I am making a stealth character and i was wondering what to use
Perks, weapons, armour, other

What kind of stealthy? Do you want to avoid combat as much as possible or sneak attack everyone and their grandmothers?

Regardless of how you want to go, get Good Natured as a trait, and maybe take Trigger discipline to get the accuracy boost. Tag Sneak, Lockpick, and Science as those will allow you to get anywhere. Also put points into Speech whenever you can spare to allow you to talk your way out of situations.

Perks you want:
Silent Running
Mister Sandman
Sniper
Better Critical
Finess
Ninja

Basically if you're going for sneak attacking people you want to buff your crits as much as possible so you can take them out in one hit, and regardless you want to be as sneaky as possible.

Not sure why some people are so fond of the Good Natured trait- so it adds a small amount of points to several miscellaneous skills (none of which are sneak or weapons skills), but you'll easily and quickly gain all of those points you care about anyway, simply by using the skillpoints you get as you level up normally. I've never taken Good Natured, and I've always ended up with as many points as I wanted in each of those skills, well before reaching 30. Its downside is that it steals a trait slot that could be used to actually improve your character's capabilities throughout the game, in ways that a small handful of early skillpoints cannot. Oh, and it also gives a skillpoint *penalty* to guns and explosives... bad.

But anyways... stealth character? Not much in the way of extra things to get that will directly affect your ability to be sneaky, other than Silent Running (best perk in the whole game, bar none), and getting silencers on your weapons of choice. Put plenty of points into Agility and Luck, for improved sneaking, guns expertise, and weapons crits. If you're killing from stealth, you want as many one-shot kills as possible. Along those lines, the Commando, Sniper, Finesse and Better Criticals perks are all recommended. Unless you want to be a close-in stealth killer, specializing in pistols- then go with Gunslinger and The Professional, instead of Commando. Or do both, for plenty of options. And of course it should go without saying that you'll want to get guns and sneak up to 100 asap.

Armor? Always stick with light armors- medium and higher make you less stealthy- enemies will see and hear you sooner than if you wear light armor. Reinforced leather is some of the best you'll find early on- but the best I've found yet is the Vault 34 light security armor- it gives you 16 DT and only weighs 15 pounds. You can find 3 or more of them in that vault, when you clear it. Save them and repair to full durability. Also remember to keep your companions stealthy too, wearing light or medium armor- it doesn't help to be stealthy yourself, if your companion is clunking around in heavy combat armors. I'm not 100% sure how your companions factor in as far as stealth and being spotted by enemies works... but I've always erred on the side of caution anyway. If what your companions wear doesn't factor into how easily your party is spotted, then I'm sure somebody more knowledgeable will come along and enlighten us.

Weapons- silenced 9mm, 10mm, and later on the 12.7mm pistols, as you can get them (I use expanded weapons mod, so not sure if all the silencers I mention here are available in vanilla, or not). Rifles- Ratslayer is priceless- may not have the punch of a the big rifles, but it'll do one-shot kills on 90% of the mobs you'll encounter, throughout the game, even once you hit 30... and ammo and repairs are dirt cheap. Sniper Rifle, and the Gobi Campaign rifle (elite sniper rifle) are the heavy hitters. Some like the elephant blaster (Anti-Material rifle), but it's expensive, ammo is very expensive, costly repairs, gotta have 8 strength or 6 strength and waste a perk on Weapons Handling... etc. And no silencer! And as heavy as a small SUV. I never have bothered with it. And if you get the WME (expanded weapons mods), you can get silencers on other weapons too- most notably, the marksman rifle/All-American. When silenced, that weapon nicely fills the gap between pistol range and heavy sniper rifle range... good sneaky midrange weapon.

Also, for a secondary specialty, I like to go explosives. Always handy in a pinch, especially when you come across gaggles of enemies that are all clumped up in a tight bunch, or in a room around the corner, etc... where a tossed grenade is an easy 'final solution', and sneaky sniping isn't practical or is too dangerous. Especially since the last patch, explosives are a good all-around weapon to have, and even better when buffed up. Sometimes, the best silencer is a handful of TNT! You don't have to worry about an enemy alerting his buddies, if he and his buddies are all wall art.

If you have all of those things covered, building and playing a good stealth-based character is actually more about attitude and skill and experience, than skillpoints and perks and gear. And there ain't no better way to be good at it, than to go out and do it. Also, if you find your companions screw up your sneakiness too much, you may want to park them before going into combat, in a lot of places. Have fun!

