nothing more hilarious in this game than seeing a Deathclaw fly into the air after a slow-mo VATS uppercut.

I did prefer to use guns on Cazadores, though. They have a tendency to make you stagger with crippling blows more quickly, I found.

If you take VAT related Melee Perks, Deathclaws are very doable.
Even multi DCs are manageable with the right Perks and traits.
Paralyzing Palm ? Slow death as you beat them to a pulp.

Stealth and fore planning also take center stage in a good melee fighter.
Max Endurance
Ninja
Stonewall
Rad Child ( I know this is hard to get on a melee build but in hardcoe mode a must )
Hunter
Avenger ? ( For Xtra damage against Centaurs etc )
Super Slam
Piercing Strike etc

You would need all upgrades and PA.

But with the right drugs, food, ( and of course weapon ) etc you could tear multiple DCs new ones in melee.

I think they must do, I've definitely seen both Veronica and Rex send an opponent flying with what looked like a Super Slam.

Take unarmed aswell, so you can take Slayer and Piercing Strike perks.
You'll be near invincible.

Take perks like Toughness and Stonewall aswell, because you're going to take a lot of damage.

Sneak is very hard to use with melee. It can work, but you're better off focusing on defense.

It's true that Sneak is hard to use with melee, but it is worth mentioning that it is easy to use in the Thorn's arena fights. There's a little square shaped pillar off to the right that you can hide behind. You can literally farm 3x Deathclaw fights with zero risk over and over on Very Hard/HC if your are a Ninja build.

I can solo three Deathclaws at once, without Turbo, on my Sword/Oh Baby Only build