I'ma be honest... In the preview, you start off with one point in each SPECIAL stat and than have 21 extra points to put in... No offense to Bethesda but in my opinion, this is a poor choice of a number. It would be nice to have the basic 7 + 28 instead (this would at least allow us to set all SPECIAL on 5 by default and gives us more breathing room when creating our character).

Note: In the previous Fallout games, you have a total of 40 SPECIAL points at the beginning. 5 in each and 5 extra.

Anybody else worrying about this a little? I am a little myself because I have no idea how I am going to create my character the way I want (a reasonable way).

I like it. In FO3 with bubbleheads you had way to many S.P.E.C.I.A.L points and you hit godmode to early. Here it seems to be more of a choice, and you actually have to sink your teeth into it. So that i enjoy immensly. We'll see how it plays out and if the cap is still 10, or if you can get intense training perk etc.

Well in Fallout 1,2, 3 and NV 5 points in Special was average because 10 was the maximum but what if with FO4 the maximum is beyond 10 and you get to raise your special with almost each level up? because you can see during the preview that the arrow of increasing luck doesnt dissappear when hitting 10 it goes further. so basically 5 isnt avarage and 10 probaly isnt the max anymore.

I figure if it's gonna stay that low there's gonna be a relatively easy way to boost it in game.

I don't think our SPECIAL is gonna stay static as much as it did in the past. Seem's they've retooled a few things.

Worried? no.

You really can't compare because any comparisions assumes that they systems are the same. It doesn't appear they are the same except for their names and the scale is 1 to 10(any maybe thats not the case as well). it might very well be that a 4 state is equal to a 5 or 6 state in the previous games. Special might be more powerful now so reducing your intital amount was a good balance. You might get more special during game play from leveling or rewards.

Just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Well I feel like this is a balancing thing since the world is going to be huge with lots of ways to alter your character. I mean just think of all the Perks and Bobbleheads that'll boost your Special Stats too. This Fallout will be no doubt different from what we're used to and I'm sure it'll all be for good reason, Bethesda Game Studios have not been one to be afraid of change.

I found it strange as well, but i think that they know what they are doing.

There probably be ways to increase your SPECIAL stats besides bobble-heads.

There's no reason to believe there won't be other ways of increasing SPECIAL based on available footage.

In Fallout: New Vegas there was a character from the Followers of the Apocalypse who could add more Special stats to your character but with defects. I'm hoping for something simular in Fallout 4 and proberly some armour and sets of items which boost your Special Stats too. Maybe companions will give bonuses depending on your relation with them being good or bad.

Special is definitely going to be very different this time around. If you want to bring two or three skills above 5, the rest are going to be sitting at 3, which was pretty bad in previous games. I'm thinking we're probably going to get a new perk every level, and a new SPECIAL point every other level.

By SPECIAL being average at 5 in any of the older games I could try to create Arnold whateverhislastnameis' character from Predator fairly accurately, based on what I see from his capabilities in the film. In this new system I can't do that because SPECIAL is too limited or because the character building happens post-character creation. And Arnold's character didn't 'end up' the way he did at the start of the film by the end of the film, no whatever his SPECIAL is would have been static throughout his adventure.

I don't like the change and I want it changed back.

There was nothing wrong with how SPECIAL worked in terms of point allocation.

What needing polish was what each stat did and to balance out additional stat increases or even removing them completely.

I think it was there just to demo it, just like how for the FO3 / Skyrim demo they had the health values extremely high for the character. You wouldn't want your character to die in a live demo your doing. XD

If there's one thing I learned about Bethesda, it's that the more seemingly underpowered your character is at the start, the more overpowered he'll be during the endgame. I'm not too worried.

This is true and the game has got 5 more months till release so this could all change by the time the retail game comes out. Although we must go off what we've been fed thus far and for it to have been kept in secracy for 4 years and this is what they decided to show. Yet this could all be good since this time around Special Stats are more powerful and rewarding than before since they got rid of the skill system in previous Fallout titles.

And this is the only thing I can think of that would justify the much lower SPECIAL start honestly... Still, it's going to svck to have extremely bad SPECIAL stats that doesn't really suit your character unless 3 is the new "average", which sounds honestly bad.

Could we please wait untill we see how it works...?

I think that lower SPECIAL is a very good idea becouse it makes our character more ''special'' xd I mean that you can't be like immortal killing machine good at everything.

To be fair we don't know the scaling in the game, having say a 3 in a stat in this game might be totally different from having a 3 in the previous two.

You weren't an immortal killing machine though unless you specifically go for it. 5 is the average number so it's fine to have most stats on or around 4-6 at the start...

No, I'm not even worried. I already have my SPECIAL figured out.

S:4
P:1
E:6
C:1
I:7
A:5
L4

Every character should have attributes or skills where the excel, but they should have weaknesses to.
My character is tough and intelligent, but isn't very perceptive and lacks social skills.