I gave decided to make a new char whos main focus is stealthy sniping (you know, your general all-around badass). My main focus skills are going to be lockpick (for gobi), guns, and repair. If some one could maybe post a special build that would suit the charactar i have in mind it would be very helpful. Feel free to ask questions.

Thanks.

P.S. Who do you guys think i should side with on this charactar?

Don't brother with VATS perks. That's all

S 6
P 7
E 5
C1
I 7
A 7
L 7
These can be upgraded with either Intense Training perk or Implants

Tag skills: Guns-Repair-Sneak (you could sacrifice Sneak for Lockpick, as long as your Perception skill is decent enough to spot baddies before they see you)

Good sniper perks if you use VATS: Commando-Finesse-Sniper-Better Criticals-Center of Mass-Consentrated Fire

So many weeks after game release and you guys can't even build a proper sniper. PER 7? C'mon, let's be serious.

S 5
P 5
E 6
C 5
I 7
A 5
L 7

Traits: Trigger Discipline, Good Natured.

Implant everything except Charisma and Endurance, but get DT sub-dermal implant. Tag Guns, Lockpick and Speech and bring all those skills to 55 early on. Then work on everything else you want/need like Repair, Survival and such.

Perks: Intense Training Luck, Educated, Comprehension, Travel Light, Sniper, Hand Loader, Jury Rigging, Toughness 2x, Cowboy, Finesse, Better Criticals, Weapon Handling.

@ delra
"So many weeks after game release and you guys can't even build a proper sniper. PER 7? C'mon, let's be serious."

Perception helps to locate enemies on the compass sooner. Why not perception for a sniper build? You could've easily posted your tips without bashing someone elses because you think yours are "teh 1337est".

Get over yourself.

You get over yourself. Difference between Per 6 (after an implant) which is needed for one of coolest perks in the game and your 7 is how much?

You could have per at 1 and just have ED-E as a companion so you basicaly get 4 more SPECIAL to use.

Sniper, Light Step, Better Criticals require mediocre PER. I gave him a full build for the character he wants. 5 is the least you can get to grab the good perks without much hassle and multiple intense trainings.

But you would lose out on all the perks.

Oooh...BURN!

*double facepalm*

When one facepalm just doesn't do it.

This doesn't answer my question at all. Why are you advicing PER 7?

Why are you so determined to prove that your suggestion is the greatest while tearing mine down? Let it go! It doesn't matter!

Yours works for you and mine works for me. And the Sun will continue to shine.

*edit*
There are literally dozens of topics on this particular subject. If the OP would've attempted to search, this minor clash of opinion could've been avoided.

So many weeks and play throughs and you still holding on trigger discipline?
At best it is terrible; I can understand people being skeptical about Fast shot, but Trigger Discipline is pure detrimental once you have sufficient Gun skill.

In your Gameplay settings, set your "Kill Cam" to "Player View". Pretty nifty when the game slows down during the first sneak attack kill allowing you to rack up another 1-3 more kills before the effect finishes. I think the AMR will have problems sending a second shot downrange, but the other popular scoped weapons are greatly improved with this setting tweak.

Player view huh?

I'm gonna have to try that for the Matrix effect. I've been using the None setting because my game would sometimes freeze up during the kill cam animation.

Depends on what sniper build. I always start my characters with 9 intel and get the upgrade to 10 soon as possible. I love having 6 100 skills.

Otherwise it would depend if you want to make a sniper/critical build in which you would pump luck. Perception has a ton of cool perks for snipers so that IS good to have in my opinion.

It's all about what you want to build your character around. Odds are you made it already so none of my comments probably matter anyways haha.

I played Fast Shot for quite a long while.

I like shotguns as my secondary and spread reduction is awesome for their performance. If you pick Fast Shot you will svck at mid-range the entire game, you won't combat that -40% accuracy with 100 at Guns. Something like gaining 2 extra shots per 10 fired - but 1 of them you will miss. I take spread reduction and 40% accuracy (there's 40% difference between -20 and +20 in spread and accuracy) over that one shot.

perception 5 and a hat and implant is more than enough for times you haven't got E DE.
Charisma 1 will do, it isn't used. INT 7 and luck 9.
forget about vats.
S 5 and agi 5 or 6.
End 7, for implants.

that 9 luck will cover crits and pay for 7 implants.

Definitely make the kill cam player view. Really with any character make it player view.

Perks:

These perks are pretty much required (if you care about 'optimization')

Hand Loader
Finesse
Better Criticals

Good Perks

Weapon Handling if you care to use the Anti-Material Rifle
Sniper
And any of the other generally useful perks.

