I looked into the Perks and have come up with some minimums I think based on the perks I want.

S: 4 (3 for sure to get armorer, though I'd like to have blacksmith too. Just because I like crafting, not because it will be useful to my character)

P: 4 (for locksmith...though I'm very tempted to go up to 6 for night person)

E: 3 (to get the health bonus)

C: 3 (Lone Wanderer....charisma overall like I said not too important to me, but lone wanderer seems like an absolute must)

I: 5 (for scrapper...will probably go higher for the XP bonus)

A: 7 (ninja! If I'm putting 9 into something it will probably be Agility)

L: 1 (really not interested in any of these perks and not too worried about luck overall)

Not sure how many points I get total but if I start with the above and then pump extras into P,I,A that might do it for me.

For survivalest I would suggest a build around explosives cause you can make a grenade from raw materials at a chemistry station with 5 perception (4+1 from bobble head from museum at begining) and lone wanderer 3 charisma with possibly scrapper from intelligence so you can break down guns into more rare parts. Remember shotguns count as 1 shot rifles under perception tree.

I would say to not worry too much about stats, at every level you get a perk point, but a perk point can also be used to increase a stats. Since you like to roleplay (yay!), just go with what you have and perk up according to what happened recently or what your character is working on. Perks are more important than S.P.E.C.I.A.L. They mostly allow you to unlock perks, with some small bonuses on the side

If you want to use guns and VATS, you may want more perception, as that is what affects vats accuracy. If you want to go the melee VATS route, judging by you wanting to use ninja, you may want to up your endurance more... because you will take significant damage (especially without perks) trying to close the distance.

The amount of firepower that the improved AI can bring down on you is impressive. They can chunk molotovs and grenades like crazy. They take cover and are surprisingly accurate over long distances.

You need to decide on your preferred combat style.

Short range = melee, pistols, shotguns

Mid range = pistols, rifles, explosives

Long range = rifles with scopes

Since you are not big on combat, focusing on sniper for long range and pistols for anything else would be a good choice.

If not looking for a melee character, strength is not really a good option. You get heaps of crafting options for guns, chems and food. Good armor is easy to come by if you loot all your enemies. Also, putting 6 points into Strength just to get the carry boost is not worth it in a game where you can fast travel to a settlement and store everything in a workshop.

Perception should be your main stat if you want to use VATS as it improves accuracy. Perception also has the perk for lockpicking, non-auto rifles and explosives. If you enjoyed picking locks in Skyrim, then you will also like it in Fallout.

Endurance improves you health, stamina for running, and has your resistance perks. It is worth having at least 3 points in endurance, and a few extra if travelling without a companion.

You mention crafting, but did not say if you will be doing any settlement building. If so, you will need 6 points in Charisma to get the Local Leader perk. If you don't want to build settlements, then you can just put 3 points into Charisma to get Lone Wanderer.

For crafting gun mods, you need at least 3 points in Intelligence, and level 1 in the science perk is also good (6 points). Avoid wasting any points on VANS - you don't need it. Intelligence also determines how quickly you level up.

Agility is also a good stat to invest in to get more action points, Gunslinger, Sneak and Ninja.

If you want to use a variety of different guns, then putting at least 2 points into Luck is essential to get the Scrounger perk since ammo is scarce. Better Crits is also useful (6 points).

You get a total of 28 points to start in SPECIAL with a minimum of 1 point in each.

Immediately after leaving the vault, go home and check the baby's room to get the SPECIAL book - that gives you an extra stat point to put into whichever SPECIAL you want, so really you get 29 points up front.

My recommendation is:

S1

P5

E5

C3 (or 6 if settlement building)

I6

A7

L2 (or 6 for better crits)

I selected pistols and scoped rifles because both have suppressor mods that you can craft fairly early in the game so you can take out enemies in stealth.

Hope that helps

Set all SPECIAL stats at 4. Then, assuming your eyes are open, put the free point you'll pick up into intelligence for the highly useful scrapper perk. Go from there.

There is no level cap this time so with enough work you can have a character with all 10s in SPECIAL.

