I've played pro-NCR, pro-Legion etc and wanted to try something a little different.

The topic says it all and I assume thet there are other people on the forum who have also limited themselves in a similar way.

Obviously there are some great weapons I won't be able to touch (Sniper Rifles, Hunting Shotgun etc) and the melee options are somewhat weak. Once I get a Cowboy Repeater and Lucky early in the game I should be OK and there's a Trail Carbine I can steal also fairly early in the game.

1. What are other people's experiences of just using Cowboy perk weapons?

2. Can you suggest SPECIAL, traits, skills, perks etc? Practically all the guns under the perk will benefit from the Hand Loader perk so will definitely take this.

Thanks.

There is a perk called Cowboy so that is an obvious choice I recommend using all of the weapons it lists in the description for that perk. Your melee options are things like knives, throwing knives, hatchets, and throwing hatchets. Ranged weapons for you could be things like revolvers, lever-actions, and maybe the caravan shotgun or BB Gun. Wear the Cowboy Hat and that cowboy outfit that some of the Rangers have.

The lever action shotgun as well as the caravan shotgun would fit in for sure. The caravan shotgun is basically what I believe to be what we call in the real world the "coach gun" which is a short length double barrel shotgun.

I love the idea of this but those weapons just arent good for some enemies out there in modern armor. I did play alittle as a cowboy in powerarmor that was fun omitting the helmet and wearing a sheriff hat.

Not, really, all the revolvers are pretty capable weapons; .44 Magnum with Cowboy can easily dispatch Deathclaw and NCR Veteran Rangers.

Maybe with a perk but without it, the .44 magnum just doesnt do a thing against deathclaws on my end. Ive had way more luck with the unique .357 magnum revolvr shooting surplus .38 special rounds. I would have to try a strict cowboy build though and see how much better the .44 magnum would be but with my build, the .44 magnum just svcks and isnt even worth me keeping.

If the third most powerful single hand firearm and forth most powerful pistol isn't good enough, what is?

Guns with AP rounds.

Cowboy firearms are very powerful EXCEPT against enemies with very high DT, because they don't have DT-defying armor-piercing ammo. A .44 SWC round reduces DT by 6, and it is the most a Cowboy gun can get; on the other hand, a 5.56 AP round reduces DT by 15.

If one insists on using ONLY cowboy weapons vs. Deathclaws, the best option for close range is either Brush Gun with SWC rounds or Shotgun Surgeon + Lever-Action shotgun with Magnum buckshot. For companions I would suggest Cass with a Riot shotgun or Veronica with Pushy (or in T45 Power armor and with a Ballistic Fist). ED-E with the Followers upgrade should come in handy for early detection; getting ambushed by a Deathclaw is the second worst thing that can happen to you in the game.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2340/fnvy.jpg

Even Sniper Rifle with .308 have little advantage over a Cowboy+Cowboy Repeater with JFP round (with mere -3 DT).

Set your Agility as high as you can for your SPECIAL mix as that has a huge impact on reloading speed and readying the weapon. Obviously the Perks that help this would be good to choose as you go along. However, a high Agility can negate the need for these perks in the first place.

Thanks everyone for their comments.

OK, here's what I envisage.

S 5

P 6

E 7

C 1

I 6

A 7

L 8

Traits: Built to Destory and Small Frame. Not too worried at the condition of things as I will take Repair, and a stimpack will cure any damaged limbs.

Skills: Guns, Repair, Sneak

Perks:

L2 Intense Training\Confirmed Batchelor

L4 Educated\Comprehension

L6 Hand Loader

L8 Cowboy

L10 Finesse

L12 Silent Running/Sniper

L14 Jury Rigging

L16 Better Criticals

L 18-30 Take any perks I have missed.

What does everybody think?

I would push Hand Loader and Jury Rigging back a few levels. While I generally go for both Educated and Comprehension, I guess it is optional if you don't mind missing a few speech checks.

Sniper isn't that great unless you determined to play the game mainly in VATS.

My list of Perks for the "Gun" focus character for some ideas:
Black Widow/Confirmed Batchelor
Educated
Comprehension
Strong Back
Finesse
Hand Loader
Silent Running
Better Criticals
Jury Rigging
Shotgun Surgeon
Cowboy
Toughness
Travel Light
Toughness
Super Slam
---Dead Money---
Light Touch
And Stand Back

My choice of Special would have been ST4, P6, EN7, CH4, IN8, AG6 (with Small Frame), LK6. The heaviest Cowboy guns require ST6, so with Weapons Training you have it covered. EN7 allows for maximum SPECIAL implants. High IN is very helpful, CH sacrifice is modest so companions will be effective, and with an implant and Naughty Nightwear you have enough LK for good gambling chances. Traits I would recommend are Small Frame (a must) and either Built to Destroy (Cowboy guns are insanely durable and reliable even at low condition, and critical hit chance is so hard to raise!) or Fast Shot.

