I am currently trying to plan out a character for when I get my new laptop and can play New Vegas. I have had some decent experience playing at my sister's house so I am not totally new to this game.

In Fallout 3 my favorite characters would use melee or unarmed as their primary weapon and then supplement it with explosives. Some where stealth killers, some charged head on into battle.


New Vegas has seemed to have balanced things much differently and I am now trying to decide on a weapon style. I hear a lot of praise for unarmed and claims that it does the best DPS, but the Vault Wiki still has melee on top with the superheated saturnite fist a runner up when combined with pyromaniac perk.

Make note that I will not be using any guns or energy weapons, but will use explosives (maybe limited to grenades and mines)

Melee has the advantage of having throwing weapons for ranged attacks. I know that unarmed users can learn special moves, but the one I would like to use most, Legion Assault, I believe would be unavailable to me if I am an enemy of the Legion. Is there a way to work for the NCR and still get that special move?

I think this character will be the type that charges head-on into battle instead of sneaking around if that helps peoples decisions at all, and I am taking into account everything added by all DLC's.

I think Melee would be best.

Melee & Elijah's Ramblings http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Elijah%27s_Rambling

you might need to have a positive rep with the legion to get that move. i know you just have to talk to Lucius in caesars tent, and if you have a Unarmed skill of at least 50, he'll teach you the move, but i'm not sure if you have to have a positive rep with them as well. give it a try when your in caesars tent (you'll wind up there eventually even if you don't side with the legion)

to get some of the better Perks you may need High skill in both. besides High Unarmed is a good idea (in a survivalist way of thinking)

Yeha, it's BS that you have to have melee AND unarmed. I downloaded a mod which corrects that and correctly labels it as "OR". I mean, Run and Gun or whatever it is called is an OR .

Either one.

Seriously, it doesn't matter which - it's all in how you want to destroy your enemies.

Hit them so hard with a Super Sledge that arms and legs fly off?

or

Punch them across the room?

My opinion? Go melee.

The strongest Unarmed weapon is the Ballistic Fist which can deliver a shotgun blast to the face. The strongest Melee weapon is Oh Baby which can make red paste out of pretty much anything.
The on advantage Unarmed has over Melee is speed. The advantages Melee has over Unarmed is reach, damage and the ability to send limbs flying.

The most powerful unarmed weapon when you count DLC

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Saturnite_fist_super-heated


Most powerful melee weapon

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Oh,_Baby!

Oh' Baby! also has a higher attack speed than the Super-Heated Saturnite Fist as well as a higher damage per swing which helps with heavily armored enemies.

Although you should also make note that Oh, Baby! takes 100 melee, and the Super-Heated Saturnite Fist only requires 55 unarmed, and the pyromaniac perk to be the strongest unarmed weapon.

There are other melee weapons that beat the Super-Heated Saturnite Fist, but they require at least 75 melee.

So melee is more powerful and has ranged weapons, where unarmed only benefits if you can attain the Super-Heated Saturnite Fist in a quicker time than it would take to reach 75 melee.

In the end I think melee wins, although I would still like to hear valid arguments to the contrary. I honestly don't get how I got the idea that people thought unarmed was better.