Hey guys, completed the mr house playthrough, i rushed it a bit cos i love the storyline; i now want to make a char to get as much content explored as poss.

I'm thinking of a snipy snipe as an archtype, but i was wondering what you think i should put as special/traits/perks & what would be more important to invest skill points in during the lower levels.

thanks

For a sniper, I recommend a strength of 6. This will let you use up to the Sniper Rifle. At level 16, you can get a perk that reduces strength requirements by 2, letting you use the Anti-Materiel Rifle.

Str, Per, Agi, and End should all be at 6 or higher for any sniper-type build for specific perks and weapon requirements. Trigger discipline is also a necessity if you're planning on max-range sniping enemies.

Aside from that, unless you're min/maxing your build you can do whatever you want.

My crit/sharpshooter guy also has high luck - I find that it helps quite a bit. I left my endurance at 5.

Or you can save the perk slot, wear power armor and use an implant for it.


Trigger discipline only reduces spread by 20%. It's one of the worst traits for a sniper because rifles in general have very low spread, you don't even notice the difference unless you mod weapons so the range limit isn't there, in which case gravity plays a bigger role.

It doesn't even help in VATS all that much because it increases AP costs by 20%.

As far as traits and sniping go, Small Frame*, Fast Shot and Built to Destroy are the best. Built to destroy alone is 15% crit chance for the Sniper Rifle and Gobi Campaign Scout Rifle.

*Agility is only needed for perk requirements, which small frame helps with. The combat stat of choice is Luck.

[e] This, of course, is regarding a Guns sniper oriented build, where Trigger Discipline's 20% VATS accuracy bonus or Agility's reload/draw/run speed bonuses are not much of a factor.

My char build is to never take Intense Training... but yes get one of each implant or at least S, P, E, A and L implants
Intel of 4 gets me 12 x 3 = 36 skill points then at 4th level bumps up to 14sp per level
so 14 x 26= 364 + 36 = 400 sp + skill books sp 204 total (+16 in each except +12 in explosives)
So thats 604 skill points total with this build ...minus the 2 points you get per implant on each skill...
Im sure thats enough skill points to upgrade 6 or so skills to 100 and skills do not start at 0..
anywhere from 9 to 25 on this setup..with out tagging which adds 15 to 3 different skills...) so more than enough in my book on the 4 int.

You could get away with 6 end and get S P E A L and the 2 other implants... and use 3 other points for like strength or such.

Start: END:
S=5 6
P=6 7
E=9 10
C=1 1 or 2 if you get implant
I=4 4 or 5 if you get implant
A=6 7
L=9 10

Plan to take:
2 - Confirmed bachelor if male char or black widow if female
4 - Educated
6 - Comprehension
8 - Commando
10 - Finesse
12 - Robotics Expert
14 - Jury Rigging
16 - Action boy
18 - Better Crits
20 - Grim Reaper Spirit
22-
24-
26- Nerves of steel
28-
30-

So have 4 open skills to do with what I want.. could even change a few along the way except level 4 and 6...
I think intense training is a waste of perks.... if you can manage it

I took good natured and wild wasteland as my traits... since good natured +5 to nerd skills i will use all of and -5 to combat skills
i will prob only use 2-3 of..(well max anyways)

So what do you think?

Sneaky sniper in power armor.... ???

My stealth girl started with 3 STR, got an implant, and took the Weapon Handling perk to be able to use the sniper rifles optimally.

I don't get why people are piling on the END. You're a sniper..... one shot one kill from miles away. Whenever I've made sniper characters in FO3 I had 3 END at most.

Oh, wait, you're all planning for implants aren't you.

You don't need them you know, you can get by with decently arranged base SPECIAL because this game is stupidly easy when you get a sniper gun and decent skills.

I started with END 3, too. But if I had known about the implants when I started I would have pulled one point out of each other SPECIAL and put it into END.

Deathclaws one-shot me. Well, not really, but if I let them get close enough they could.