Don't ignore luck if you want to focus on VATS! I brushed it of at first as well, but after playing the game for a bit i'm finding it almost game-breakingly good. The thing with crits are that not only do they do heaps of damage, they never miss and you'll have plenty of perks to keep them coming, my absolute favorite is the ability to "bank" them, letting you use up to 3 saving them for moments when you need to take out multible opponents at once.

My suggestion would be to use semi-automatic pistols(since they use up very little AP but are still able to hit rather hard) focus on agility,luck and perception in your order of preferance. Perception over luck if you choose to focus on slower bolt rifles/pistols(yes you can essentially build sniper pistols, i'm currently using laser pistol with the same range as a sniper rifle thanks to mods)

I like the super secret not really very secret all 10 SPECIAL

Based on your preferences, there are several routes to go from.

With an Intelligence/Strength/Endurance build, you can wreck face with massive health reserves and your crafting skills makes all your equipment top-notch, including any Power Armor.

With an Agility/Strength/Luck build, you get a lot out of melee assassinry, and Luck dumps heaps of bonus combat capability.

With an Agility/Perception/Intelligence build, you get tons of utility that makes you quite efficient in combat.

The character I'm playing has S1/P8/E1/C2/I5/A6/L5. This lets me take advantage of the necessary perks in Intelligence and Luck while also letting me be an incredible long-range threat with stealth and close-range threat with VATS. Once I acquire the Bobbleheads, I will be unstoppable. I'm building a relatively short guide for this kind of stuff, and I might get back to you with that.

I second this! You could try a build with 6 intelligence, 6 agility and 6 luck (other special stats at your discretion) and focus on getting Gunslinger + Action Boy + Better Criticals (combat perks), as well as gun nut and science (perks that allow you to improve your guns) whenever rank ups are available. The 10mm pistol you start with can do a lot of damage (1.5x its initial damage) by upgrading it before you even leave the first town since you can scrap a lot of materials from the broken down items in town. (also, look close to the statue you see as you leave the first town, you'll be pleasantly surprised)

Then if you take the scrounger perk at luck 2, it would be fairly easy for you to pick up the ammo you need. As you complete your first quests, you will have enough XP to pick up Gunslinger, Action Boy and better criticals: use VATS and charge your critical bar at low AP cost on weaker enemies, then use your critical hit to kill the tough ones in a single hit, since the critical is always guaranteed to hit in VATS. I used this strategy for my first 20-ish levels of my sniper build (my second character) because the best sniper ammo was a bit scarce on my first test build, and I haven't had any issues! I went from a modded 10 mm pistol to a modded laser pistol, and these 2 guns have served me well.

Agility, Perception, Endurance and Luck are all particularly useful for a "survivalist", I think. But this does depend on the difficulty setting.

Given you want to specialise in guns via VATS, I would suggest high Agility and Perception no matter what.

Yikes, this is a tough call. But here's what I've got it down to if I decide to put some points into luck for more criticals...which, honestly since my aim is poop, is probably the best way for me to level the playing field.

S: 3 (really want to be able to build armors)

P: 4 (I'd love to start this higher but will prob have to build it up over time)

E: 2 (with the plan to try to boost it to 3 at some point early-ish for the health bonus)

C: 3 (I want the Lone Wanderer very early to help me survive, but won't need to raise this until late game)

I: 4 (plan to boost to 5 for scrapper early-ish, and keep boosting when I can)

A: 6 (I want to get the ninja at 7, but probably don't need it in the first few levels)

L: 6 (gives me access to better crits right off the bat, and one point away from storing crits)

What I don't like is I have nothing over a 6 here, but I guess I will be boosting them in time. Most of my lower stats are set to a point to get a certain perk, but I won't need to keep boosting into them until I boost more into my focus areas.

One option possibly is to start with S: 1 if I can't build my own armors in the first 10 levels or so anyway, that would give me a couple more pts for probably perception.

Thanks for all the input. So much to consider!

A good balanced build to start

Those extra points are easy to get with Bobbleheads.

If at some point you decide to restart and change stats and perks, you can use the command console and "player.modav experience xxx" to level back up to where you left off.