anything to do as a charisma build?

[priestess of slaanesh]

any major side quests, etc that don't depend on strong combat stats?

[Greb]

Charisma in Fallout 3, NV and 4 pretty much meant getting companions to do the fighting for you. In Fallout 4's case, there are perks to disable enemy creatures and humans (but not robots) but it can fail and screw you over pretty quickly. Tried it briefly, wasn't fun, lots of savescumming required.

As for quests, no, not really. Most usually involve gunning your way through something, there's no diplomacy of any sort in this game, stuff gets violent eventually. Unless you like running away that is.

I have seen a few quests that didn't require combat, such as that one in Diamond City where you pick up 4 junk items in the water for that kid, lol. Most quests that have dialogue have an option to avoid combat, I'll admit, but again you normally have to fight your way through a dungeon to reach that point anyway.

[BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!]

Charisma in this helps you with money a lot. It give you better deals when trading, allows you persuade people which 99.9% of the time means vary levels of demanding more money, and it also factors into how many people you can have in settlements.

The settlement population amount is actually pretty powerful since being able to have a lot of people in settlements, especially if you took the perks for stores, bartering, and trade routes, allows you to turn your settlements into complete powerhouses and allow you to churn out tons of things.

[DrHappyAngry]

In the late game there are some nice options for charisma, actually throughout the game, but it does pay off towards the end, though that might be dependent on the ending you pick ;). It does take some really high charisma plus some items to reliably smooth talk people, but it's not hard to do, and doesn't require that huge of an investment.

[Fuhrer]

A charisma build is a pretty awful idea.

See, even beyond the fact that most speech challenges are either pointless, don't help much, or just get you more caps that have no real purpose in this game, there's one glaring issue.

It is INCREDIBLY easy to artificially boost charisma for any speech challenge.

A hat, glasses, and dress/suit alone can boost you by 4-5, many common alcoholic beverages by another 1, and you can even go hardcore and pretty easily craft grape mentats for a solid +5. In my experience, 7~ charisma is plenty to pass any speech challenge with minimal savescumming.

[BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!]

I don't see a charisma build as being awful.

I wasn't initially aware that dialog in Fallout 4 was going to be "consolized" to the point of being virtually entirely linear so I did what I always do in Fallout games... made my guy super smart and super charismatic to ensure I'd be able to hear all the good stuff.

While the dialog has been a total let down I don't find my build to be awful at all. I constantly see other people complaining about the amount of ammo they go through and a general lack of supplies... but thats never been an issue at all for my character. Being a beast at buying and selling as well as always being able to max out the income from quests I'm always swimming in bullets and supplies. Even more-so since I got the perks to setup shops in my settlements.

[doodx]

Originally posted by Fuhrer:

It is INCREDIBLY easy to artificially boost charisma for any speech challenge.

Exactly. A CHR value of 5 is sufficient for every check since you can easily amp it up with chems/apparel. As for better prices in vendors, you don't need that even on survival difficulty, as robbing a place bare has no repercussions whatsoever (except for the disapproval of some companions) and after a while most locations reset items anyway (in case you don't want to disrupt the atmospheric looks of that place) If you really need the Local Leader perk, just grab the bobblehead.

[BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!]

Originally posted by doodx:

Originally posted by Fuhrer:

It is INCREDIBLY easy to artificially boost charisma for any speech challenge.

Exactly. A CHR value of 5 is sufficient for every check since you can easily amp it up with chems/apparel. As for better prices in vendors, you don't need that even on survival difficulty, as robbing a place bare has no repercussions whatsoever (except for the disapproval of some companions) and after a while most locations reset items anyway (in case you don't want to disrupt the atmospheric looks of that place) If you really need the Local Leader perk, just grab the bobblehead.

Well yeah, a focus on charisma certainly isn't going to compete with a pure min/max build in terms of effectiveness at any given point, but a charisma focused build isn't awful as there are just as many things to offset a lack in other attributes, aside from luck, as there are for charisma.

For instance, I don't have to worry about my low strength because I've been in power armor constantly since I found it due to my ability to always buy massive stockpiles or fusion cores. If I needed a further boost I can easily afford endless amounts of drugs to boost it further.




The game doesn't really allow you to build an "awful" build in terms of the games attributes really.

So long as you play your character in a way that makes use of the attributes you excel in and don't intentionally gimp yourself by picking perks that don't apply to the things you're using, like taking unarmed and melee perks but only ever using guns, then any build will end up just fine throughout the game.

Eventually all builds are pretty much identical anyway as you level up more and in the end everyone is the same since you'll be entirely maxed out.

[Straybow]

Originally posted by BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!:

The game doesn't really allow you to build an "awful" build in terms of the games attributes really. So long as you play your character in a way that makes use of the attributes you excel in and don't intentionally gimp yourself by picking perks that don't apply to the things you're using, like taking unarmed and melee perks but only ever using guns, then any build will end up just fine throughout the game.

