Here are the imperative things:

1. Take all points off Charisma(The other stats are MUCH more useful)
2. Immediately max Intelligence at start(The higher your intelligence the more skill points you get each level, best to take advantage of this ASAP)
3. Don't max out any other attribute past 9 because you will be able to get an implant for each individual stat that boosts each by 1.
4. Make sure your Endurance is at 9
5. Don't take perks like 'Here and Now' and 'Fast Learner'. These essentially just rob you of a perk and make you level faster. There is no point in doing so because you will get to that level eventually anyway! Better to get to lvl 35 in 2 weeks then waste 2 perks just to save 4 hours.
6. Make sure your face and all is how you want it because there is no plastic surgeon, only 1 barber.

Think out your skill points and perks carefully and you will be awesome.

Yes, good catch and good advice.

That depends entirely on the build. Charisma is helpful for increasing the combat effectiveness of your followers, especially if you plan to use ones whose upgrades are damage-oriented (like Cass).


There are 30 levels in the game. You gain 0.5 skill point more per Intelligence point, ergo 15 points over the entire game. Not really worth sweating over. With level 35 in Dead Money it's 17.5 points- still not spectacular. Intelligence of 6 is more than enough, usually, and if you need to pass an Intelligence check, that's what Party Time Mentats are for. If you're hurting for skill points, the Educated perk will give you the equivalent of +4 INT for skill points purpose.


I'd say a minimum of 7 is needed for maximum S.P.E.C.I.A.L implants, and the rest of the implants just aren't as helpful. Subdermal armor can be useful depending on your playstyle, but on Normal he can do fine without it.

I don't know OP some folks here have some good ideas so as the advice is solid and you waste nothing from an experiment but some time go nuts, the first character should be imperfect, i think that makes the game a bit more magical the first time through. I will say that since this is your first character take your time, try to avoid the "gotta see how it plays out" rush through. Smell the flowers, be sure to pick some they are handy, but most importantly take your time there is alot to do, so do not rush which i think is the best advice i can give you.

I have played 5 times now and i usually have a good idea in how i want to build a character. I am considering a character that is more of a diplomat (high speech and chez la femme, black widow,or if male confirmed bachelor and there is one more for the dudes), who can crack any lock (lockpicking), hack any terminal (science), fix any ailment (medicine), cook any food (survival), repair any item (repair), but has absolutely NO combat skills what so ever. The type of character that when the shooting is about to start turns to her crew and says gettem boys ill be over here hiding behind a desk until the fighting stops. The type of character that put if you put a weapon in her hands she is more dangerous to her crew than the enemies. Nice thing about this game is in all probability that type of character can be as successful as the more physical types, it will probably require a different approach than the shootem or beatem. To finish a quest by a speech check, or getting to use the shortcut because she has 100 lockpick or science which means she can literally open any doors. Should be interesting to say the least, it might not work or only be SO effective before brute force is necessary but it is worth a try.

Asai

Correction, you can't use an implant point to reach a perk S.P.E.C.I.A.L. requirement. Perks will only accept starting values and Intense Training points that are added by the player. Perks ignore implant points. I found that out the hard way. :pinch:

Rule of thumb: never max any stat out.

Look right and left befor crossing the street =P

Hmm, I set Endurance to 6 and planned to increase it to 7 with an implant, not for a perk prereq but so that I can get all the other implants. Will that still work? Do the implants use or ignore the implant points themselves?

Good advice. I basically made a "smart" character with little skill in weapons, which makes sense assuming all I was previously was a courier. Now that I see I was nearly executed, I need to learn how to shoot a gun.

Basically I started with a 6 in all stats, and a 5 in Charisma and Agility. I took Intensive Training at level 2 and put a point in Charisma for 6. My next IT will either be a point in Agility, or a point in Luck to make it 7. I may not need a 7 in Luck yet though. I figure once all stats are at 6, I can increase them all to 7 later with the implants, and then further with IT if necessary. Seems fairly well balanced.

Judging from what each stat affects, it doesn't seem all that important to get them perfect anyway. An extra +2 to the skills they affect isn't a huge deal, so I focused more on the other effects, such as carry weight, health, NPC disposition, etc. Even still, I don't know if it's all that important to get any stats as high as 9 or 10. Certainly not on Normal, I'd guess.

No, Getting an implant that adds 1 more point to Endurance will not allow you to get 1 more implant. Sorry. You'd have to use (waste) another Intense Training perk to add 1 more point to endurance, to allow that.