PS: These tips are based on a stealth/killer build... if you intended to be more of a stealth/avoid conflict/pacifist type, then most of this won't apply

dont use boone,ha.and stay in the shadows coz it makes a big difference.i read on wiki that the stealth skill makes no difference between 50 + 100 but not sure abou that,i always go to 100.i think armour makes more noise so need light stuff.they should let you were sneakers so your quieter

Honestly, the only real tips I can give are these, since I'm in the process of making a very sneak heavy character:


Build

Strength - 3
Perception - 6
Endurance - 4
Charisma - 4
Intelligence - 5
Agility - 8
Luck - 9

(Luck 8 and Perception 7 if you really want Hobbler and if you really want a VATS bonus heavy sneaker)

Tag

Sneak
Lockpick
Science

These three will ensure that you will be able to sneak and get into places easier.

Perks

Light Frame - +1 Agi, Limbs are more easily crippled, but with a sneak build you arent exactly going for close combat so it shouldn't make much of a difference. Also a free perk.
Educated - Extra 62 skill points can help/make a difference.
Travel Light - (requires 45 Survival) Increases movement speed by 10%. Though with 9 Agility (with Light Frame) this really shouldn't pose much of a problem as you'll already move faster.
Light Touch - +5% critical hit chance and your enemies suffer a -25% critical hit chance while wearing light armour. Good to have for a sneak build. IMO
Finesse - +5% Critical chance, equivalent to 5 points of luck. Not essential since you're sneaking, and I'll assume most if not all your attacks will be sneak attack criticals... but nice to have just incase things go awry.
Silent Running - Must have for a sneak build. Running no loonger factors into a successful sneak attempt.
Mister Sandman - Sneaking at it's finest, only difference is you can kill people who are sleeping while sneaking.
Better Criticals - Helps beef up your Sneak Crits, and Crits in general.
Laser Commander - (requires 90 Energy Weapons) Useful only if you find yourself using energy weapons a lot. +15% DAM with EW and +10% Crit Chance.
^--- If using Laser Commander: Meltdown - (Requires 90 Energy Weapons) Useful if you find yourself engaging groups with Energy Weapons. Sneak Attack Criticals = Meltdown = The majority of enemies around your target die with it. That and outside of Sneak Crits, you still have, or should have at least 33% Crit Chance with Energy Weapons if you have Laser Commander, Finesse, 10 Luck (9+1 with Luck Implant), Light Touch, and Rank 2 Set Lasers For Fun (Adds +4% chance to Crit Rate for Energy Weapons).
Agility Implant - Bumps your Agility up to 10 if you followed the build.
Luck Implant - Bumps your Luck up to 8 if you followed the build.

Optional Perks (Meaning not essential)

Terrifying Presence - (requires 70 speech) Not essential, but it might be a handy thing to have to get you out of certain situations.
Sniper - Must have for sneak builds if you use vats a lot.
Center of Mass - Same as Sniper.
Concentrated Fire - (requires 60 Guns and 60 Energy Weapons) Same as Sniper & Center of Mass.
Hobbler - Same as Sniper, CoM, and CF.
Ninja - Beefs up your criticals with Melee Weapons and Unarmed, as well as Sneak Crit Damage with them. Not really necessary unless you see yourself sneaking into close quarters combat often. Again, personal preference.
Robotics Expert - Again, not necessary, but the 2nd part of the perk deals with sneaking, and it might just be easier to shut the bot down... though you dont run into much outside of buildings so... personal preferance.
Elijah's Ramblings - Boosts melee crit damage by a whopping 150%. Requires completion of Dead Money and Veronica as a partner though.

Kit/Loadout


For your kit and loadout, stick mainly with light armour (Ex// Assassin's Gear, Chinese Stealth Armour, etc). For weapons, stick with relatively light ones, like rifles, pistols, and the like. The more bulk you wear, the less sneaky you'll be.

Skills

If you take Educated, you'll have approximately 574 skill points to spend, more if Honest Hearts comes with a new level cap. It's all personal preference but I'd reccomend having these for your skills.

100 Energy Weapons
100 Guns
100 Lockpick
100 Science
100 Sneak

and the remaining 74 to be dumped into anything you'd like.


Hope this helps. :thumbsup:

Um, that only adds up to 35 points... you get a total of 40, during character creation... thought those numbers looked a little light...

Oh, thank you haha. I was wondering why myself and completely spaced it.

EDIT- Updated build to account for the missing SPECIAL points.

Ruined Requiem, you need 6 Perception for Better Criticals and Sniper, and 7 for Hobbler, so you may want to re-think your SPECIAL.

Thanks haha. My first build and half asleep. :banghead: Never good to do massive thinking while you're fighting off sleep.

EDIT - Revamped the build to help once again, due to my my minor lack of intelligence at the moment. I should really get to sleep.