Hi guys, Now that the patch is out i can finally open my New Vegas Copy. Ive had it since release date and wanted to wait until most of the problems i saw were ironed out.

Now, ive heard that there are alot of changes to the leveling system and the way your character gains experience. Yes, i was one of those uber god characters from Fallout 3 who could kill a deathclaw with one hit because of the way i leveled my character (bobbleheads, high INT, and the best perks).

Now that i can finally New Vegas, how should i build my character? I want a universal character, that by all means isnt good at everything, but perfect for encountering all situations in the Mojave. So something like Speech, Guns, Repair? or is their a better layout that i should focus my skill points on?

Also can you guys recommend the best SPECIAL Skills that will work for this or the kind of skill set you recommend? I mean, the best way to distribute my skill points.

Thanks, I want my first playthrough to be awesome and expansive.

In New Vegas, unless you try really, really, really hard to max out your skill points, I.E. Collect all of the skill books, read them w/ Comprehension, get Tag!, have 10 INT from the start, etc.., you're going to have to dedicate yourself to about 6 - 7 skills, 8 if you're planned out. 1 or 2 of them are your weapons skills. 3 is a bit much because I've tried to do 3 and you end up hurting general skills.

As with all first playthroughs, I say just "give er"... or however it goes. Just experiment with what you know you'll use the most, based off of Fallout 3 experience perhaps, and go from there. I would suggest how to setup your character but I've always found that in both 3 and New Vegas, your 1st character is most likely going to be labeled, regardless of what you name it, an "experimental" character. Its basically a test bed for your future characters.

And yep, this post is almost pointless. Just saying that you have to specialize to do well in the Mojave Wasteland. Others can fill in the rest I guess. I'm just here to mindlessly talk.

I've seen quests that depend on the following skills being moderate to high for the optimal completion: speech, barter, science, medicine, and repair. If you cover those along with lockpick and a weapon skill (guns is king), you shouldn't miss anything. If you want to win at gambling, invest in a high luck. I've also seen some dialogs that depend on a 6-8 int, per, or cha, but these are rare and can be completed by buffing with drugs.

I would pump INT to 10 right off the bat to maximize your skill points per level, only focus in guns to conserve points. There is a gun for every combat situation. Early on, you'll kill everything with a 9mm. Use a shotgun instead of a melee weapon, and a rifle for long range. Key skills I would choose are Lockpick, Science, Repair, Speech, Barter, Medicine and maybe Survival if you feel like cooking. I would definitely take Tag! when you're able, that's a free 15 points to 1 skill. Comprehension is a must to squeeze an additional skill point out of books and double your bonus with magazines. You cant max out all of the skills, but you can get pretty far.

EDIT: Personally, I would max out Lockpick first. It seems like there are locked doors EVERYWHERE, with lots of goodies inside that I'm always upset at missing out on. Speech would be second in my book, it's hard to get people to do what you want without it.

INT 10 and END 8 (so you can buy all of the implants) to start.
Each skill has 4 books so, with Comprehension perk you can get 16 points for each skill.
So, with that plan ahead and you should max out 7 or 8 skills.(more when Dead Money raises the lvl cap by 5)

Alright thanks, I just want to have a character that can be good at alittle bit of everything. But mainly in speech, guns, and repair and science and lockpick

thats what my first char was, im looking to start over w legion this time. whatya think of melee, guns, cowboy?

