Deathclaws are supposed to be some of the most feared creatures in the wasteland, but defeating them doesn't prove to be much of a thrill since it usually just involves finding a cheap spot with an anti-material rifle. I think Obsidian should've tried harder to make fighting them more exciting. I haven't had much time to brain storm, but I think one way they could've done this is to make them(and their lunge attack) slower, so that it's possible to dodge, but given them a super-jump and/or wall climb ability to discourage AMR camping.

Thoughts?

I liked the Dart Gun from FO3 for this... they should bring it back.

Dart gun was cheap, no better than sniping from a position they can't reach.

I just took out all the Deathclaws in

with a Brush Gun loaded w/ SWC rounds and the Cowboy Perk. Guns at 100. Used every stim in inventory, around 50 at the time.

Well, since you say they can be killed with a very powerful weapon that one would not expect to aquire until a high level, and would have to have the requisite skills and stats to use, then the Deathclaws are just about what they should be.

deathclaws are tough, its your choice to get in a cheap spot and snipe them..l

i find killing death clawss with my amr fun, i have minimal sneak so i get the joys of haveing to snipe them from miles away so they cant see me. and even with an amr/normal ammo death claws have a fighting chance, switch to AP rounds and of course they are gonna be easy.

Doubt that would do jack, to be honest. Threshold and their strength were reintroduce these guys back to their former glory.

Yeah, it's not the game designers fault that people enjoy using add-item commands and sniping from safety. You can't fix the people who like to play on lower difficulties or in less challenging ways. Go in there with a high sneak skill and a good ole kitchen knife and then the adrenaline will REALLY kick in. I remember when I first found Primm Pass on HC while exploring. After I'd found the dead Brotherhood member I thought "Oh no. I better sneak and see what's spotted me." As I precariously stepped back and watched as a Blind Deathclaw reared the corner, I just about :cryvaultboy: my pants. I tried crouching behind a rock before loading my last save. I was level 3 I think.

It crippled their legs and it caused poison damage.

Assuming it hits. This also assume ya have the punch that is needed to damage these guys. Doesn't stop the other pack in pouncing on ya.

if you think sniping them with the AMR is cheep, run up to one as smack him in the jaw with a ballistic fist.

in your naughty nightwear.

that certainly makes fighting them more interesting.

A pack of crippled Deathclaws=not so scary... The Dart gun would theoretically still be effective in New Vegas. On that note I find it funny when people always go for their head. Ive always crippled their legs first and then took them out.

Well, now that i have the AMR rifle, they are not much of a problem. But when i fought the Blind Deathclaw at prim pass at level 5 or somwthing, it killed me every time.... :sadvaultboy:

I guess, but trying your hardest should already be fun, without me having to come up with my own challenges :\

Getting an AMR is intended to be a bit of an undertaking. I've never found one on an enemy in over 110 hours of gameplay. I had to buy them. They only come in full condition, too, so it was 12 or 13 levels before I was able to afford it. Even then I couldn't use the damned thing very well due to my Guns skill.

Personally I love being able to take them out from insane distances. Saves a lot of money otherwise spent on bullets, since I don't need to make three trips around the Mojave buying every stimpak like the world's about to end.

The whole point of the Dart Gun was not that you would kill it with the dart gun, but that you could cripple the legs and then kite it around while you used whatever weapon you had on it.

And kiting was not risk free, you could easily run into other deathclaws, or run into a super mutant patrol, or fall off a cliff, or numerous other things that might go wrong while kiting it around. The only risk-free bit was that the Dart Gun was a guaranteed cripple effect.

side with legion or do something to make ncr vilidify you or what ever and the ncr ranger vets in their mistical cloaked armor of awsomeness carry amr's occasionaly,

or if you side with ncr just get another factions armor hide on a ridge or mountain toss a stealth boy on for good measure and kill the ncr ranger from a far then simply go down and search their corpse, that is after you change armor. ive done this before it doesnt affect your popularity with the faction.

Agreed.
Getting tired of seeing things about the game being too easy when it is essentially being run in god mode.

They are actually pretty well balanced...but the title is correct at least. Fighting deathclasws is not fun, nor should fighting anything who's first name is Death and last name Claws be "fun."
Fun tossing a stuffed dino off a roof. ...ok that isn't that much fun either...but the point is there.

The dart gun was a bit of an adventure when there were a couple of them...what made it way easy was the Chinese Stealth Suit and the Lincoln Repeater (or in fact even the Scoped .44's). Sneak up under the thing, shoot into face, step away from collapsing meatsack.

I cleared the major area of the game with the Cowboy Repeater...sure, cost me an awful lot of rounds, sure I camped on some high ground, sure it took a while, but the job was done, and done at around the level 10 mark with 100 gun skill. But, and I say this in all sincerity, I would have been a right royal idiot to have tried it on the mob grazing on the flatland...they're about to meet their end from the silenced sniper rifle.

If the dev's want to give me tyranosaurs to fight, then they will not get Blackdog Jack, melee skill 45, unarmed skill 25, agility 8 (but with wussie limbs due to a poor perk pick) trying to arm-wrestle the beasties...on my map, there's definitely a spot that says "there be monsters"....

Quite aware of the function of the Dart Gun. Its usually that other factors that contributed in fighting these deathclaw, which ya mention ya second sentence. If ya not aware of ya surrounding, ya screw. And again, this assume ya have sufficient skill and provide a decent punch before going head on with these guys.

I found and bought a LOT of frag mines and made as many bottle cap mines as I could. Sniped at a few from a safe spot, got them all herded together, once they went off alert, then mined everywhere I could with a stealthboy. I came back later to see how they were doing and a lot of them had leg injuries. Still soaked up a lot of my bullets. I was level 15 and using hunting rifle w/ AP rounds. Explosives skill of 60.

actually that's just my build. energy/unarmed with a focus on science and speech.

i dont wear armor, but rather rely on toughness/nerd rage for DT.

i usually laser rifle snipe at them first, but that never does anything so they rush me, between my char and veronica, we can tear them down with unarmed.

also some people enjoy sniping. i do (i did it on my previous char) its all a matter of preference.

I think it was harder to kill Deathclaws in Fallout 3. Maybe it was because the max level was 20, but in order to 1-shot kill a Deathclaw in Fallout 3, I had to use Psycho, and manually aim at the head. I don't think VATS allowed you to have a 95% accuracy at the head from long range. So if you missed, you would be dead meat because the Deathclaw would be alerted to your presence. I think maybe that's the kind of difficulty the OP was looking for.

In Fallout: New Vegas, the power of the Anti-Material Rifle, max level being at level 30, and armor piercing bullets are more than enough to cheese Deathclaws. I also find that it is easier to have 95% accuracy in VATS than in Fallout 3.

If we were to tweak the difficulty of the strongest Deathclaw, make it so that they can only be killed by a headshot using Psycho. Make it harder to reach 95% accuracy in VATS. Lower the normal damage of the Anti-Material Rifle, and increase the critical damage to compensate. That way a sniper build relies on stealth and one-shot kills to dominate, but would be average in a normal fight.

I don't think the engine lends itself very well to dodging things... It's somewhat doable with the stingers of those radscorpions I guess, but then those are really, really slow moving.

Ahem, Obsidian specifically put in the AMR to make Deathclaws less of a chore. I thoroughly enjoyed wiping them out in Dead Wind Cavern and the gravel pit with overpowered equipment. Made up for the early game buggering they gave me if I went past Sloan or off I-15 too far. It'd be really crazy if the BOZAR made a comeback, now that was a sniper's BEAST!