For both Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas I always give my character a luck value of 1 because it never seems to be useful and I can always find other places to put those points. I am curious if I am missing something important in the game or if luck is truly that useless. So is there any practical purposes of giving your character a high luck skill? Does it work well combined with certain other skills?

make a lot of caps very quickly at casinos, paired with Better Criticals, Finesse and First Recon Beret. you can be a critical hit machine.

In terms of gambling, I've come to question how useful it is. It pissed me off that during a round of Blackjack, ten hands in a row, the game beat me by one point for ten hands. Something is wrong with the gambling AI, in my opinion.

Better Criticals needs 6 luck. That right there is enough to sell the luck stat. Go one point higher to 7 and you get +13 skillpoints.

Imagine if there were a Good Looks skill. Combine that with Luck and you'd be too worn out from midnight frolics to complete any quests.

1 point of Luck equals a 1% chance of causing a critical hit on a normal (enemy aware) attack. However since Sneak Attack criticals are so much more powerful, trivial to acheive, and don't require any SPECIAL investment, your mileage may vary.

Aside from gambling, Luck is also used in at least one dialogue check that I can remember, boosts /all/ your skills by 1 point per level, and is a prerequisite if you want to take the Mysterious Stranger or Miss Fortune perks.

My luck is very high for this character and she is pretty lucky. I think it matters in a lot of small ways. She was quickly banned from casinos and gets more critical hits I think.

10 Luck almost guarentees you will always win in Gambling. (Almost.) and it ALWAYS gets you Crit hits.

I think luck is a very strong SPECIAL. High luck + Built to Destroy + Recon Beret + Finese + Better Criticals and a high crit weapon like Rat Slayer, That Gun or the sniper rifle will give TONS of high dmg crit hits. Sure Sneak Attack criticals are powerful, but you can not rely on them. You can rely on a high crit rate though, Yummy critical head shots!

Luck has to be at either 7 or 9 don't raise it to 8 or 10 with Implants its not worth it as you only get the skill point increase if Luck is an odd number so an 8 Luck is just as effective as 7 Luck. Also the higher chance for critical hits, Better Criticals Perk, More Caps at Gambling, Speech Checks, +4 or +5 in Skill Points depending on Luck, etc.

Luck is just that...luck. It provides boosts to all the other skills and it helps out here and there. Only places it's blatantly obvious, IMO, is gambling and critical hits.

But as the perk better criticals increases your critical damage by 50% luck is helpful even for sneak attacks. Then of course sometimes stealth isn't feasible and of course some weapons have a higher critical rate so one point of luck could be worth up to 5% chance to critical. For gambling it is a HUGE difference, first time through the game I had a luck of 6 with the implant and it was 7 while wearing the naughty nightware, it took me a few hours to get banned from gambling on the strip.[via blackjack] Second time through the game luck of 10 while wearing the naughty nightware. It took me around an hour to get banned from every casino in the game, playing blackjack.

I have used the console on pc when it comes to skills or special on a couple of restarts in FNV...Ive found that my lucky character has some good odds at Caravan...or slots Blackjack etc....as oppsed to my not so lucky character who couldnt win his/her way out of a wet paper bag....even with directions lol

I'm a self defined luck gigglo.

I find it heavily affects gambling in your favor. You'll be a money making machine

In combat, take a weapon w/ a decent crit rate (lucky, ratslayer, maria are some of my favs right now.) Pair it with finesse, better crits, built to destroy, and you wont even have to wear boone's overpowered beret.

Pretty much mandatory if your an energy weapons user, as alot of EWs damage comes from crits.

Matching high luck with high intelligence will give you a great boost to skills.

I think in fallout 3 it affected container spawns, I'm not positive if it does in FNV, but I think so.

Cons for dumping alot of skill points in luck are:

Not many good perks associated with it (aside from better crits but this take perception 6 as well, spreads out your stat points.)
Not many SPECIAL checks associated with it. I've only seen 1.

Maybe not a character type for everyone, but like most character types, worth messing around with.

As people have said it's (supposed to be) useful in gambling.
It adds 1% to your critical chance per point in Luck and 1 to all skills per 2 points in Luck. All in all it's has it's uses.

I've done my share of looting encumbering armor and stuff to make caps so I can buy what I really need. It's a lot of work to do that. With Luck at 8 now from an implant and an Intense Training (Critical Skills +8, All Skills +4), I can wear the Naughty Nightwear to gamble (Luck 9) and I won 32,000 caps on Slots with max bet. Now I don't have to loot and I can just take what's good and/or unique and focus on other aspects of the game. It's more fun this time out.

Also, having a higher luck means you get better loot off of dead enemies and from random containers. I just made my 2nd playthrough yesterday with 5 luck and im already noticing a significant difference in the quality of loot I get as opposed to what I got on my 9 luck build.

Actually I can't seem to lose at Blackjack or Caravan.

With proper money management I can clear 300 credits in 10 minutes as a $2 bettor

Upon what information do you base this?

It certainly doesn't sound logical.

The skill bonus from luck comes at every odd number 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9. The difference between 6 to 7 is more significant then 7 to 8.

Luck according to the official guide:

Skill Modifiers (%)*

1 Critical Chance + 1 All Skills +1
2 Critical Chance + 2 All Skills +1
3 Critical Chance + 3 All Skills +2
4 Critical Chance + 4 All Skills +2
5 Critical Chance + 5 All Skills +3
6 Critical Chance + 6 All Skills +3
7 Critical Chance + 7 All Skills +4
8 Critical Chance + 8 All Skills +4
9 Critical Chance + 9 All Skills +5
10 Critical Chance + 10 All Skills +5

*Skill modifiers: This affects Critical Chance and raises every skill value by a small amount.

Ever make 30,000+ caps in a half an hour? Ever get a crit hit every other shot, no matter what weapon you have equipped? That's how useful luck is.

There is also the enemy mishap increase with more luck. (i.e. a explosive thrown will explode in their face or at least closer than intended.)

It's a heck of a lot more useful than charisma.

If you want to max luck, start with 8. With an implant you will be at nine which is enough for the next +1 skill boost. You can max it with clothing for the casinos.