I've literally spent 90% of the time playing Fallout: New Vegas since it's been out, JUST on making a decent build for my character. With so many choices & so few points to distribute to my attributes/skills etc, I can't decide what to stick with.

My current build, which I had decided to stick with for the time being is as follows:

* Strength - 7 (Will be 8 with implant, so that I can use all pistols & rifles proficiently)
* Perception - 1
* Endurance - 3 (Kept it at 3, so that I can have 3 implants for Strength, Agility & Luck)
* Charisma - 1
* Intelligence - 10 (Maxed it out, so that I could get extra skill points from as early as possible)
* Agility - 9 (Will be 10 with implant)
* Luck - 9 (Will be 10 with implant)

I'm more of a "Offense is the best type of Defense" type player than a person who prefers to have loads of health & high armour etc, which is why my Endurance is so low. I would have even lowered it to just 1, if it wasn't for the 3 implants I need. I also love conventional guns such as pistols & rifles/sniper rifles etc as opposed to energy weapons, miniguns, flame throwers, explosives etc, therefore I checked what the highest strength requirements of the pistols & rifles are ingame, and it seems it's 8 (with 9+ needed for heavier weapons such as miniguns etc which I won't be using). I kept both Perception & Charisma at 1, as I heard that Perception isn't really that great, and neither is Charisma for some reason :S

Now the only problem is I can't think whether I'd be better off with this build or just an absolutely simple build such as keeping every single Attribute the same level. Or perhaps increasing Intelligence to 10 (so that I get the extra skill points when levelling) and keeping all other attributes at 5. That would give me an "all round" type of build, with nothing being so low that it holds me back ingame.

What do you guys think is the better choice? To go with the build I outlined above, or to go with an "all round" type build instead, so that I'm not limiting myself to some things? I guess if I had an all round type build, I wouldn't be able to do things such as hacking high level computers or lockpicking high level safes etc, but I'd be able to have more speech options available to me & I'd be more perceptive of enemies in my area, etc. Basically (as the saying goes) I'd be a "Jack of all trades, master of none".

Thanks.

Charisma in New Vegas is actually decent. Allot of combat for quests can be avoided with a high speech, but hey where's the fun? There is a perk later on that lowers all strength requirements by 2, so in the long run you only need 6. Going as an all-around build will limit your options later forcing you to do everything the hard way.

New Vegas is built upon consequences. Its nearly impossible to do everything in one playthrough. How ever, with stacked chems, clothing, and magazines, a well rounded character can actually be good at everything in temporary increments but that's more micro-managing to think about. My advice would be just play it one way all the way through, then play it again doing something different.

Its a pretty good powerhouse class in my opinion, its definitely a Jack-of-all-trades for combat skills build though. But you said you like the offensive so its a perfect class to master Guns, and Melee in. Plus Medicine with your low endurance.

Edit: Throw in finesse, and where the 1st Recon beret and take perks like cowboy, you'll be crit hitting practically every other shot (not exact, but noticeably often) and killing most enimies before they can get a shot off.

Thank you, I appreciate it. I posted this same topic on another forum yesterday, and I've just checked to see if there were any replies. Somebody replied with:



Why would I have a "hard time" using vats and why wouldn't I be able to get a vats headshot? I don't understand :S

I'm thinking I may be better off going with something like:

* Strength - 5
* Perception - 5
* Endurance - 5
* Charisma - 5
* Intelligence - 10
* Agility - 5
* Luck - 5

But then again, I'm not sure how much that would limit me ingame.

I just wish I could get on with it, so that I could start actually PLAYING the game instead of worrying about which build to use.

You can lower Endurance to 1, put Strength up to 8 and Luck up to 10, and then just take one implant for Agility, lol. You'd save yourself 2k-4k caps.

If you're looking for a completely balanced build,

S 6
P 6
E 6
C 5
I 6
A 6
L 5

Although with either the build mentioned with everything even and 10 int, or this one, you're going to have a fairly difficult time as your skills will be pretty unfocused early on which will put you at a disadvantage. If anything, I'd make

5, 5, 5, 5, 8, 5 ,7 at least so you have a better chance at winning money from casinos for implants.

