Would anyone mind letting me know the starting stats/special numbers that they have used for a melee/unarmed character? I am thinking about making one for my next character but I am not certain the best setup to use. Thanks guys!

What I do: have STR and END at 9 from the off, to be boosted to 10 via implants. AGI at 6, plus the implant to make the 7 needed for the Slayer perk. Rest of the SPECIAL doesn't really matter for this build I don't think. Important perks: Super Slam; Stonewall; Toughness; Piercing Strike; Unstoppable Force; Purifier; Paralyzing Palm (if unarmed, skip if melee only); Ninja; Slayer.

Skills-wise, you're basically forced to do up both melee and unarmed for the best perks, so may as well raise both to max. You're going to want to get sneak to 80 for the Ninja perk, and beyond that, any remaining skill points are probably best spent in survival or medicine.

General tips: you want as much DT as possible, good combat armour or power armour will help a lot, as will sub-dermal implant and perks. Also, chems are your friend, use them a lot.

Companions: I'm currently rolling with an all melee team of Veronica and Rex. This is definitely not recommended unless you like punching your companions to death repeatedly. I'd suggest getting Cass for the perk if you can meet the barter check, and ED-E; that team should complement a brawler pretty well I think, though I haven't tried it myself yet.

Thanks for the info dikeybird. I was having a hard time putting a build together mainly because I can not stand losing out on skill points because of a low intelligence. Does it not cause too big of an issue for you guys?

Yeah, my bruisers always have naff-all in the way of skill points. You could take Educated and Comprehension to soften the blow a little bit I suppose but basically you just have to accept that you won't be much good at anything besides knocking heads. My current character has a rather large wardrobe of stat-boosting clothes he carries around with him that, in addition to chems and skill magazines, will boost his skills just enough to open the odd average lock or whatever but I'm not even sure it's worth the carry weight tbh. Best just steel yourself for a lot of doors remaining locked/terminals unhacked etc.

I see. No sure if that is something I want to do then. haha I will give it a shot and see what I think.

My Unarmed build gets by just fine on 4 IN, with enough points to also have Guns around 90, Survival at 70 (for Rad Child, an excellent perk), Repair around 90, and Lockpick around 75. This means he misses out on Science, but the most essential terminals to hack don't really go above Average, so he gets by with Science at about 28 (which can be as high as 52 with a magazine, some stat-boosting clothing, and Mentats). He kills most things with one punch on Normal; deathclaws take up to 2 or 3.

On the other end of the spectrum, my Melee build (which still has high Unarmed by necessity for perks) has 8 Intelligence, with ST and EN at 9 to start. The extra SPECIAL points come from dropping PE and LK to 1. This means she doesn't focus on critical hits, and skips the Ninja perk, but instead, she has the Heavy Handed trait. Those extra skill points went directly into Explosives early on, which can be pretty powerful if you buy the perks for it.

I expect the Melee build will be equally capable of smacking around deathclaws later – especially after popping some Med-X, Psycho, and Jet – but I can't stress how useful Rad Child is for a close-quarters build. Especially before getting into a big fight, it's so handy to eat a Wasteland Omelette or drink a Sunset Sarsaparilla so you're gradually healing from 2-3 sources while people are beating on you.

Thanks Coinop. This makes sense to me. I will give an unarmed guy a shot.

This is my melee unarmed build..

THUD

S P E C I A L

9 1 9 2 1 9 9

Traits heavy handed wild wasteland

tagged skills melee unarmed survival
also train lockpick
somewhat train repair

perks

2 hunter
4 lady killer
6 toughness
8 stonewall
10 toughness
12 piercing strike
14 purifier
16
18
20
22 super slam
24 slayer
26 nerves of steel
28

Yes I only get 10.5 skill points a level but im only level 9 and already have 60 in both weapons and 50 in lockpick and enough barter and repair to smooth things out a bit. You realy only need repair to make a bit more out of all the melee items you find and to keep wear and tear down a bit. Oh and my survival is already at 50-60 and making plenty of very healing steaks.