Doh! Oh well, I don't suppose it's necessary to get all 7 implants anyway.

How about using an implant to raise my Luck to 7? I hear that a minimum of 7 is needed to do well at gambling. Will the implant help with that?

Yes, having the lucky shades or naughty nightwear help as well.

Thanks!

A well rounded, jack of all trades char with evenly-distributed SPECIAL points will work just fine. Making a char that will eventually kick mucho butt is more about your selection of skill points and perks, anyway. And even with a Charisma of only 1 throughout the game, if you put plenty of points into the Speech skill along the way, you'll still be able to interact with most everybody to your benefit, just for an example. I usually just put 6 points into Endurance and leave it there, because i don't need a 7th implant for Charisma, anyway .

Unless you intend to be a melee char going face-to-groin with Deathclaws on a regular basis, a bunch of points in Endurance isn't really all that important anyway, in my opinion. Strength? If you're going melee, you can bring your strength up to 10 (8+implant+power armor), but if you just want to be able to wield weapons that require 10 strength, you only need 7 base points + implant + Weapon Handling perk (-2 weapon-strength requirements). Most of my chars end up with a total strength of 6, since I seldom mess with the heavy metal much.

There are a lot of different ways to skin the cat, or build your char, in this game. But I agree you should go the middle road on your base stats to start with, and do a plain old 'fun' playthrough first, just to see the sights, and learn the game skills and mechanics a bit. Make lots of mistakes, have lots of D'OH! headslapper moments... it's what fond memories are made of. Later on you can tweak and specialize and enjoy making the greatest world-beaters you can think up. Fallout:NV is way too good and has way too much to do and see, for just one playthrough.

Definitely get the luck implant. Luck is a great stat for any build. There are a lot of things in the background that it affects during gameplay, but the most evident is that it increases your chance to critically hit with all attacks. Luck is good, get as much as you can without gimping everything else. I usually end up with at least 7-8 points in it by endgame.

Yeah, I'm happy with my balanced build so far. Of course, all I've killed are some Gheckos and Bloatflies, but still...it feels more like a real character that way.

Yeah, I think I will take Intense Training one more time to put my Agility at 6, then all stats will be 6. Then the implant can put my Luck at 7.

[censored] this is a long thread. read the first page up to the giant post
anyway may advice is dont put to much points into perception, anyhigher than 7 and the red markers become more annoying than helpful. Set it at 4, take the four eyes perk to get +1, and thers lots of headgear that gives +1 to, and 6 is a nice level, imo.

For the reason of skill points i always set my intelegince at 7/8 ...
lockpick and speech are essential skills, get them both to 50 and you should be able to get round most encounters okay. but higher is better if nothing else needs the points urgently Average locks are VERY common. Comprehension is a nice perk, take it along with retention early on (imo, this is not essential) ... ya just take what i said about perception into account and those to skills, just get them to the mid point anyway. And have fun

If you want things to be interestingly challenging in some parts, and then easy in others-or have a focused strategy, then you ought to have a fairly "diverse" build. For example, a pacifist character/peaceful character should be focusing on the intelligent stats/skills, and maybe some stats/skills involving health-not combat stats/skills.

Otherwise a balanced character is a good idea-the advantage is that nothing will be supremely difficult, but the disadvantage is nothing will be supremely easy. You might have to grind a little(I wouldn't know) if you're really balanced. The game is awesome in that there's usually more than one way in handling things-and if worst comes to worst, and you're willing, there's always the option of killing someone. Ignoring Companions in normal mode and children in any mode.

IF you're a pack rat, you might want to have a good level of strength-especially since that makes you less limited to the variety of larger guns/weapons available.

I skipped Retention, at least for now. At level 4 I plan to take Educated, and Comprehension at level 6.

Retention is really useful, it make a huge difference getting a skill boost of 20 rather than 10 and coupled with apparel and drugs can get you over checks that would be otherwise impossible.

Animal Friend is an underrated perk IMO, it makes some quests a walk in the park and others much much easier. Plus you don't have shoot animals, which is a nice.

I envy you your first play, you're in for a treat.

You're thinking of Comprehension. Retention just increases the duration of the magazines.



Heh heh, yeah it's exciting. I'm about to head out of Goodsprings and see what's up with this package I was supposed to deliver.

D'oh.



Good luck!