I need some help with a stealth/sniper/critical hits build. Any help anyone can provide would be much appreciated.

I've browsed the internet for a good hour and could not find a decent build.

Well I kind of go for the following:

S.P.E.C.I.A.L.:

(Probably not the best possible for Sniper, but there other considerations!)

Strength: 6
Perception: 5 (see perks)
Endurance: 5
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 6
Agility: 6
Luck: 6

Implants:

Like Pokemon, got buy get 'em all.


Starter Perks:

Four eyes: To give a +1 perception for what I feel is the manadatory wearing of sunglasses.
Small Frame: For the +1 Agility, just watch out for mines!

Progression Perks:

Intense Training: Points into Endurance, to make PC tougher and allow more implants, as well as Agility for Guns.
Bloody Mess: For +5% extra damage, as well as the gore.
Commando: For increased accuracy with two handed weapons.
Finesse: For the +5% Critical chance.
Sniper: For the increased chance of a successful head shot.
Better Criticals: For +50% damage for critical hits.
Weapon Handling: To use favourite gun (see below) without sacrificing to many points in Strength.
Grim Reaper's Sprint: For more V.A.T.S. head shots.

Skills:

Guns: 100, for you know, using a gun properly.
Sneak: 100, for Sneak Criticals, plus a Sniper by nature isn't a hugely brazen affair.
Repair: 50 for making Repair kits, or 90 for Jury Riggin Perk.

Companions:

Boone: For his Spotter Perk, making very long range Sniper targets readily identifiable. Also in completing his recruitment quest properly you get a nice beret giving you the usual hat +1 to Perception with an additional +5 Critical chance.

Rex: Mainly because I like having a dog, and he makes a good gun dog and will usually melee anything that's coming to smash your head in while you're scoped.

Weapon:

Anti-Materiel Rifle: It's awesome, unsighted it makes quite a fabulous shotgun too.
Riot Shotgun: For when things get just too damn close.

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Probably far from perfect but it worked nicely enough for me and still leaves a fair bit of room for customisation in other areas, I was quite the Orator, Lockpicker & Explosives expert too.

Hope that is of some use to you

I would go with this type of build

Str 5
End 5
Per 7
Char 1
Int 7
Agil 6
Luck 9

Traits Four Eyes, Good Natured

Tags Sneak, Guns, Speech

Get the Implants for Strength, Endurance, DT,

The Stealthy part is easy: Just ramp up your sneak skill and wear light armor.

But to make a sniper crit-fiend, here is what I recommend you do in no particular order:

• Start with a Luck of at least 9 (which can be further upgraded to 10 with an implant)
  
• Get Guns to 100 (as opposed to Energy Weapons)
  
• Get a Sniper Rifle and always keep its condition above 75% - Raul can help keep it this way.
  
• Get the Finesse perk - with a sniper rifle you will be getting 100% crit rate on every shot in VATS and a 90% outside of VATS if you have a Luck of 10. (Boone's cap is optional to drive that non-VATS shot up to 100% crit rate)
  
• Get the Better Criticals perk. A Sniper Rifle does 62 base damage per shot, plus an additional 62 for each critical hit which is boosted to 93 with the Better Criticals perk for a total of 155 damage each shot you make.
  
• Get the Sniper perk. Every time you plug somebody in the head, damage is doubled. So that 155 damage can potentially become 310 damage.
  
• Get the Hand Loader perk. You can craft your own JSP .308 ammo which boosts the damage for each shot +50%. From the way it was explained to me, that means the 155 damage I mentioned earlier can become 228, and 456 with a headshot if you are shooting at an unarmored target. Armored targets will be taking entirely too much damage in a single shot to make much difference to how much goes through. And this isn't even factoring in "Sneak Criticals" which further kicks up the damage to insane levels (456 damage per shot, 912 on a head shot to an unarmored target). This means you have the potential to kill almost every single creature in the game with one shot.

Given your emphasis on stealth you'll probably want to attach a supressor on the Sniper Rifle since they seem to be all the rage these days. You'll be able to get off 2 shots in VATS - but they do heaps of damage as explained above. There's a way to build yourself to get 3 VATS shots as well as having a sturdier gun you don't have to repair all the time, but it involves the Gobi Campaign Rifle and you can't put a silencer on that. Let me know if you want me to explain how because that's precisely what I did.

Edit: I forgot to mention getting the Commando Perk, and that Sniper Rifles can actually outdamage Anti-Material Rifles if you build your character right, as I described above.

Thanks everyone!

Anti-Material Rifle *looks* cool. The concept is cool. The weapon, per se, is not so cool. Incendiary Ammo? Yes, cool. Worth the investment to get an AM rifle? No.

I don't get the love for the AM Rifle. It can't be suppressed. It's got horrendous recoil. It svcks in CQ combat. You need either a Strength 8 or Strength 6 with Weapon Handling. The ammo has to be purchased, and it's expensive. And the [censored] thing is unbelievably loud. And have I mentioned the ROF or ammo cap? No? Hint: both svck.

My advice is to *forget* that the AMR even exists in the game. Or if you decide you want it, just forget about stealth.

Same thing with the Gobi. First of all, you need at least a Lockpick of 80 (and then only if you have Comprehension and a Tumblers Today mag); second of all... it can't be suppressed! If you're looking for stealth, stay away from the Gobi too.

I still don't understand the whole Luck thing. You *don't* need Luck 9! Every single shot that lands from [HIDDEN] status is a critical hit and Luck never factors into it... because you're getting the critical by virtue of being in sneak mode. My suggestion is to put points into Intelligence and Agility.

Stealthy sniper? Put your points into Guns, Repair, and Sneak. Get yourself a silenced/suppressed rifle. A silenced 10mm is handy too. Close quarters? Shotgun or SMG -- and noise doesn't matter then because you already [censored] up by alerting the enemy to your presence.

Very good point, I think i will be following your advice.

My sniper build:
S. 5
P. 5
E. 5
C. 1
I. 9
A. 7
L. 8

Guns and Sneak maxed at 100, the rest is however you'd like.
Repair to make them weapon repair kits and ammo. Repair also allows some nice perks.
Science and Lockpick for obvious reasons and makin' chems.
Speech for obvious reason (though depends on personal preference)
Survival could come in handy, especially in hard mode.
Barter if you like caps.

Perks:
Unconfirmed Bachelor/Black Widow
Educated
Bloody Mess
Hand Loader
Toughness x2
Commando
Finesse
Silent Running
Sniper
Better Criticals
Grim Reaper's Sprint
Ninja

Weapon of choice would be a Sniper Rifle with a silencer.

Yea for my build my main weapon of choice is a silenced sniper, i didn't get the AM rifle because its ammo weighed so damn much. .25 or .5 for each ammo whereas a .308 round is like .06 or .08 each. Plus i already had bought the suppressor and the carbon frame, which reduces weight by 5 making it 3 i think.

I can confirm what others have said about the AM rifle. I have AM and fully modded sniper rifle with luck at 8, Boone's beret, better criticals, finesse, sniper and hand loader. In the final battle the hand loads in the sniper rifle were almost always one hit kills shooting from the hip. In VATS I killed Lanius with 2 headshots. The AM rifle on the otherhand almost always needed 2 shots with hand loads from the hip and it only allowed me a single shot in VATS. I ended up giving Boone the AM and all my ammo. Up close I used the 45-70 Ranger pistol from Hanlon.

The high luck helps if you use the sniper rifle once you've been spotted and enemies are closing in. I believe with the perks you have an extremely high chance of a critical using the sniper rifle, more than any other gun in the game.