My next character that I will be building will be a Sam Fisher/Splinter Cell build (Duh!). I'm thinking to make this a RP build instead of just a "Go through the Motions" playthrough, so I'll try and provide some background information in spoilers and tagged skills, but I'm also looking for advice on what to make the Initial skills like S.P.E.C.I.A.L. and traits.

Background:

Tagged Skills:

Guns

Stealth

Lockpicking

Faction:

Undecided, probably Indie, but a case can be made for the NCR. Suggestions would be helpful.

If anyone has done an assassin/commando playthrough, any help would be greatly appreciated.

If you get Tunnel Runner, Travel Light and OWB implant, you can crouch-run as fast as normal running.

And do max out Melee and Unarmed, since you need both skills to get Piercing Strike and Slayer. And when you get both Grunt and Cowboy perks, get Chance's Knife, since it got bonus damage from both perks as well as high crit chance... since I figure splinter cells LOVE knives.

I also figure you will be a pistol user... I highly recommend picking up The Professional (Glitched perk, since it actually gives 25% for EVERY critical hits with pistol and not just sneak attacks). Also, you might need most, if not all, the VATS and accuracy related perks, because they will help you to pull off impossible stealth headshots.

As for weapons... It's a shame Li'l Devil isn't silenced because it's like the best pistol in the game for pure hed-sploding crit power (Along with its "easier-going" sister, Lucky) but I guess you can make do with the 12.7mm silenced pistol. But the .45 has a greater fire rate, CAN be silenced, so with max Luck and Finesse, you can safely pepper your target with crits before he can even make his move. Stocked up early on ammunitions, and don't get lazy on changing ammunition for different targets.

Oh and the SPECIAL... Definitely max out Luck and Agility... My recommendation is 5/5/5/1/6/9/9. You maybe concerned with the low Endurance, but I think you have a lot of spare perk points to Intense Training if you plan carefully. And I'm not really sure on how bulletproof splinter cells are, but in the early days of the series, they rely mostly on stealth and weapons mastery instead of magical healing factor and unlimited ammunition.

On equipments... I would recommend Joshua's outfit/Ulysses' duster and 1st recon beret as a combination for potentially ungodly crit with unstoppable VATS prowess... But it's your choice, really, since I know that combo doesn't have a splinter cell feel to it. So if you decide to max crit, do Lonesome Road (or at least Honest Hearts) first for the best effect.

Faction choice... Eh, NCR. Sam has always been a government gimp, even after he became disillusioned and gone rogue (

Oh, and if you decides to use melee weapons, remember REMEMBER to get Elijah's Rambling... Keep Elijah's tape to yourself, don't give it to Veronica!

He could use Sleepytyme for a silenced weapon as well. It does not have the stopping power of the 12.7 but it is a great weapon to consider. I like your .45 idea K4 I have a character that carries ALSID and a silenced .45. Start shooting with silenced, then switch when I an spotted or get low on shots, gives you decent amount of shots.

Throw in light touch to your perk list, since you will have good agility anyway for slayer:D With the implant from OWB and tunnel runner you will be freaky fast crouching almost to the point of ridiculousness:D

What do you guys think about the Friend of the Night Perk? Is the enhanced night vision worth it or is it not even noticeable?

Also, should I take the Survival or Medicine Path?

Oh yeah, Sleepytyme fits very well with this build, but I guess for such a RP build you have free-range on your choice of rifles and SMGs. A pretty good load-out would be .45 silenced for general purposes, L'il Devil when you need to punch a hole through something, Sleepytyme as your main assault, and Christine's COS as your range.

Friend of the night isn't worth it; it actually gets annoying whenever you have to fight under lightings at night. If you need night vision, there are a few gears that can do that, as well as chems. As for Med vs Survival, I would go both. Survival recovers more hit points, and gets you good non-addicted chems like Weapon Binding Rituals and Battle Brews. But Medicine max out effects for other real fun chems. And if you take the Chemist (which requires 60 Medicine) perk, you can double your chem duration... which also counts for Stealth Boys and Turbo, so that's something to think about.

I would recommend maxing out Science as well, so you can get both Survival recipes and Science recipes; Splinter Cells seem to be well-versed in both. And don't worry about spreading out a bit... At 6 Intelligence, you get 13 skill points, get Educated at level 4 and you get 15. (15x49)+13 = 748. 748/100 = 7.84. You can even build 8 skills from zero base skill points... and if you counts the base skill points in, you can easily get 9-10 maxed out. And that didn't even count the Intelligent implant you can get, which brings your skill points per level to 15.5 (Rounds out to 16 at every other level up). I finished my Assassin maxed out in Guns, Sneak, Explosives, Medicine, Survival, Science, Repair, Lockpick, Barter, 50 in Melee (For Cowboy) and 74 in Speech.