Bad idea??? I am under the impression that the plasma caster is medium to close ranged weapon. If thats the case you could be blowing yourself up a lot between the weapon and perk...I guess how big is the blast radius of meltdown? I am sure you can engage enemies at medium range and be safe from the detonation right?

Plasma weapons aren't the most reliable at long range so yeah they're kinda mid to close range weapons.

Never used Meltdown, but I think that the Plasma Caster and the Meltdown Perk are bad combos, unless you hit in VATS at long range, or hit at mid range.

Meltdowns radius isn't really that big. I shoot things all the time that are only a few yards away and never hurt myself.

In my Energy Weapons mod I've increased the radius of Meltdown, but made it so that you and your followers are never damaged by it

actua;ly the caster is a fairly long range weapon as it has 0 spread.

Meaning: you've unbalanced it.

It is an accurate weapon, but the *effective* range is far shorter than its accurate range, because of the slow-moving projectile that forces you to shoot 3 seconds into the future.

Actually the min spread value of the caster is 0.7; the spread value is zero for all weapons except fullauto ones.
I think min spread determines the maximal deviation of every shot (low on sniper rifles); Spread determines the max spread in fullauto mode i think.

Assuming these values are degrees a 0.7 min spread would mean a deviation up to 12.27 centimeters at a range of 10 meters.
At a range of 100 meters (whatever that is New Vegas) your shot would miss (the pixel you were aiming at) by up to 122.7cm.
Not really suited for long range, especially due to the slow projectile.
However I havent taken stance (standing,kneeling, running) or zooming in into account, so the actual deviation might be smaller.

@topic

there are perks which help you survive explosions (hit the deck)
i wouldnt recommand meltdown in hardcoe mode with companions though. yes im looking at you, rexie

my first run through was a digital weapons expert. I ended up HATING the meltdown perk by the end of the game. It's not useful for sniping because when you're doing that there's usually only one enemey at a time to pick off. If you're traveling with companions it's not useful for crowds because anytime there's more than 3 opponents you're usually a little closer to the action. I always ended up killing my companions! Towards the end of the game I was a good 20 minutes into the raid on Hoover Dam and I accidentally hit some NCR buddies standing too close to legionares with the meltdown perk. Instantly the NCR had me at vilified and BOTH factions turned on me.

It's powerful, but it's not the best perk in my humble opinion. Although, to anyone reading this I will say I didn't think the energy weapons were too underpowered. I took most of the perks related to that character and had a high science. I could bust up Deathclaws with a critical hit from a scoped laser rifle pretty easily. It was definitely a tougher playthrough initially, but I kind of new that going in.

avoid the meltdown. Maybe pick up one of the gun perks that will help you anyway like Center of Mass, Finesse, etc...

I like meltdown. Its of limited use but so fun to watch.
OP: I have trouble using the Plasma Caster, period. So I cant advice.