If you are talking about the .44 magnum revolver dont go saying pistol since a revolver and pistol are two different handguns. Secondly it might be the third most powerful single hand firearm but it didnt do crap against mildly armored fiends when I went to the fiend vault. I had alot more luck and quicker kills with the .357 magnum using .38 special rounds.

As far as what is good enough for me, its the unique .357 magnum revolver or a laser rifle with the beam splitter and beam focuer upgrades with the laser rifle scope. The rifle coupled with overcharged cells is a wonderful weapon. The revolver I would love to use more but its just not good when you are later in the game and encountering armored targets. Like the .44, I would try upgrading it but no shop ever has upgrades for the .44 so I cant speculate on that.

"Pistol" is a general term for single hand side arm, .44 rank forth because of Pew Pew.

As for how to you kill quicker with .38 is beyond me.....

as a cowboy, you may want to take Rex and Raul (and his silly cowboy costume) as your companions, but then you'd of course have to get some more charisma, otherwise they'd just be useless

Lucky is an awesome early game revolver. Ranger Sequia will be a great gun for the rest of the game, but its ammo is in short supply.

Not after you patch the game.

Dude thats gonna look sweet. Find some nice cowboy clothes and your set.

Everything you need to know about a "Cowboy Build".:

1: The cowboy perk, pick it.
2: Use of weapons that take advantage of the cowboy perk.
3: Dress up in a outfit that makes your character look like he/she never went to school....and isn't planning on it.

Excellent stuff yet again.

I've printed out the Wiki entry for the Cowboy perk and yes, I noticed I need a max STR of 6 for any gun under the perk.

Going to go with Golem's SPECIAL advice (4/6/7/4/8/5/6) except making STR 5 and lowering INT to7, so I don't waste an Intense Training perk in bringing STR up by 1. Also going with Valkebus' suggetsed perk list except again I'll move the actual Cowboy perk up to lvl 8 as I think I'll need it with all the comments about high DT enemies. Keeping original traits of Built to Destory and Small Frame to bring my Agility up to 6.

Putting points into Melee when I'll probably not use it is a pain but can realistically only see me getting one easy skill book unless I get to New Vegas early (I sometimes follow a suggested NV run for a low level character on one of the FAQs at Gamefaqs). The last two books involve some risk as a low level character.

As for companions going to try solo as much as I can, hence picking Sneak as a tagged skill although I can see I will need help at some point. If so I will usually go with Boone for his sniping skills and useful perk and probably ED-E. I've never used Rex or Arcade, am I missing something with these two?

I fancy the Cowboy style hats and dusters but will miss the 1st recon beret. Only found a Sheriff's duster in Primm, is there anything better than that? I assume so.

Thanks again everyone.

In that case you don''t need to take Weapons Handling, but you will lose about 15 skill points over the course of the game. You'll still have plenty though.


You aren't likely to have many DT issues at level 8. Just don't go north of Sloan until you're a decent level and have powerful guns, and avoid getting close and personal with Giant Radscorpions. Smaller scorps are ok. If you must attack Legion guys in decent armor before you get at least a .44, aim for the head. Putting off Cowboy until mid- or even late-game isn't going to slow you down much.

Try to bring up your Lockpicking to 75 ASAP so you could get the unique .357 Lucky in Primm. It's the best early-game gun you can find.

A Hunting Revolver is found in REPCONN Test site. Won't have much ammo to go with it though.

Nearest place to get scopes for a Trail Carbine or a .44 Magnum revolver is 188. If they or the Gun Runners happen to not have any scopes, you will not have a sniping tool until their inventory replenishes except for the above mentioned Hunting Revolver with its scarce ammo.


I think Cass or Raul are better for your character than Boone- both because they fit the cowboy theme better and because of their perks. Cass has Shotgun Surgeon and can be REALLY helpful against precisely those enemies you have the biggest problem with- the high DT kind. Raul's maintenance perk helps negate the downside of Built to Destroy.

Arcade is pretty good, mostly because you can simply leave him with his default weapon and save ammo costs. Or you could give him a Multiplas rifle and Max Charge Ammo (-10DT), and he will do about as well as Cass does with a shotgun. His doctor coat is a nice fit if you think about it from the right angle; he can be Doc Holiday to your Wyatt Earp.


Nope, I think Sheriff's duster and hat is what you should go with. Makes you the unofficial sheriff of the Mojave, badge and all.

NCR Ranger armour look pretty Cowboyish, you just need to remember to change clothes in NCR territory.

I don't really understand having 8 int for a cowboy. I never knew that they were reputably intelligent.

I have removed about 10 posts in this thread. The OP is asking about a Cowboy build in Fallout New Vegas and if you want to discuss that, including pros and cons of the concept, how you should set your charcter up, how to approach things, what companions would be most complimentary, things like that, please do so.

If you want to split hairs over word definitions used to describe a specific gun, take it somewhere else, preferably another forum entirely. Like a gun forum. Some of the posts I deleted contained trolling, flaming, flamebaiting and other behaviour not allowed on these boards. Shame because there was some good information in those posts, off topic information, but good information. However this thread is not the place for that discussion.

So, please keep discussing the Cowboy Build and how it relates to this game.