30 mins into the game I get power Armor. Ok, thanks. But I prefer to sneak around. Hard to sneak in big clunky power armor. Not to mention finding 5mm rounds for the mini-gun is just ridiculous in the early game.

Also with weapons. I haven't seen a rifle yet. All I got are lasers, min-guns and pistols (oh and the usual clubs, bats, tire irons, etc, etc)

For those of you who have been playing all day any tips on where to find decent armor and weapon for a thief/assassin/ranger type?

You can modify certain armor to help with stealth, like the leather parts you can add to your outfit.
The PA can get an integrated stealthboy, but that is endgame stuff... Ned's 4 ranks in the science perk.

I've got about 5 hours in. I think what bothers me, is unlike NV or FO3 or Skyrim - stealth-ing around, only killing when you must isn't working in the game. It's like the game forces you to kill everything to achieve your goals. Which is fine. Just not what I was hoping for.

The only way I see being able to behave some of what i want is to max out charisma. But then, I'll spend half the game as a doormat for every ghoul that strolls by. So basically, I got no choice but to wear the power armor and kill everything in sight.

Maybe mods will change things.

the t-45 has a chest armor mod that activates a stelth effect when you crouch

I stumbled across a Legendary mongrel dog and he dropped a left armor piece that gives me stealth boy effect when sneaking and not moving; haven't had a chance to play with it yet to see how it interacts with NPC detection.

I have no problem sneaking around in my leather armor with a few pieces of raider armor. Inside an enclosed area, I'd kill one guard and then scurry around a corner and the [ Danger ] flag would eventually grow to [ Danger ] and then switch to [ Caution ] which slowly became [ Caution ] and then [ Hidden ] again, and I could sneak up on the next guy. And this is without a silenced weapon (or knife).

I can't remember where exactly but I've picked up a couple of Pipe Rifles early on, one an automatic rifle with drum magazine and the other a simple semi auto but both have bayonets attached.

If you have the materials for it, you can make a scope and slap it on a Pipe Rifle but it doesn't hit very hard even on a headshot.

Yes, its easy to get scopes on everything. First thing who got it was the laser musket.

An pipe rifle moded for damage and with an scope is an nice early game sniper rifle.

Get a hunting rifle (they are common) add a stock and scope and you have a sniper rifle

Later on you can make it .50 with an advanced scope and such

I forget exactly how I went about it, but I somehow ended up with a 0.308 pistol. Hits like a mule.