Character build.

[PeaceThroughPower]

What do you prefer? What are your character builds like?

I'm about to play NV for the first time. Fallout 4 was my first fallout game and in 4, I went with a sneaky long range / sniper build.

I was thinking about doing something similiar for NV since melee/unarmed does not sound appealing to me for a game with guns and explosives.

[Andy]

I always max intelligence stat at the beginning. With all the DLCs installed, the level cap is high enough that you can max out almost every skill with max intellience. My last character was like this, and they had max everything excelpt survival and medicine (I think).

[PeaceThroughPower]

Originally posted by Andy:

I always max intelligence stat at the beginning. With all the DLCs installed, the level cap is high enough that you can max out almost every skill with max intellience. My last character was like this, and they had max everything excelpt survival and medicine (I think).

Should I avoid putting points into things that will not relate to my playstyle or is intelligence a must have? For example, for my current character.

I avoid strength, endurance, and intelligence. Then I stock up on perception, agility, luck, and charisma for the role playing aspects.

[Andy]

it's up to you! If you want to role play a certain type of character, then it may not make sense to be a god in almost every aspect. I'm kind of a completionist and wanted to be kickass at everything. Just for fun and playing the game.

I think if you play a low intelligence character, then you will have fewer skill points to distribute every level, so you should probably prioritize the skills you definitely want to be good at. Sneak, speech, etc.

[Rambo First Blunt]

IMO i would go pretty basic. Put extra points in luck intelligence and Endurance. Maxing stats out is a mistake.

[Captain Ed Hocken]

High intelligence lets you improve your skills with more points, so it's possible to max out most if not all of your skills, but you can't go wrong with guns and explosives (at least at the beginning). There's ample amounts of dynamite and you won't encounter any (good) energy weapons for a while, so guns are also an effective choice. It'll be a good portion in before you get a good sniper riffle but when you do get one they can be pretty effective.

I'd also like to point out that in NV your skills and attirubtes can actually be used to affect dialogue choices beyond just speech (it's usually blank / X requirement, if you meet the requirement the persuassion attempt will succeed). It's a pretty cool addition though some skills are used in dialogue more than others (science, repair and BARTER were really useful, can't say I remember when I used lockpick or melee weapons in dialogue). Speech will still be the overwhelming skill used in dialogue, but just something to keep in mind when making your character build.

Here's a made up example, if some guy says "Man what do you know about firing a gun?"
Response: 35/35 "A lot actually."
"Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick, I guess you do. Here check out these weapon mods."

OR

Some guy: "Why should I help you?"
Response: 1/7 intelligence "Durr I dun know. *droll pools in mouth*"
"Oh wow you do need my help. I'm surprised you've even made it this far."

[Delta 1038]

Originally posted by EpicKingdom_:

I was thinking about doing something similiar for NV since melee/unarmed does not sound appealing to me for a game with guns and explosives.

You'd honestly be quite surprised at how powerful melee/unarmed can be in this game. In fact, if you play your cards right, melee/unarmed can make the game alot easier.

But a common "beginner" build is the friendly sniper.

For the SPECIAL, basically don't put anything into Charisma (More or less a dump stat unless you RP) and no more than +1 for Perception (It's for a perk). If you have all the DLCs, you don't really need 10 INT to max your skills although you don't really need to max them out anyway.

Anyway for skills themselves, focus on Guns, Speech and Repair. Pretty much all you need to finish the game.

Okay, going to let this out here: I really don't like how the speech checks are handled in this game (Just meet the number and instant "I win". Exceptions of course) and the rewards are generally better than if you did not use the speech checks.

[Zaphod]

Just have fun with it, New Vegas has fantastic replayability, next time you can go an entirely different build. I always make characters that are themed...

My first character, "Led", a Chem addicted, alchoholic, Gun Master with a heart of gold, helped everyone and valued freedom above all. He was agile and perceptive, not very healthy or strong, Repair and Guns, Guns Guns.

My Second Character, " Mr. Quick ", a sleazy, black-hearted, silver-tongued con man who swindled, cheated and stole his way through the Mojave, very little combat skills, used companions and companion perks, great charisma and intelligence, speech, sneak and barter were his strong points.

My Third, " Clutch " a martial artist ( unarmed ) and melee bad ass, a ruthless killing machine, a nigh invulnerable build, strong and tough, not at all charismatic or lucky. Used perks and heavy armor to make him almost impervious.

And my latest creation, " Ravenous " Hardcore Character, a Cannibal, eats ONLY human meat, specifically goes after deserving criminals or the criminally stupid, sort of Hannibal Lector-esque. I set myself rules, i have to eat, no matter how difficult it is to get away with, all the main Npc's ( not neccesary to my specific story line choices ) and be a general psychopath in every other way i can. I'm testing the Karma system with this playthrough. He's been alot of fun.

Try not to Min/Max your character, you will, ultimately, not enjoy playin', just make up a basic "skeleton" of what you would like to play and choose stats and skills to back that up. Sometimes people get caught up tryin' to make the "best" character, to sqeeze the most skill points out from the system that they can, just play somethin' that you will love in the long run.

[glithch]

lmao im the thief type in p much every game, and if i can have charisma obnoxiously high then im in absolute heaven. so its mostly agility, perception luck and im doing just fine?

