I've recently got back into Fallout 3, and am enjoying it a lot for the second, third, thousandth time around. But I'd ideally like to try a new character, something that I've never done before. My current character is basically an energy weapon merc type character. However, due to the lack of early game energy weapons and ammo, I've resorted to small guns anyway. This is a shame, because energy weapons are my favourite weapon class, and apart from a couple of Laser pistols in the Super-Duper Mart, there is nothing to work with for the first 7 or 8 levels or so.

This is all something that I've done before.

Now I'm not against creating a small guns character in and of itself, in fact I love the Chinese Assault Rifle, probably the thing I missed most from having spent the last two years in New Vegas. But I find that with lack of faction politics (as per NV), the only way to distinguish one character from another is by their weapon specialisation.

Ideally, I would want to keep one primary weapons (two-handed), and a couple of secondary weapons (for lesser enemies, or for when ammo runs dry). Though I won't necessarily follow the weapon carry limitations as documented in the http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1176044-fallout-3-hardcoe/, I'd still like to specialise, rather than be a one-man walking arsenal.

For example, my default small guns build would be -

Ranger

SPECIAL - 6, 7, 6, 4, 5, 7, 5

Skills - Small Guns, Science, Explosives

Weapons - Chinese Assault Rifle, 10mm SMG, Scoped .44 Magnum, plus some grenades/mines

Armour - Any of the combat armour variants, though my favourite is the black paint-job Talon Merc armour

So, do you have any unique character ideas? Or an interesting take on an existing Melee/Sniper/Energy Weapon/Big guns specialist.

I like leather armor personally, as in Wanderer's Leather Armor. What kind of job does he have? or is he doing the story?

I love Big Guns, but I love it more when I ignore our rules and can carry three of 'em.

I like to think of gear, related to an RP, or a... wherewithall. What's your character gonna do?

Well, my current energy weapon merc is based on the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Van_Graff_thug from New Vegas, originating from a dead-is-dead experiment we did over on the other forum. Ideally, a lawful evil karma type guy, out for caps and himself, while specialising in Laser/Plasma rifles and working up to the bit hitters, like the Gatling Laser. Unfortunately, in Fallout 3 that last one falls under the Big Guns skill, where in NV it is merely a strength requirement of the Energy Weapon skill. So I'd have to level that skill too, in addition to EW and Small Guns.

Anyhoo, I've just been playing around with him as it was on an old save game file. I'd quite happily start a new game and do a complete run through. If I had to start again now, I'd probably just use the Ranger class I mentioned in the main post. I love combat armour, I love lobbing a preemptive strike frag grenade to soften up a group of enemies, and I love the Chinese Assault Rifle. Don't care for big guns, much.

As for RP, or character disposition...well, that's why I created this thread. Just to see what kind of things people create.

Smalls guns

Explosives

Sneak

Speech

Ultimate Pragmatic Play style.

Early on, in the supermarket Moira sends you to, there's an energy pistol.