You're right, although I'd then have 2 less Endurance than I have now, with the only difference being I'd be saving caps. I guess the 2-4k caps is worth it considering I'd be getting another 2 points of endurance. Is money really that hard to come by?

It's hard to really say. In terms of the caps needed for the implants, yes, they're incredibly expensive, and so you might not have enough. With high luck though it's super easy to just go into casinos and play the slot machines. Your build with 9 luck shouldn't have a problem with caps once you get into New Vegas, but I'm just sayin' you could've just put Strength and Luck up to 10 and saved those extra 2-4k caps on weapons, repairs, and even on getting the implant that increases DT by 4 and the one that lets you automatically regenerate HP every 10 seconds.

Edit: To put it into perspective, you'll be paying 9k-12k credits with a low barter skill, which is still a lot even with high luck and the casinos, whereas you would've only spent 3-4k on one implant, and then you could've gotten one of the other two non-SPECIAL related implants with the money you saved.

Thanks Rad

Hmm... What about the following build to start off with? It would eventually turn into the second build shown in this post, and I'll explain how below. Spent the past hour working it out, and I think it seems fairly decent, but wasn't sure what others thought.

Starting Build:

* Strength - 5
* Perception - 5
* Endurance - 5
* Charisma - 5
* Intelligence - 10
* Agility - 5
* Luck - 5

Ending Build:

* Strength - 8
* Perception - 6
* Endurance - 6
* Charisma - 5
* Intelligence - 10
* Agility - 10
* Luck - 10


How I'd get from the first to the second build is as follows:

I'd have 5 implants available to me, due to the 5 Endurance, therefore I'd implant the following 5 attributes: Strength, Perception, Agility, Luck & Endurance. That would take them to from 5 to 6. I'd then max out the 'Intense Training' Perk, and put: 2 points into Strength (taking it to 8), 4 points into Agility (taking it to 10) & 4 points into Luck (taking it to 10).

I'd then have a decent all round build which also has some high level attributes & nothing really lacking so much that it's going to cause me major problems on my travels (low Endurance for example). I'd also have my Strength at the perfect amount so that I could use all rifles/handguns proficiently. Perception at 6 would allow me to take the increased criticals perk & the rest speaks for itself really.


Now the only problem with this is that if I were to Max out the 'Intense Training' perk, that means I'm very much limiting myself to what other perks I could take, but won't be able to due to having limited points left to spend.

So I'm contemplating it at the moment, but would appreciate hearing what you guys' thoughts/opinions on it are.

Thanks.

You should really put more into charisma, speech is definatley in the top 4 most useful skills in this game, trust me.

In what way is it useful? I'm just curious, because I've only just in the past 2-3 mins read a few threads elsewhere, and people are saying Charisma is basically useless & isn't worth taking at all, and they're recommending that people leave it at 1 :S

If you really wanna see how numbers come out with different stats, just use this excel sheet I made to try everything out http://newvegasnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=35533

The only things you have to worry about with it are that it assumes Educated, if you have it, is taken at level 4, and also that if you take Comprehension, that you haven't read any skill books until after you've taken it.

Honestly, if you want the most amount skill points to be a "Jack of All Trades" character, you should go with a build that gives you at least 6 endurance (I personally go with 7 so I can boost all 6 SPECIAL stats except Charisma and also get the Sub-Dermal Armor) so you can get more implants to get more skill points.

Play around with my spreadsheet and see what you like. I think there are a lot of perks toward the later levels that are complete crap so you can definitely take some Intense Training without missing out on things. Also, if my spreadsheet seems to have a bug or mistake, please take the time to let me know so I can fix it.

People often confuse Speech (a skill) with Charisma (a special).

Speech is just a skill check. Charisma has no "bonus" to it. It does of course ADD skill points if you increase your charisma, but you can raise you speech skill just by tagging it.


Charisma helps your companions fight much better though. It also allows access to perks at level 6: animal friend, ferocious loyalty.

Sure you don't want PE/AG to be 6 for Better Criticals perk? I'm using that now for 2 weapon types and probably going for a third which is guns.

S-6
P-4
E-7
C-4
I_4
A-7
L--8