Hi all,

I am currently a lvl 21 (guns) sniper and I am planning for what to do until I reach lvl 30.

I have 3 questions and question 1) is the most important. Please answer me, I have spend a lot of time thinking about this.

1) Should I max explosives or EW as a second attack skill for a sniper ?
2) After maxing (explosives or EW), where should the 21 remaining points go ? Medicine ?
3) Do you have any general comments about my skill distribution ?

Details for those are interested:

Here is what I currently have (got all the implants and skill books I could)

SPECIAL:

Strenght 6
Perception 6
Endurance 7
Charism 1
Intelligence 5
Agility 10
Luck 10

And for lvl 30, I plan for :

(including the 1st recon beret)

Barter 38
Energy Weapons 32
Explosives 32
Guns 100
Lockipicking 75
Medicine 78
Melee 30
Repair 100
Science 70
Sneak 100
Speech 70
Survival 50
Unarmed 28

That skill distribution leaves me with 81 skills to distribute. Maxing either EW or explosives will leave me with 21 points left. The best place is probably medicine, I guess ? Please comment on that.

Detailed reasoning for those who are interested

Barter: highest check is 70 (heard there is one at 100 at the end, but I could also use the 100 speech instead). I actually overinvested in here, because all of the following gives plenty of + barter: Roving trader hat, +5 suit, mag, Moonshine, any other alcool, Party time mentats and Mentats.

Lockpicking: 75 + Vault 3 Utility Jumpsuit (5) Comprehension + Skillmag = 100
Medicine: need 70 for living anatomy. 70 + followers lab coat (10) + mag (20) = 100
Repair: needs 100 to do super 50 caliber munitions
Science: 70 + followers lab coat (10) + mag (20) = 100
Speech: 70 + Naughty Nightwear (+10) et magazine (+20) = 100

Survival: not sure about this one. Need 45 for entomologist. I am not sure if I understand well, but apparently 50 is some kind of breakpoint for some potions (ex: abscinthe)

1)I would say explosives unless you really want to use the Gauss rifle.
2)Med sounds good.

Just a few thoughts.

Charisma affects Companion Nerve in the range of +5 at CHA 1 to + 50 at CHA 10; that's the percentage bonus to armor and damage inflicted by your companions.

I gained a new respect for Explosives in my third game. It maxed at 40 last game and this time it's maxed at 73. I can tell the difference in disarming mines and traps and I can tell that my grenades do more damage. You can always arm your companions with grenades and dynamite too but don't stand in front of them.

I found with high Speech (90 at Level 30) and Luck at 9 + Naughty Nightwear for gambling, I didn't need high Barter either so your number looks good there. You often get discounts when you do good things for people.

Good luck out there.

Personally EW, there are more options. Traditionally, explosive for mines.

I'd say a Guns character using AMR doesn't need a secondary weapon skill, just a backup weapon for close range (either Riot shotgun+ Shotgun Surgeon or the LMG).

Energy weapons offer more or less the same stuff as Guns offer, so taking both is tautological, I think. Explosives offer something qualitatively different- area effect damage and anti-robot pulse weapons, so from purely tactical viewpoint they are a better second choice.

Skill books wise, you can find all four copies of Nikola Tesla and You much earlier than you can find all four Duck and Cover books, so you'll be able to max Energy weapons earlier.

Explosives...it feels a little silly to max both EW and guns, explosives gives you effective mines primarily and grenades can be useful sometimes.

Since you're set on guns, I'd recommend explosives, the way I play it would suit me better, but everyone is different of course.

You use VATS at all? If you rely on VATS much you could raise EW to 60 to get concentrated fire and pump the rest into explosives so your mines work well?

OR

You could pump Melee up 15 and pick up the weakest :hubbahubba: perk in the game: Cowboy

-Gunny out.

guns or EW, i agree that it isn't a good idea to develop both . i plan to get explosive to 50 or 75. that skill isn't for weapons alone, it is also used to disarm some traps and bombs,

With enough patience and money explosives tops EW. Go get a GMG, a couple of hundred rounds. Blow out anything in the game. Unless you just boring sleep-snipe.

Seems like explosives are winning this ! Thanks for your comments people, they are very appreciated !

@Kicenna: I don't use companions much yet, but I might invest a bit more in charism in my next game. You're right about barter: don't need it to be high: the goal is the have the perfect char, not the perfect caps !

1) explosives (useful for disarming mines and traps)
2) Med seems like a good choice

I have some comments on your SPECIAL distribution ...

Why is your INT so low? You miss out on 30 skill points by not having it at 7 from the beginning...
Early game you need every skill point you can muster, and it helps science for hacking. Also, as a sniper, there are few decent perks until mid-game, so I use the perk that lets you add SPECIAL boosts to increase Agility, Luck and Perception. Even as a sniper, you can easily get by with lower Luck and Agility early-midgame and boost these later. I am not a big fan of using companions when playing a stealthy sniper, so I never set CHA at more than 2....

You should use a close range skill like melee or unarmed instead of EW or explosives.

Looks like you got a good game going to me.


B)

My int is low because I do not need massive amount of skills. If I had taken all the guns skill books before reaching 100 guns, I'd have enough skills everywhere. Will have even more than enough skills when Dead Money goes on PC.

@Tyrannical: sry, I don't like melee

@ttraveler: thanks

After experimenting I say explosives for a secondary combat skill. In addition to disarming mines it comes in very handy versus enemies hiding behind terrain. Seems no matter which way I come from, the bad guys are always hiding behind a rock or ridge. A grenade rifle with long barrel mod and incendary grenades is great against cazadores even with a low explosives skill. My HTH guy will have explosives for his secondary combat skill. He will use it to force his enemies to close with him and not hide.

Explosives are awesome. I cleared out deadwind cavern quickly, with little health lost. But a grenade machine gun, and get high explosive rounds. It will just kill anything.
I have EW of 90, but that was thinking it boosted archemidies damage. It dosent. So yeah explosives because EW are useless with maxed guns. I regret not getting melee to 100 aswell. Feels good to go indoors and switch to a machete and decapitate/dismember everything inside the building.

Your math is off. 100 max - 32 current = 68 pts to max out. 81 left - 68 needed =13. So you would actually end up with only 13 extra pts left. But anyways, I say Energy weapons, for the gauss rifle, since it's essentially an energy weapons sniper.