I want to do this for fun, but I have no idea how to go about doing this.

I want to major in unarmed, using explosives only sometimes.

I got all DLCs if that means anything.

Thanks in advance.

Make sure to tag unarmed and explosives so Doc Mitchel gives you dynamite and boxing gloves.

Align with the Powder Gangers for more dynamite and the possibility of getting your hands on a decent melee weapon.

I would recommend Boone as a companion to snipe enemies while you charge at them with your fists.

You can get a set of Spiked Knuckles in the highway patrol station. Frequently a set of bladed gauntlets can be found in the Nipton Town Hall. Those will hold you until you get a power fist or displacer glove. If you don't want to go evil, don't worry, there's plenty of explosives around without needing to buddy up to the powder gangers.

As for followers, Veronica is an excellent choice, as she can join you in the punching frenzy, or you can give her an energy weapon and tell her to go to range (she'll pout about that) and she'll wipe things out before you can throw a punch. Toss her a suit of Brotherhood T-51b and you shouldn't have to worry about her health at all unless she's punching deathclaws. She can also teach you an Unarmed move.

Stealth may well be useful to help you get into range for punching, or into position for laying out the explosive fury. Going after Mercy probably isn't a bad idea either, as well as getting a Red Glare out of Lonesome Road.

Personally, I'd suit up in power armor to do unarmed, so that charging enemies with guns is a viable behavior. GRA also addes plenty of new grenade launcher rounds to make the build more fun.

What should my SPECIAL be, and what traits should I take?

I think I should get Wild Wasteland, for the Holy Hand Grenades :3

S 9 (to meet requirements for certain weapons and to get certain perks later on)
P 9 (modifies explosives)
E 9 (modifies the unarmed skill)
C 3 (unimportant)
I 6 (for skill points)
L 4

You can add one to each of these later on with implants, so keep that in mind.

Traits: Heavy Handed (unless you're going for a high crit build, in which case don't take this trait and put more points into luck) Hoarder (it's always good if you want to carry a lot of stuff) or if you don't want hoarder, then go with wild wasteland.

edit: I left out Agility because I couldn't really think of anything for it, I just remembered that an Agility of 7 is required for the Slayer perk, so you'll want it to be at 7 by the time you hit level 24

What's the third skill I should tag?

And what should my SPECIAL be to begin with, because I'm gonna need some Intense Training to get to those SPECIAL levels.

Also I DO have Courier's Stash, so I start with the Mercenary's Grenade Rifle.

For a third tag skill you might want to go with melee weapons. A lot of perks that benefit unarmed players also require a high melee weapons skill.

As for starting SPECIAL:

S 6
P 8
E 8
C 2
I 5
A 6 (I don't really know what to tell you here, if you want a fast running speed to help close in on enemies or if you're into using VATS then put more points into this stat, otherwise just keep it at 6 and then get the implant to get it to 7 so you can get the slayer perk later on)
L 5

I would highly recommend taking the Reinforced Spine perk at the end of OWB as it raises strength by 2 and gives you a higher DT. Also make sure you get all the implants you can (you can get 8) I would recommend all the SPECIAL boosting implants and the sub-dermal armor implant from Usanagi, you won't really need the monocyte breeder implant.

Take all the unarmed and explosive perks you can, as well as implant GRX.

Could I use 4 luck and take the extra point for 7 agility?

Or do I need 4 luck for a future perk?

His will be my first time with an unarmed or explosives character, so I could use some pointers.

Maybe a list of what skills I should focus on and maybe the first few perks I should take.

I don't see a problem with having a luck of 4 and an agility of 7, in fact that would probably be better for you in the long run. I can't think of any explosives or unarmed perk that has to do with luck, and while critical hits can be fairly important for an unarmed character they are pretty much worthless to an explosives character.

The skills you should focus on should be:

1.) Unarmed (try to get this to 75 as quickly as possible so you can use uppercuts and crosses)

1.) Explosives

2.) Melee Weapons

3.) Sneak (helpful for getting closer to enemies without being detected and thus closing to unarmed range without taking damage)

4.) Repair

5.) Medicine (explosive cause a lot of collateral damage and unarmed fights lead to your character taking a lot of damage)

6-13.) Lockpick, Science, Speech, Survival, Barter, or what ever else you want to do with your character.


Perks you should get:

First of all, make sure you learn all of the special unarmed moves (Ranger take down, Legion Assault, Scribe Counter, and Khan Trick)

Other perks for early on:

Level 2 - Heave Ho!

Level 4 - Educated, Travel Light, or Cannibal

Level 6 - Demolition Expert (get all three ranks as you keep leveling up)

Level 8 - Stonewall and Super Slam (make sure to get both as you continue to level up)

Level 10 - Nothing great here for your build, so go back and take another rank of demo expert or Stonewall/Super Slam

That should get you started with perks, after that just pick anything that benefits explosives and unarmed. Also make sure you get implant GRX, any perks that increase you DT, and I would also recommend Jury Rigging.

For companions I would recommend Boone and ED-E, although Rex would be fine as well. If you want to go the Legion route and you don't want Boone, then take Veronica early on and Raul later (give him a rifle)

You know, I haven't done a legion playthrough yet.

And that sounds right up my characters alley, I decided to style him after Tavish DeGroot, the Demoman from TF2.

What changes would I have to make if I wanted him to focus on explosives and melee (mainly swords)

Scratch the melee weapons, I want to do a melee and guns character for legion. I've already done a energy weapons independent, and a guns NCR.

I'm sticking with Explosives/Unarmed House playthrough (Tavish is a mercenary)

My character will be relying on the raw damage output of explosives and speed of unarmed, so would luck really be that important? Could I spare 2 points of luck (bringing me to 3) for 7 agility and 7 strength, so I will have more ap and able to get slayer without implants or intense training, and be only the implant and strong back away from 10 strength (and be able to carry more heavy explosives weapons (fatman, missile launcher, grenade machine gun, entire crates of grenades and mine)

And is Mad Bomber a good perk to get?

Yeah that sounds like it'll fine, luck isn't that important for this build.


Yes! I forgot about that!

It adds a ton of easy to make explosives that you can use early on and it adds some really cool stuff too (I mean who wouldn't want to reverse pickpocket a fat mine?) Just make sure to stock up on MF cells starting early on, as you can turn them into what are basically plasma grenades once you get the mad bomber perk.

Can I still have the Powder Gangers ally with the Great Khans and then convince them to leave the Legion and join House?

Powder Gangers + Boomers + Grenade launchering Securitrons = all part of my explosives utopia.

Yes you can.

Why is melee weapons good for an unarmed character?

Because there are numerous perks which require points in Melee weapons that also help Unarmed. Plus, you get access to throwing spears.

-Nukeknockout

Yes, as Nukeknockout said the melee weapons skill must be high to obtain certain perks that benefit unarmed characters.

Some examples are Unstoppable Force and Super Slam.