I always do a lot of melee, especially in the beginnings. Your also going to want to level up guns for the sniper rifle, usefull for weakening deathclaws. Also gets you money, your rep doesn't take a hit if they don't see you kill their members, so go to fort mccaren or whatever it is, the area outside of it, wait until night, sneak, and start picking off ncr personell. You get their stuff, and they still like you. Works the same for fiends and legion. Trust me, if you don't do gambling or cards, this is one of the best ways to get rich, get dog tags to increase rep with both legion and ncr, get good weapons and armor, and level up. Just don't get caught.

Right. My, well, everything build gets by just fine on 4 INT. Not quite as ridiculous as FO3, but still. With all the books and 30 levels you'll have plenty of skill points to go around. And if you need an extra few points to hack that Very Hard terminal, eat some Mentats and read a magazine. I just don't see much reason to go higher than 4 INT.

Not at the home computer so I can't check my full stats but my last run was melée.
I know I went high luck, but I did not use many caps. So odds are it could be skilled on. My melée run was also my Legion run so not alot of use for skills...
Just find the special melée/unarmed weapons and your fine.

Also going unarmed is about the only way to kill BoSers...

Thanks again guys. It is nice to see that having a low Int is still playable. I just have a hard time knowing that my character is not getting the most points per level. I will give it a shot though.

i dont really see the need for a high int. 6 did it for me. and as far as points are concerned, after a while i was just putting them on sneak even though i was ok with it being 70 for the perk. barter, never touched because of the prim cap glitch and with so many caps i didnt need to put up repair that much. just needed raul.... btw: melee, guns, unarmed, science (for achievement), and explosives (i like to blow stuff up) were all at 100 at lv 30....

I'd go ahead and drop points in lockpick as you can spare them, at least to 25. This will open up a lot of loot and let you bypass the need to hack a fair share of terminals (and aids in some quests). Boost it more later if you find yourself looking for something to spend points on once your core skills are high enough. While your at it, a few points in guns is a good idea. As was mentioned earlier, it can come in handy from time to time.

Its also worth mentioning that the skill books are certainly worth looking for. Books, not magazines. Permanent raises to skills are sweet and the books give you a reason to prowl around even the dustiest shack.

As for stats, I prefer a more rounded character. My current mele/unarmed character started with a 7 Str. which I boosted to 9 with an implant and a skipped perk. That let me put extra on endurance (needed for implants and a huge help for an up close fighter) and Luck which let me clean out the casinos in short order and walk away with enough caps to pay for every implant I could stand with some left over. Besides, luck puts a little extra in just about everything, not just critical hits.

Needless to say, my current courier isn't very pretty. That's the main stat that I short changed.

I did start one game with a 9 strength just for giggles and the line that the Doc dropped when I let go of the Vigor tester was one of the funniest in the game (IMHO). I think that the high Strength and Agility triggered it.

i don't see how you melee and unarmed types manage to play that way. if i tried that i will die every time. i do some short range fighting to save on ammo. why waste ammo on a rad roach,

LOL yeah right? I usually just sneak up on them and punch the **** out of them lol...

Unarmed / Melee feasible in hardcoe ?
Seems easy enough in regular mode with insta heal Stim packs. but hardcoe ?
I know the SPECIALs, Traits, Perks I want....but not sure about difficulty setting.
Reloading would seem like a regular occurrence especially early in the game in hardcoe mode.
Any decent ranged enemy would shred you before you got close up.

Endurance above 6 or 7 for perks is a waste, better to put those specials into int or agility. Similarly 8 strength at start, get an implant and some power armor (and before that, stay perma-drunk) and you're set. And if you're using heavy handed, (imo a must for a brawler) just drop luck to 1 and stay away from casinos.

heh on my melee build I pull out a shotgun and shoot radroaches as I dont wana touch em;/ also shoot bloatflies.

You may need high Medicine if you play on VH, otherwise Unarmed/melee is rather easy as long as you ain't fighting 3+ DeathClaws

Melee is perfectly feasible in hardcoe mode, if you have a decent Survival and keep a variety of food/drink to use on-top of your stimpaks and healing powders you can regenerate HP quickly enough, so long as you fight sensibly. Good armour (and Med-X for real nasties) will stop you getting shot to bits as you close in. In fact in some ways hardcoe mode's easier for a brawler than most, as you haven't got to worry about ammo.

I've been using unarmed only throughout my hardcoe mode playthrough and it's only really deathclaws that have me reloading over and over.