I was thinking about making a character who is stealthy and uses melee and explosives for offense. Use grenades for groups or for unreachable targets if possible, sneak attack enemies or get their attention and then duck out of line of fire to get them close, or sneak and lay mine traps and lure them thru and finish survivors with melee.

I have never done a melee character, and never used explosives very often so I decided to try both out. Now I need to figure out my stats. probably take out agility since VATS is less useful, and I only lose 8 AP points in doing so. Take out charisma as well to free up more points. probably look like this

S. 8
P. 6
E. 9
C. 1
I. 9
A. 1
L. 6

Then the first 2 levels I go for intense training and add 1 to luck, and 1 to perception. I would get the endurance bobblehead, strength bobblehead, intelligence bobblehead, ant might, lucky shades, lucky 8 ball, and shady hat to end up looking like this

S. 10
P. 8
E. 10
C. 1
I. 10
A. 1
L. 10

I would either go for the snide or tough route in the wasteland survival guide to either get +3% crit chance, or +6% DR. I am not sure which would be better. The best armor I would wear would be the chinese stealth suit so with the hat and shades I would be starting at 30 DR. Then you add Barkskin, and pitt fighter and you get 42 DR. Now I could either go with having a 48 DR, or +3% critical chance which can add up with weapon multipliers. So I could either be tougher, or kill stuff quicker.

Do any of you think this sounds like a good idea? Any suggestions or comments are welcome.

Sounds fine to me, I would consider changing it slightly if it were me though.

I would raise agility and lower perception so they balance a bit more. You also don't really need a high inteligence, but if you want to get lots of skill points when you level up then this is fine but expect to have all skills at 100 before you reach level 30! Chinese stealth armor will compensate for the low agility if you looking to sneak, but you might also find the game a bit easy using the CSA with explosives..... or perhaps it makes the game easy using any weopon

I don't think you need to worry about the damage resistance and % crit chances too much, obviously don't miss out when you get the chance to improve this but it's not neccessay for the character build. Some perks would be useful though such as the 3 ranks of perk that increases explosive damage by 20%.

I recommend Missile launcher and nuka grenades and the electro supressor or auto axe as the melee weopon (providing you have the DLC for these). This set up provided hrs of fun for me and allowed me to safely take on multiple reavers/albinos/death claws at the same time due to the supressor stun effect.

I like having a high intelligence because I like getting higher skills sooner rather than later. Also I'm not really one to hunt down every single skill book, but rather take them when I find them.

So using a missile launcher should I throw some points into big guns, and at what point should I do so? I also have a mod that adds a grenade launcher so that may be a good idea.

I think I will go for the critical bonus on the quest I mentioned. With that, 10 luck, and finesse I would have a default crit chance of 18%, and then you add on multipliers and you start really having some fun.

So the auto axe is a better choice than the shiskabob with pyromaniac perk? I always thought that was the most powerful followed by the shock sword.

As for taking points from perception to put into agility I don't really need the extra skill points in sneak from agility, and I don't really need the AP. But now that I think about it I better look into what perks require agility.

Any tips on being a melee player would be helpful as I have never played this way before.

I'm going to have to rethink my special setup. Turns out I need 6 agility for silent running which I will want, and I may also want the light step perk. Now I need to decide where to take points from. Maybe I should sacrifice some intelligence. If I take 4 away and get the bobblehead I end up with 6. That equals a loss of 120 skill points over 30 levels

This would leave me with 522 skill points to use when you take into account getting the bobble head before level 3, and taking comprehension asap. Maybe it won't be so bad?

I think I will need the higher endurance because I hear you take more of a beating going melee, and I read somewhere it is also tied into movement speed which is useful for charging in to get close.

I want the high strength for the melee damage boost. I also want to get a luck of 7 before I get the bobblehead so I can make it a 10 with the bobblehead and some gear.

Don't forget to stock up on Frag grenades. If your Sneak is high enough, you can finish any foe reliably by sneaking a hand grenade into their pocket.

"It's not what he's taking out, my dear, but rather what he's putting in! DUCK AND COVER!!"

I think I will be abandoning this character. On easy difficulty I got mauled by 3 dogs and a mole rat because I couldn't kill them fast enough. What really bugs me is that even a quick tap of the mouse button makes you have a long delayed attack. with a combat knife I would prefer to be able to do quick repeating slashes which it does every once in a while, otherwise it is big hard slow swings

I had to laugh.

True. Stock up on a lot of mines and Frag grenades, pretty much any grenade really. There very fun when playing with steal AND explosives.

I had trouble with my first few levels when I did a melee character. But by fourth or fifth level I was hacking everything to bits. If you can just hang in until then, I think you might find things turn around. For me, I relied heavily on stealth. Sneaking up close, then using v.a.t.s. to hit them, because it will teleport you right beside your target. That is pretty much the only way I could ever get a sneak attack on someone. It worked quite well too. Granted, I also took the Animal Friend power with that character too...

I decided to pick this character back up after I figured out how to do the rapid swipe with a melee weapon (which is actually rhythmic tapping slower than rapid button mashing lol) but sadly I can't do it in sneak mode. I also played around with a shishkebab for the first time using my level 22 character with only like 30 melee skill in point lookout against trackers and stuff and it was fun and effective. :flamethrower: So I am playing this build again.

I killed a yao gui at level 3 that must have been a planted one by that power station just north of the Robco Factory. It took 2 grenades, some terrified slashing, and most of my health but I did it lol.

I was really happy when I encountered some talon company mercs that wanted to talk to me first lol. I led them out of the ruined building by ten penny tower and had them in a tight straight line and threw a grenade at the guy in the middle. Very satifying. :celebration:

I also found that laser pistols are good to exchange with the outcasts for grenades. As long as I can't sell it for more than the cost of 2 grenades (which usually isn't the case with my barter skill of 8 lol)

So I think this will work after all.

Save all ya quantums, abraxo & turps and try to find some nuka grenade schemtics, sounds like your ready for an explosives upgrade

VATS is more useful then you think.

Oh yeah, I forgot to post the SPECIAL I went with in the end. It looks like this.

S. 8
P. 5
E. 9
C. 1
I. 5
A. 6
L. 6

I took my first 2 perks in intense training and put one in luck and one in perception. I got the intelligence bobblehead before level 3, at this point I also got the strength and luck bobbleheads, and the lucky shades. I also wear a hat to boost perception to 7.

I did all this mainly because i needed 6 agility for silent running.

And to the guy who mentioned nuka grenades, I always stock up on abraxo and turpentine. I have the schematic from doc hoff, but I am waiting to make some until I get the second one in that one cave. The Nuka Cola challenge isn't worth the extra schematic because you lose 30 quantums and get 1 more grenade out of each quantum you have after that.

The shiskebab is impressive! It is what I used too. Just keep an eye out for gas leaks...

wearing the chinese stealth armor while sneaking around will make silent weapons effective. get silent running and use silent weapons you will be almost undetectable.

Does anyone know if having the shishkebab drawn hurts my sneaking ability? I am not sure so I often sneak up on enemies with it sheathed.

I'm getting better with grenades. Since I have broken steel I encountered an enclave guy near a certain "palace" killing roaches. I sneaked up on him and rolled a grenade straight towards him as he was walking towards me. Took a good chunk of health. Then I repeated it and killed him :celebration:

Also I did one of my favorite mine trap scenarios. Inside the super duper mart when a certain "Group" arrives I have the place mined like crazy. Usually kill all but one and that one gets weakened by the protectoron and then I pop out and "hot knife" him lol.

Explosives be fun :nuke: