His past is irrelevant, it's history, those days have past.
Look at every other character and where they are now, that is what I am basing every character on, not their past, not their future, not the benefits my Courier gives them.
Caesar is more badass and God-Tier than Raul if we look at the now, even his past is more God-Tier. But should Caesar be on that list too?
Joshua when he is first encountered is training tribals for war. Confident, brutish, strong and lucky.
Lanius when he is first encountered is on the eve of war and is by far the most powerful on the field. Confident, brutish, strong and Caesar II
Ulysses when he is first encountered is on the eve of nuking NCR and CL on top of trying to make you suffer. Fueled by revenge, narrowly missed being nuked, travelled the entire wasteland as a Frumentarii and searching for the Courier, had x nukes at his disposal and ED-E Prototypes
Magnus and Royez when encountered have just been nuked and are the commanding officers of their factions in that area, their stats are equal to Ulysses'. Commanding officers of Dry Wells and Long 15, survied a direct nuke attack, GM: Conquered the 86th tribe for Caesar, CR: Has Power Armour Training - something no other NCR trooper has.

Now for Raul on the now and here...
Raul when he is first encountered he is a prisoner forced to fix a robot by Super Mutants and Nightkin. Full of self doubt, no purpose anymore and has no special traits as of your first encounter with him.

EDIT: Stuff the Courier argument because he is only there because he is our character and we know he'll be great but to keep my points valid - He shouldn't even be on there.

The Courier is tough and so is Boone...saw that someone named him. I'm doing OWB for the first time and found the Robo-Scorpions to be really tough until I remembered I had the Pulse Gun with me. Haven't met the Legendary Bloatfly yet; I'm looking forward to it. Haven't done LR yet either. I guess I agree that it's the Courier since she can conquer all.

u can only beat legendary deathclaws if u know they're there

sopose they can actually use sneak same as u and pop up where they feel like hunting then it's a whole other game

and .50 sniper rifle soldiers ( legion / ncr )

Radiation= Death............

I'm gonna be honest, I've played the game 2x through and that thig has never so much as touched me. I don't see the big deal with him?

If he DOES touch you, you die.
That's the big deal.

Idk if anyone said this already as I'm not willing to read ever post, the legendary boatfly.

Sure it may not have the highest stats, but its the only enemy that caught me off guard.
I saw it and was like pssshh no problemo, I though I'd be good with a Gauss rifle with Max charged ammo, boy oh boy was I wrong.
I had to hide behind a rock so I could pop out and use VATS on his ass, took me a good 5 mins to kill that A-Hole.

This thread is still alive? I thought it died a long time ago.

Defenitely deathclaws when i am walking around sloan i always get 4 of those running on my back scary as hell tough

had a unarmed char max and max end took 2 or 3 hits with the super heated fist mind you i had a sliver of health left used vats apparently uppercuts work best aslo raul is god-tier why why you ask because he's earned it and he has the scars to prove it well metaphorically

Legion hitsquads. Not dangerous in themselves, but the sheer persistence is so annoying that if it wasn't for my ability to hide from them in DLC, the frustration of "oh here they come AGAIN" is likely to have a nasty effect on ones blood pressure...

Face the legendary bloatfly on hard and you'll rethink this real fast

Does Liberty Prime not count?

This is the "FALLOUT NEW VEGAS cheats, hints, and spoilers."

NOT "FALLOUT 3 cheats, hints, and spoilers."

Liberty prime is not in NV, so no, he doesn't count.

Turbo, think it's not dangerous? Hotkey it and then use it.

That kid in Freeside after you activate Archmides ll, think about it he could take out the Lucky 38 with one pull of a trigger. Nobody else can make that claim.

I'm going to say Deathclaws, because well they're just a tough nut to crack.

Lake Lurks. One attack from them could easy take down 25% of your health and they usually are in groups so If they see you before you see them... your dead.

A deathclaw can beat up anything 1 on 1. The only possible exception to this is a maxed out melee/unarmed courrier or No Bark.

Well, I took out the whole Quarry out by myself with the plasma caster. I didn't even hide on the rocks like most people do, I just walked right in.