Hey there!

I'm thinking about starting a new hardcoe run but i got a few problems that i'm trying to solve. First of all i'm playing hardcoe and i'm doing a DiD with focus on companions. Sooo...

My character dies : Game ends.
My companion dies : They stay dead (hardcoe)

The plan was to play a medicine/science guy that doesn't use any weapon skills himself. I'm going to take up energy weapons later on, but he won't be focused on attacking, he'll be a diplomat. I'll pick up ED-E as soon as possible and then i'll take either Veronica or Arcade. I would prefer to take Arcade as i like him more than Veronica and i LOVE his perk. Now the problem with Arcade is the following.

1.) My character will join BoS, Arcade is Enclave and Victoria is BoS so RP wise it would make more sense to take Veronica.
2.) I hate, hate, HATE the fact that Arcade leaves you after his quest.

So everything points to me picking Veronica, but i prefer Arcade and would love to play with him instead. It wouldn't be very hard to get a good RP background with Veronica, but would it be even remotely possible (lorewise) for a person like Arcade to join BoS? I'm thinking something along the lines of two Enclave operatives (ED-E, Arcade) joining forces with BoS because of Enclave falling apart. Out of two evils (NCR) and (BoS) would it make sense for him to join BoS or is his hatred for them so deep that he would never do it? None of people from Enclave in Fallout 3 would ever join BoS, but the Mojave is a little bit different.

Also for the whole Veronica Vs Arcade. I'm going to have whichever i pick of them using energy weapons, not going to have Veronica run in with a fist weapon.

My stats would be the following :

Strength : 5 (6)
Perception : 5 (6)
Endurance : 7 (8)
Charisma : 8 (9)
Intelligence : 7 (8)
Agility : 4 (5)
Luck : 4 (5)

With Implants i would have 9 charisma, what are the chances of Veronica or E-DE dying in hardcoe (Normal difficulty) with power armor (Veronica) and defense upgrade (ED-E). I'm not going to be reloading, so if a freak accident happens (Super mutant nukes Veronica with a missile launcher) would she be able to survive that with 45% (9 charisma) and power armor? That % increase they get from charisma is that additional to 'normal' survivability? I'll give an example.

Player : 25 DT (Power armor) + 300 health.
Veronica : 25 DT (Power armor) + 235 health + 45% (Charisma)

So in other words i have more health than Veronica, but she takes 45% less damage than me?

Is it even viable to play a hardcoe game focused on companions?

Sorry for the long and confusing post, it's getting late here and it's starting to show on my horrible writing skills.

If it's on Normal, then I wouldn't worry much about it. Just give Veronica a good power fist and good armor and she will do most of the work for you. Brotherhood upgraded ED-E is pretty tough as well.

I normally play on Hard/Very Hard but the plan for this run is to not reload at all. Throw in the fact that if a companion dies on hardcoe they stay dead. So i'm kind of asking if there are any places a well geared companion could get one shotted on normal difficulty? Kind of svcks to play a companion playthrough and end up losing both of my companions to a deathclaw in a no-reload game.

There's not much Veronica can't handle, even on VH/HC. The only two problems are Cazadores and Deathclaws. Sometimes the Cazador's poison remains with your companions, and if unchecked they might just fall over and die abruptly.

And the only real problem with Deathclaws is that they can stun and knock your companions around. But I've seen Veronica tanking DCs before on VH/HC (With ED-E's help, of course); with Pushy and Enclave's Set (And this is with 1 Charisma), Veronica and ED-E can toast individual Deathclaw with moderate effort.

If you're going to play a diplomat, I assume you won't run into a Deathclaw's den looking for trouble. Just to be 100% sure, avoid locations with Deathclaws until you can help your companions out with energy weapons. Otherwise, if you don't piss people off often, there aren't any real threats along the ways. What is your choice of faction?