I'm actually glad we have less points. Choosing a character should be difficult and the result should be specialized characters which rewards replayability.

Too many points and the game becomes a too-easy-power-trip.

As for stats, high int + perception + charisma. Low strength, endurance and agility.

Well, there's a total of 21 distributable skill points, not counting the minimums for each attribute.

So:
Strength: 1
Perception: 2
Endurance: 6
Charisma: 1
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 4
Luck:7

From there, the game will likely have tons of things that will boost each stat. You can add +1 to each via bobbleheads, some to strength from power armor (assuming it adds stat bonuses), etc. In F3 and New Vegas you never want to max out stats (IMO) due to bonuses from armor/perks. Keeping some to an absolute minimum can be smart, however, as they can't drop below 1. As a result, some items (like enclave power armor) end up having zero drawback. Furthermore, now that this game has a more in depth crafting system, intelligence and intelligence based skills may have much greater importance. However, this build would make wielding heavier weapons difficult at best. With any luck there will be tons of opportunities to increase attributes in this game.

yeah charisma who cares if people like you as long as you have your speech maxed

wish this game would hurry up 4 months is a long time

Between Intense Training, Bobbleheads, whatever implants may exist, and power armor, I don't think SPECIAL points are going to be in short supply; furthermore I've only seen perk requirements above 7 in one DLC, so it would be foolhardy to put anything above 6 at chargen. I've revised my stats.

S 3

P 6

E 3

C 2

I 4

A 4

L 6

I've been spending a LOT of time theorycrafting this, and boiled it down to this: I'll be making three "experimental" characters before I make my "real" character. This way, I can see hat effect stats have at their highest levels, and determine whether the benefits they confer are worth nvesting points.

1) Hulk: STR 10, END 10, LUCK 4, others 1 ---- I'm pretty sure I know the benefits of high strength (melee damage, carrying capacity) and endurance (sprint more/longer, resist rad/poison, more hit points).... so I may not actually create this experimental character. Since I prefer to sneak around and avoid combat, or snipe foes from extreme distance, I rarely boost Endurance or Strength, so for me it really becomes a question of how LOW can I go without severe inconvenience. In particular, Carrying Capacity could be an issue if we don't get some way to spread the load around (Hey, Codsworth, carry this!).

2) Brainiac Sniper: INT 10, AGI 10, LUCK 4, others 1 ----- with max INT, I'll be able to see how fast I gain "experience" and whether that's general overall experience or experience in individual skill/perk lines. Basically, what does INT ~do~.... will it be as important as in previous games, where you want it as high as possible, as early as possible? Or if INT just increases your general rate of leveling, would you actually want it LOWER, to give you more time to build up your skills/perks before reaching a new "level"? Unless reaching a new general level IS the only way to increase skills/perks. And of course AGI should let me sneak like a ninja and use VATS a ton; might be hard to go back to a sub-10 AGI once I see how useful it is.

3) Lucky Star: LUCK 10, CHA 10, INT 4, others 1 ---- if Luck's effects are SO random and unreliable as to be "worthless", and its critical bonuses only rarely useful, I will know I can leave Luck at 1; one of the other builds should tell me what effect a 1 LUCK would have; if my gun constantly jams or some other BAD luck happens, I might need to put SOME points into it. Charisma's effects are also a bit up in the air ---- barter prices do not interest me in the least, nor do Companion stats/efficiency, so if Charisma does not open up a LOT of dialog options then it may be relegated to a value of 1.

PER's effects seem pretty straightforward; being able to detect foes at greater range is nice and all but I don't know that it's THAT useful.

A lot depends on whether we can get Surgical Implants, or if there are SPECIAL bonuses from collecting bobbleheads, or if I can get the Four Eyes perk and wear glasses to get +1 PER, etc etc

I wonder if our stats start at only 28pts total because we can increase our SPECIAL later on. Having a 4 in all stats (evenly distributing the 28pts across the seven SPECIALs) seems a bit low if the scale is still 10 max. Below average across the board? Or maybe they prefer us to specialize to a degree --- have two or three stats barely above minimum and then two or three midling range with perhaps one VERY above average stat.

Not too sure yet.

Strength - 2

Perception - 8

Endurance - 2

Charisma - 6

Intelligence - 4

Agility - 2/3

Luck - 3/4

Role playing a clever guy whose intelligence mainly stems from his observant and perceptive tendencies. Skinny and not particularly agile, he avoids close quarters combat but is deadly from range. Tries to talk his way out of most situations but likes to kill if it promises reward or involves killing murderers and rapists.

21 points to distribute plus the one point that's already in each stat for a total of 28 stat points after distribution is completed.

I suspect that you will get to choose a perk every level, and that individual perks will have a SPECIAL requirement. One of the selectable perks will be 'Intense Training' which will allow you to raise a SPECIAL stat. So, each level you will choose between SPECIAL stat point or perk. Assuming a level cap of 50 that would mean that you ultimately gain 49 perk picks. Using 19 of them to raise SPECIAL stats would raise you to the 47 points you would have in Fallout 3 if you got all the bobbleheads, and leave you 30 perks choices ... which sounds about right for a 50th level character.

But, you could go heavy on SPECIAL and light on perks, or heavy on perks and light on SPECIAL.

Don't know for sure that's how it will work, but it makes sense.

Also like more information on items and perks/traits. Do they increase your stats like FNV did? Eye glasses give you a +1 in perception. Knowing this would also help us allocate where we need to spend our stats at.