I was thinking about this a little while ago, and had the following idea:

- 10 INT and 6 END at start, drop a point from AGI to get it and take the Small Frame trait to get that back
- Comprehension and Educated (take the latter at L4)
- Intensive Training at L2, add to Luck to bring it to 6
- Implants for all SPECIAL save INT, they will now be 6 6 7 6 10 6 7; get the Luck implant first
- Take the Weapon Handling perk as soon as it opens, this will let you use most of the heavier weapons with no STR penalty
- Max Barter, Lockpick, Repair, Science, and Speech; tag 3 of these at the start and a 4th one when the Tag! perk becomes available
- Spread the rest of the points between all five combat skills and either Medicine or Survival; if you have the DLC Medicine and Survival may be doable
- Take as many weapon-skill perks (i.e. Demo Expert, Super Slam, etc.) as you can with the 10 (12 with the DLC) remaining picks
- Note the combat skill levels needed for said perks and spike one upward if/when needed, otherwise keep raising them evenly
- Do not take VATS-related perks; this character is a generalist and VATS combat is a form of specialization

Since your combat skills will lag for a while, I highly recommend getting a companion or two for the early levels since your skill points during that time will be going to the skills you are maxing. Points will start to become available for combat skills at around level 11 or so, since at that point the 5 skills to max will start reaching the low 80s and can be topped off with skill books. NOTE: there are 5 Science skill books instead of 4, so you don't need to raise it beyond 80 provided you divert power to the whole region during That Lucky Old Sun, while the other skills need to reach 84 (there is potentially a 5th Explosives skill book, but it relies on a glitch occurring so you shouldn't rely on it showing up).

If you decide to get and wear Power Armor, you will have an effective STR of 10 once you have the Weapon Handling perk and will have no STR penalty when using the heaviest weapons. Your armor will pretty much be your entire DT score since this build does not stack DT (no Toughness, Hit the Deck, etc.), so keep that in mind when making the decision.

I highly recommend playing this build Scavenger-style:

- You may carry a 1H ranged weapon, a 2H ranged weapon, and ether a 1H or 2H (not both) melee or unarmed weapon (again, not both)
- You may use any weapon(s) you find, but all weapons in excess of the above limits, along with their ammo, must be sold off upon reaching a merchant
- You may opt to change the weapons you are carrying, however the above 2 provisions apply
- No more than 10 Stimpacks and 2 Super Stimpacks may be carried; more may be made if you have the skill and parts
- If playing in hardcoe mode, carry no more than 1 sleep aid (such as Atomic Cocktails), 1 meal, and 5 purified water; those who have one may carry the canteen as well
- Additional drinks and meals may be carried if found or made, but the above limits must be adhered to when selling
- For those who use chems/booze, no more than 1-2 of each type may be kept
- Unique weapons may be used, however they are still subject to the carry and selling limits so plan accordingly
- Only 1 set of armor and 1 'civilian' outfit may be kept, although either may be worn anywhere
- Quest items are not subject to the above limitations since you cannot get rid of them until the quest is complete; those items that remain must be sold if possible

I play with a slightly more permissive version of this style already, and it works quite well. The inability to stockpile anything combined with hardcoe mode means you cannot amass hordes of top-notch ammo and weapons for hard targets, and the lack of stacked DT means that mid-tier opposition can still be dangerous in numbers.

My one.

Red Trapper.
S.P.E.C.I.A.L
strength 5, Perception 7, Endurance 5, charisma 5, Intelligence 5, Agility 8, Luck 5.
Traits Small frame and good natured.
Tagged skills Guns, Repair, Survival.

Perks: Fast shot, shotgun surgeon, Lady killer, Tag ( medicine ), better criticals, emntologist, Hunter, comprehension, hand loader, jury rig, Pack rat, finese, I can't remember the last ones but likely filler.

Guns, repair and speech maxed or close to it, Lock pick and science around 50 - 5, Barter / survival 75+ medicine 65 +, and a few points spread around elsewhere.

I designed him to be a wasteland prospector not good at everything but great in a few things, and good in general day to day survival and life in the wastes things.
A jack'o trades but master at none.

My advice would be to keep your build as balanced as possible in stats, don't go round putting points in more than one weapon skill.
Don't rush just think what you'll actually be using and take those first, and splash out later, but tag is good for this.