[red255]

Stats don't matter except qualifying for perks.

exceptions being END which is required for implants (1 per implant)
and LUCK which can't be easily raised by drugs to meet various checks, mainly gambling.

All that really matters is which ORDER you max your stats in, or whether you max it thru leveling up or wait until you get to the various skill books.

I generally end with my guys for the most part the same way at level 50. on the way there they start with various weapon skills but at the end they tend to have them all, except I neglect explosives because while great On paper the hit detection is abysmal and things just walk thru nuclear fire and don't take damage because they weren't coded for it?

Perhaps as a reference to the fact that these things survived a nuclear holocaust and are pretty thriving. Regardless I don't explode much. since it doesn't work on all enemy types and that breaks emersion.

[manpotionTTV]

Originally posted by Captain Ed Hocken:

Some guy: "Why should I help you?"
Response: 1/7 intelligence "Durr I dun know. *droll pools in mouth*"
"Oh wow you do need my help. I'm surprised you've even made it this far."

Some NPCs have secret triggered responses depending on what perks you chose. For instance, the Cannibal Perk with the White Gloves.

Terrifying Presence is the best by far:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS_fvoNGTlQ

[Ladez]

Originally posted by EpicKingdom_:

I'm about to play NV for the first time.

Then don't worry about builds. There's arguably no such thing as builds anyway, as you're eventually going to max at least 2/3 of the skills due to the rampant amount of levelling in the game.

Just make whatever kind of character you want to play and enjoy the story.

[PeaceThroughPower]

Originally posted by Ladez:

Originally posted by EpicKingdom_:

I'm about to play NV for the first time.

Then don't worry about builds. There's arguably no such thing as builds anyway, as you're eventually going to max at least 2/3 of the skills due to the rampant amount of levelling in the game.

Just make whatever kind of character you want to play and enjoy the story.

Alright then. With that said, I just went with whatever sounds useful for this type of game.

For example, sneak, guns, and, barter.

Agility, perception, luck, and charisma for main stats above 5 and I tossed extra points into strength, endurance, and intelligence. Then I took traits that improved weapon accuracy stuff like that.

[manpotionTTV]

Originally posted by Captain Ed Hocken:

High intelligence lets you improve your skills with more points, so it's possible to max out most if not all of your skills, but you can't go wrong with guns and explosives (at least at the beginning). There's ample amounts of dynamite and you won't encounter any (good) energy weapons for a while, so guns are also an effective choice. It'll be a good portion in before you get a good sniper riffle but when you do get one they can be pretty effective.

I was able to start an energy weapons user right out of the gate in Goodsprings. Thanks to the GRA and Caravan packs, you can essentially pawn all the weapons you're not skilled in at Chet's. He will also sell GRA laser/plasma pistols and E. cells.

Then when you get to Freeside, you can Stealthboy it up and steall all the ammo and energy weapons at the Silver Rush and load them all on your companions. You'll have well over 500 E. cells and about 220 MicroFusion cartridges, not to mention the Defender and the Caster. And the Multi-plasm. Plus your can recycle energy ammo from nothing, as opposed to taking the equivalent perk for reloading benches which requires scavenging for unbent tin cans. Of course, once your barter skill is near-maxed, buying ammo won't be quite as expensive anyway.

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by EpicKingdom_:

I went with a sneaky long range / sniper build.

Well, you could land Boone as your companion. He is a sniper.

Then you, yourself, could go melee.

The two of you would rip it up.

Boone will snipe enemies before you can see, hear, or even fight them. You'll have to look at which way his gun is pointing when he suddenly starts firing off shots, or you'll never know where to find the corpse.

[Captain Ed Hocken]

Originally posted by A Handsome Gentleman:

Originally posted by Captain Ed Hocken:

High intelligence lets you improve your skills with more points, so it's possible to max out most if not all of your skills, but you can't go wrong with guns and explosives (at least at the beginning). There's ample amounts of dynamite and you won't encounter any (good) energy weapons for a while, so guns are also an effective choice. It'll be a good portion in before you get a good sniper riffle but when you do get one they can be pretty effective.

I was able to start an energy weapons user right out of the gate in Goodsprings. Thanks to the GRA and Caravan packs, you can essentially pawn all the weapons you're not skilled in at Chet's. He will also sell GRA laser/plasma pistols and E. cells.

Then when you get to Freeside, you can Stealthboy it up and steall all the ammo and energy weapons at the Silver Rush and load them all on your companions. You'll have well over 500 E. cells and about 220 MicroFusion cartridges, not to mention the Defender and the Caster. And the Multi-plasm. Plus your can recycle energy ammo from nothing, as opposed to taking the equivalent perk for reloading benches which requires scavenging for unbent tin cans. Of course, once your barter skill is near-maxed, buying ammo won't be quite as expensive anyway.

Huh, didn't know Chet sold plasma pistols, knew he sold the laser pistols though (which I guess are ok but not really my thing). I guess when I was talking about the starting build I wasn't including all the small packs you get with the DLC (in which case you can kind of go nuts and do whatever you want). I usually go with a bigger emphasis on energy weapons (especially in the long run). And yeah stealing from the Silver Rush is hilariously easy (I once stole from the table of goodies in plain sight with 50 Sneak and I was considered "hidden"), but I'd say until you get there (or maybe Novac) energy weapon ammo is certainly more scarce.