This

My main character is charisma and intelligence and I don't sell things, and rarely choose the charisma options as I don't feel they are in character, and I have only a marginal interest in settlements.

I just have a few perk points in rifleman and game continues easily enough even while I am a mediocre shot in vats.

[Fuhrer]

Originally posted by BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!:

Originally posted by doodx:

Exactly. A CHR value of 5 is sufficient for every check since you can easily amp it up with chems/apparel. As for better prices in vendors, you don't need that even on survival difficulty, as robbing a place bare has no repercussions whatsoever (except for the disapproval of some companions) and after a while most locations reset items anyway (in case you don't want to disrupt the atmospheric looks of that place) If you really need the Local Leader perk, just grab the bobblehead.

Well yeah, a focus on charisma certainly isn't going to compete with a pure min/max build in terms of effectiveness at any given point, but a charisma focused build isn't awful as there are just as many things to offset a lack in other attributes, aside from luck, as there are for charisma.


The game doesn't really allow you to build an "awful" build in terms of the games attributes really. So long as you play your character in a way that makes use of the attributes you excel in and don't intentionally gimp yourself by picking perks that don't apply to the things you're using, like taking unarmed and melee perks but only ever using guns, then any build will end up just fine throughout the game.

Eventually all builds are pretty much identical anyway as you level up more and in the end everyone is the same since you'll be entirely maxed out.

Not really, no. The key difference is charisma is rendered completely obsolete in that you only need it boosted for a scant few seconds, and can quickly do so at little to no cost with common equipment and the occasional drug. You're going to have a much more difficult time dealing with a lack of any other stat, especially for frequent and sporadic combat. That's not even saying anything about the perk prereqs. Although you have options with any build, you have a lot more with some than others.

And no, eventually builds are not pretty much identical. You only have infinite levels in theory, not in practice. Most people aren't going to spend the 200-300~ odd hours on a single file to do that.

[BOYCOTT S-T-E-A-M!]

Originally posted by Fuhrer:

Not really, no. The key difference is charisma is rendered completely obsolete in that you only need it boosted for a scant few seconds, and can quickly do so at little to no cost with common equipment and the occasional drug. You're going to have a much more difficult time dealing with a lack of any other stat, especially for frequent and sporadic combat. That's not even saying anything about the perk prereqs. Although you have options with any build, you have a lot more with some than others.

My arguement isn't that charisma builds are equal to all other builds, just that they aren't an awful build by any means. Some games there are builds that you literally can't play because they are useless to the point of being unable to advance. Charisma in this is entirely playable without hinderances.


Being charsima focused, its not like I'm 24/7 duping my guy up in every fight due to a lack in the other stats. I have no need to.

In particularly rough fights I may drop a med-x and/or a psycho, such as when being somewhere I shouldn't be early on and being attacked by an alpha deathclaw. Odds are in a situation like that I'd have done popped the med-x and psycho regardless of my build.

I never see a need to boost my attributes aside from occasionally my strength. Sometimes I just NEED to have that extra piece of loot or two that will push me over my limit so dropping some buffout or eating some grilled radstag give me the boost I need to get back to town and sell. I rarely ever need to do this as I'm 24/7 in power armor so I can already carry a ton so this only really happens when I've been totally neglecting a trip back to town or OCD-ing out and picking up literally everything I come across.

The other attributes don't factor in for me. Perception, agility, and luck are tied primarily into the VATS mechanic, but I don't need to worry about them at all. I just straight up shoot things ironsight except when I maybe use VATS to nail a particularly annoying bloatfly.

Frequent and sporadic combat has never been a hinderance with me playing a character that was charisma based.


Additionally, boosting your charisma temporarily doesn't impact settlements as your maximum recruitment limits and such are derived from the base charisma score and not the modified one. Much like how all perks are based on your base attribute scores and not your modified ones.

Originally posted by Fuhrer:

And no, eventually builds are not pretty much identical. You only have infinite levels in theory, not in practice. Most people aren't going to spend the 200-300~ odd hours on a single file to do that.

Everyone I know started playing the game with wildly different character builds. By level 10 to 20 we all found that our characters were fairly similar... we had one core weapon type we invested in, we invested in mod perks that went with that weapon type, and we all took the lockpicking and hacking perks.

Aside from minor and largely irrelevant differences in base attributes we were all pretty much the same. Our difficulty in handling things was essentially the same as well with some minor things like my friend who is long ranged base has more trouble with feral ghouls and mole rats than my friend who has a melee weapons guys, etc. Nothing game changing for any of us though... its overall essentially the same experience.

[STALKER ★★★]

Charisma helps a lot, especially if you have the ability to pacify things. Like one time I was fighting a mirelurk queen and 1 legendary glowing mirelurk and 2 hunters came out behind me and was like "fug I'm dead" but I pacified them and focused on the queen. Later I killed them :P