Hello all. I will start playing New Vegas only next week, but I am already staring to plan for my character. He will use guns and VATS a lot. Thinking about my characters in FO3, I used to max IN, AG and LK, while keeping CH down and ST, PE, EN to medium values. Is this still possible? I see some builds here and most of them have low AG values. Would it be possible to end with something like this:

ST - 6 (5 base, 1 implant, Weapon Handling)
PE - 7 (6 base, 1 implant)
EN - 7 (6 base, 1 implant)
CH - 5 (1 base, 1 implant, 3 Intense Training)
IN - 10 (9 base, 1 implant)
AG - 10 (8 base, 1 implant, Small Frame)
LK - 10 (5 base, 1 implant, 4 Intense Training)

I would go with Kamikaze and Small Frame as Traits, and tags for Guns, Speech and Repair.

Do you think this is viable?

Also, are there any items that boost SPECIAL, besides armor and clothing (such as the lucky 8 ball in FO3)? Can one use glasses and a helmet at the same time? What gear would you suggest for such a char?

You can use glasses and a helmet at the same time as long as it not got a facial part one the helmet.

Meaning I should have placed 2 less base points in Perception, right? The glasses will make up for those 2 points, if I remember well...

- VATS is useless long-range because iron sights and scopes have far more accuracy outside of it. So make this a machine gun and/or shotgun person. Or best a pistol guy, able to unload full clip into guy's head in one VATS series.
- Small frame is a torment. Take Fast Shot and Kamikaze instead. It will save you a ton of doctor bags for curing limbs - and you will be able to do more attacks in VATS. If you go VATS, go crazy with it.
- Start with PER 5 and implant to 6. There's only one useful PER perk, Better Criticals and you get it with PER 6.
- You get one perk every two levels, don't go too crazy with intense training. 2 is max, 3 is stretching it, 4 is insane.
- You get half a skill point per INT per level. So going from 8 to 9 doesn't change all that much over the course of the game.
- Luck rules everything, I'd start with base 7-8 and then boost it up to 10. You will need plenty of criticals up close.
- There's a whole set of perks for VATS increasing accuracy, adding to AP,r educing AP costs and such. You won't have much manoeuvre here if you go all VATS so I doubt you can squeeze 5 intense trainings in before level 20-ish.

For gear there's a +crit chance beret, best head-gear in the game easy to acquire too, glasses do nothing unless you are 4-eyes so I just took authority sun glasses for my guy. You will need big armor being so close to everything - becuase VATS build isn't a sniper build at all. And big armor will negate your speed bonus from agility so you want a set of normal clothes for travelling - while you wear armor only for combat.

But in general, it won't be that bad. You can safely go with it. Just realize you are making a melee guy who doesn't slam but shreds with machine guns up close.

EDIT: And remember that 4-eyes trait doesn't make glasses count for PER checks. So VATS traits like Sniper requiring high PER will make you have 1 more base PER than you'd otherwise need. So my advice for you is to ditch glasses idea and go Fast Shot + Kamikaze and base PER 5.

Well I got it all wrong then! I did not know of the 1 perk per 2 levels thing, so my math was all wrong. I think I will quit on VATS and go Sniper. What could you recommend me for such a build? I am talking SPECIAL, perks, gear and such. Sorry if I am bothering you... I will also think on such a build and then compare with what you might propose.

I was thinking IN to 10 after the implant. Or if I go with base 10 IN, could I lower Endurance for one less implant? Which implants really make a difference anyways?

Thanks!

Implants matter more if you start with something at 5 and you implant to unlock perks requiring 6. For example start with 5 PER and implant to enable Better Criticals perk. Most perks have requirement of 6 in base attribute.

I typically implant INT and LCK first (nowadays I just run to the clinic at lvl2 grabbing loot on the way there to get at least one of those before I finish first location but you probably won't do it...), then PER for 6 fpr Better Criticals, then STR around "Weapon Handling" perk. END is a neutral implant, takes 1 space, adds 1 space so is always a good idea. DT implant is great, regen is kind of meh especially for a sniper. AGI-based perks svck and rely mostly on VATS so you don't need to rush to 6 with this. CHA implant will boost your companion 10% for 4000 credits, not a bad deal if you have left-over END.

To find the clinic you want to travel the road north of Novac following the tarmac until you see Freeside East Gate, stand in front of it (outside Freeside), look right and see a big concrete wall. It's Crimson Caravan place, quest from there will send you to Camp McCarran. And quest from McCarran snipers (red berets, easy to find there) will send you to the clinic (or just explore around Crimson without going inside, you will see hospital eventually, it's east of them). If you go left from Freeside East Gate you will see Gun Runners shop around the corner, worth knowing it, they have tons of .308, including AP every 3 days for sale.

I'm a very thorough scavenger visiting every possible place on the map so I can easily afford those in time and still have proper guns at my disposal.

For skills you want Comprehension perk and Science + Lockpick at 55 right away. Then you can back-track to Speech (many quests rely on this), Repair (want it at 90 fast for Jury Rigging best perk in the game) and Barter (there's quite a few quests here but don't go over 50) and your gun skills if your gun starts requiring them (Ratslayer needs 0 Guns, Hunting Rifle 45, Sniper 75...). You also should have at least medium sneaking skills and ED-E with you to see enemies before they see you and be able to get into position to take them out fast and without detection.

Wait....END implant is 'free' for slot?

VATS is basically good for anti-ambush for fight immediately after talking. Don't dwell on the FO3:Legend of Hunting Rifle.

My 1st character is Gun and VATS build with Kamekaze, the toughest thing VATS is good against would be Nightkin (with ED-E), after that you will want to run around or snipe from miles away to be safe.

Barter.....I rather pool the points to speech. You also want decent science for Math Wrath (which can be as good if not better than Action Boy).