SPECIAL:
You need 6 STR w/ Weapon Handling for AMR. You need 6 PER and 6 LUCK for Better Crits. You can improve all of these with implants.
You need 20% base crit to get 100% crit on the Sniper Rifle. You can either have 10 luck, or have 7 luck and the Built to Destroy trait.

Recommended SPECIAL ()= final stat after implant/IT

STR: 5 (6)
PER: 5 (6)
END: 6
CHA: 1
INT: 9 (10)
AGI: 5 (6)
LUCK: 9 (10)

The high int is a preference. I like having great noncombat skills. If all you care about is shootin' stuff with a couple other skills, lower int is perfectly fine.

Getting 20% base crit
10 luck: 10% OR 7 Luck 7% + Built to Destroy 3% = 10%
First Recon Beret: 5%
Finesse: 5%

Other notes: Fast shot or Trigger Discipline: meh. Fast shot advantages for a sniper are not great enough to outweigh costs, but similarly the Sniper Rifle is already deadly accurate enough that Trigger Discipline doesn't matter.

Perception is only important for Better Criticals. Unless you don't want to use ED-E, but even then I still think more than 6 would be a waste. At 6 with ED-E you'll see enemies on your radar in the next zip code.

Smart choice going for repair. You'll need at least 50 to make repair kits for the difficult to repair sniper rifle.

Sneak is still a good skill, even if you are usually shooting stuff from far away. You want to be able to get off sneak crits in caves or indoors (for example I enjoyed opening the Van Graff battle by 1 shotting Jean-baptiste from stealth)

How?
Last time we have this discussion I pulled out the fact that only Caravan Shotgun can get some kind of noticeable benefit; with Riot and Hunting you can always switch to slug shot for range.

As for other guns, I don't found Fast Shot kill my mid-range, so I am pretty sure you will do just fine without Trigger Discipline.

STR- 5 (If you plan on using the Anti Materiel Rifle I'd advise raising this with an implant and taking the Weapon Handling perk)
PER- 5 (Implant)
END- 1
CHR- 1
INT- 9 (Implant)
AGL- 1
LCK- 9 (Implant)


You've still got another 10 points to play with there. I just put in the "vital" points. What you do with the remaining 10 points really depends on your playstyle.

All I will say is, do not put any of those 10 points to Charisma. If you do, I will find you and slap you with a fish.

Yea, nothing worse than having Veronica with +25% DT from Power Armor or Raul with +25% damage on his Sequoia.

I'd say kick some points (2-3?) from INT and LCK to CHA, it's not like those extra 15 skill points at level 30 or that extra 2% crit chance will help you much. I evolved that way slowly over my multiple playthroughts seeing how litthe that extra luck and intelligence matter in the end. I wouldn't dare to go low luck on energy - but sniper why not, he has 5x multiplier guaranteed, on top of all the sneak crits he's going to deal. Difference between 8 and 10 Luck won't be that huge.

Also, I robbed Vegas at Luck 4 and 3. Blackjack isn't that hard. It only takes a bit longer.

My sniper setup had the following S.P.E.C.I.A.L. setup

STR- 5
PER- 5
END- 6
CHR- 1
INT- 5
AGL- 8
LCK- 9

TAG-skills: Guns, Repair, Stealth

For traits I went with Small Frame (+1 AGL) and Wild Wasteland (just because I like seeing fun stuff).

Then get implants for STR, PER, END, INT, AGL and LCK. I didn't bother with the DR implant, but some folks like to start with a base of 7 END in order to get it too (or they just don't take the END implant).

I like a fully modded Sniper Rifle best, but if you'd rather run with the Anti Materiel, don't forget to get the Weapon Handling perk.

Hand Loader is another perk to take as it will give you access to very powerful ammo. As to the rest of the perks to take I think most speak for themselves


Have fun

Milt

A word of caution. For those going with 1 Charisma, don't plan on using followers if you play hardcoe. I have a charisma of 3 and I have already lost Veronica, Lily and Rex (veronica in a firefight, Lily in the nightstalker lair, Rex to cazadors). That's BARELY USING followers, less that 5% of the time.

I did some testing and found zero difference in DT/damage for companions with CHA 1 vs. CHA 10. Granted, I was using console commands to change CHA so maybe there's something screwy with that but I'd love to hear if anybody has HARD evidence that CHA actually does what it is supposed to for companions.

Also, I question the wisdom of anybody who likes Trigger Discipline. 20% increase in VATS AP cost?!? Pass.

On a side note, 6 base Luck is enough for 100% crit with Sniper Rifle. 7 Luck (implant) + 3% built to destroy + 5% finesse + 5% beret = 20% x5 = 100%.