The weapons he used where low tech, Lever, double action or bolt operating, but take any shotgun and you'll be set with handloaded rounds.
Just sell or breakdown any other ammo types, and you'll stay in caps too.

There will never be a universal character build. All of the builds are set up in the players perspective and in the way they want. Not everyone has the same feeling for the sane type of character.

We aren't trying to offer builds that will be all things to all people, since that's impossible on the face of it. Rather, the OP is asking for a build that is capable of doing pretty much anything in-game, and that is what we are trying to provide. We have no illusions that everyone will want such a character, though.

Unless you mindlessly grind randomly spawning npcs in the wastes you will not be a master of everything until almost out of content. At least I think it works out that way.

I like your build idea and thats exactly what im going for, the scavenger type of character. But, isnt there someway i can start taking combat skills, or not be killed by the enemies BEFORE level 11 or do i have to wait till level 11 to dish out some damage? By the way, how long does it take to level up? at the same rate as Fallout 3?

I am curious on why Barter? sure we have the occasional dialog option that uses Barter but more often then not it just reduces how much you pay for something or how much you can get out as a reward.
Considering we have skill magazines that with Comprehension will raise skills temporary by 20 points a lot of skills are not even that essential to be raised above certain points, you really dont need Lockpick to go higher that 80 (well 64 and then use the books with Comprehension perk) as long you have some Locksmith's Reader in your inventory to open pretty much any lock in the game and I dont think there are that many Very Hard locks.

Edit:

The hardest thing in New Vegas to raise is stats, all builds saying to pump Endurance is because of Implants but keep in mind you Luck at 7 you get +4 to all skills (Luck 10 will give you +5, Luck 5 gives +3) so if you want to max all skills as high as possible you will need 10 Intelligence and 10 Luck.

Leveling is at roughly the same rate as FO3, although you get some additional XP from completing challenges (i.e. deal X damage with Y weapon type).

As to getting killed by the enemies early on, I was assuming a progression wherein one went from Primm to Nipton to Novac, and so on, in which case the enemies will be readily dealt with. If you get ED-E as a companion in Primm it will be a big help until you can get some better weapons. I always travel that route early on (although I don't always get ED-E) since I know many other enemies would be too much when building that way. That's not to say you cannot raise a combat skill early on, my plan simply assumes early points will be concentrated in the skills meant to be maxed. There's nothing wrong with getting them to 50 or so and then pumping combat skills a bit if you so wish; I usually don't, but I am starting to rethink that as I am finding that it would be nice to have a somewhat higher combat skill starting at around L7 or so.

For what it's worth, I have found that having a low combat skill is not all that bad, unlike in FO3, since there are plenty of opportunities to gain XP that do not involve any combat at all. You do sacrifice the opportunity to take certain perks at an early level, however you will be taking them eventually anyway. It's definitely a bit more challenging early on, but that was the whole point since I found that pumping a combat skill really high early on made things a bit too easy even with sub-par equipment. By pumping combat skills later, one does not become really powerful until the opposition does, and many battles remain at least somewhat challenging until you get into the 20s.

EDIT:

@Drakron: why Barter? Mostly because you'll be selling a ton of stuff every time you go to a merchant, but also because a Scavenger would naturally be a good haggler. I suppose you could swap it out for Survival or Medicine, though. In addition, I absolutely hate getting ripped off so I tend to run Barter up ASAP, and in more specialized builds I also take the Pack Rat perk and that needs a 70 in Barter.

As to the skill magazines, I am not a big fan of temporary boosts and with a 10 INT you are going to cap out multiple skills anyway, so even though it is not essential to do so this build does. Also, you are not allowed to save stuff for later with the play rules I listed, so skill mags get sold if they haven't already been used by the time one reaches a merchant. You're quite right that normally there is no need to get Science or Lockpick above 80 or 90, depending on whether or not one takes Comprehension (and it's actually not a clear choice, at least to me, with only 15 picks), however this is not a normal build or method of play.