The strategy guide is wrong about that. There's 4 books for every skill around the game world. And then there's some inside containers which I can't account for (may or may not exist), which are 2 for Guns, 1 for Melee Weapons, 3 for Sneak, 1 for Unarmed, 1 for Energy Weapons, 1 for Explosives and 1 for Repair. Science also gets a fifth skill book from a quest in Helios One.

Also, your END is pointless for a sniper build. So is Action Boy and any other AP related bonuses.


Why not? It's still the best armor as far as stat bonuses go, unless you wear the +1 LUK underwear.

And it doesn't matter as far as stealth goes. You're sniping, your weapon and projectile noise values ("loud", "normal" or "silent") matter more than anything else.

Should be S6 so she can use a 50Cal

My build really wasn't for a sniper build but I posted it anyways. Thought it might help with building without too much bs.

End is good but as I said you don't need 9 end... could get away with 6 end if you wanted most implants... 8end if you wanted all implants.

6 end and you can do like

to start:
S=6 P=7 E=6 C=1 I=4 A=7 L=9

Shrug, not much different... heck with my first posting SPECIAL as its great for an unarmed build.
starting with 25 unarmed skill with 9end with tagging it give 40unarmed to start

And I don't even own the guide book... just the internet info on where the skill books are.
following the natural story line I have found quite a few on my own without looking em up.

Here is what I looked like in the end. I was a level 27 Good Karma Sniper. In my experiences I noticed I never fought anything really bad in caves. Most I saw was Ghouls or Nightstalkers in the Caves. Sneak was not a high priority for me. At 50 Sneak I was able to get in close enough to snipe them out. See the post on Deathclaws for what I http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1132639-deathclaw-tips/ on sniping. The mistake I made was thinking Agility was imporant. It sorta is for VATS because my computer lagged hardcoe even on low settings. What I should of done was iron sight it and be patient with the lag. VATS is not as accurate as I would of hoped. It's less accurate than ironsights if you know what you are doing with them.

I found Guns to be the greatest skill. I was able to use the Sniper Rifle. With the Better Criticals Perk (6 Perception, 6 Luck, level 16) and Finesse (level 10) I could load AP in the Sniper Rifle and instant kill Super Mutants or Deathclaws. I just sit there with my scope waiting to pop em in the head and splat! There was no damage modifiers in place. When I went into close quarter combat I used the Light Machine Gun, or the Minigun. I didn't use the Shotgun. I could of taken the Shotgun Surgeon Perk (Guns 45, level 6) instead of spending it into Intense Training (Level 2)(which I used to get 6 Agility). I guess if you like Shotguns you can take it. The only problem is the Hunting Shotgun with the Choke is the longest range shotgun. Even then it's not much of a help seeing as it relies on the pellets and for them to hit.

I found the Stonewall Perk (Endurance 6, Strength 6, level 8 requirement) to be great in all applications. It gives +5 DT against meele and you can't be knocked down. This helped me with Ghouls, Super Mutants and Deathclaws if they got in my face. It gave me more time to shoot them or reload. Toughness (5 Endurance, level 6) helped too. It has 2 ranks and +3 DT for each point. Then Strong back (5 Endurance, 5 Strength, level 8) helped as it paid for my T-51B armor. T-51B Weighs 50 pounds total if memory serves right.

Alternatively you can run an Energy Weapons build. I did not like it because they don't have Iron Sights making it hard to judge where you are firing. Even with the scope mounted on the Laser Rifle it was still hard because the scope was hard to understand. If you do though you can get the Better Critical Perk, Finesse and Laser Commander (90 Energy Weapons, Level 22). With Laser Commander that gives +15% damage and a +10% Critical Chance, and Finesse gives another 5%. Luck also effects your chance. If your :uck is 5 your total critical chance is 20% between the three with +15% Damage.

It really depends on your preferences with the weapons. You can't talk it out in the Wastlelands. You can kill them all though

You need 9 unless you get IT for another point.


Well, the strategy guide is where the myth that there are only 3 explosive books comes from.

Would an endurance implant at 8 natural end give you 9.. then you can get the rest of the implants?

The end implant's addition to your end doesen't add another +1 to your total implant limit.