Fallout 3 SPECIAL

This page describes the SPECIAL implementation

Character creation
At birth the player chooses the player character's name, gender and appearance. Later, as a child in Vault 101, the PC receives a book titled "You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L.!," whereupon the player can set the PC's seven primary character points. Later in life during the teen years the PC's performance on the G.O.A.T. determines which skills of the PC are tagged (tagged means raised by fifteen points); the player can also choose which skills to tag manually via choosing particular dialogue options with Edwin Brotch.

Every aspect of the Lone Wanderer chosen during early life can be changed when exiting Vault 101. The maximum level the player can achieve in Fallout 3 is 20. This cap is raised to 30 with the Broken Steel add-on.

Primary statistics
The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system should be familiar to Fallout veterans, though there are significant differences from past games. The player's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes default at 5 points per attribute, with an additional 5 points for distribution for a total of 40 points. Individual attributes cannot score lower than 1 or higher than 10, regardless of equipment, chems, or ailments.

Overview
The minimum for each primary statistic is 1 and the maximum is 10. Each statistic directly modifies certain derived statistics. In addition, every skill is tied to a primary statistic. As a result, each point added to the primary statistic results in a bonus of 2 points to the associated skill(s). The only exception is Luck which only adds 1 point; in turn, all skills are affected by this stat. Some perks require certain minimum attribute values as well.

Increasing attributes
There are multiple ways to increase your attributes after character creation. They can be increased permanently by taking the Intense Training perk at level-up (which can be taken up to 10 times, at any level) or through various quest perks. Additionally, you can find a bobblehead for each attribute which increases its associated stat by 1 point.

Attributes can also be increased temporarily by wearing certain armors and clothing, carrying certain items or using consumables.

With all ten Intense Training, the Night Person perk, the seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobbleheads, the lucky shades, Three Dog's head wrap, Vance's Longcoat, the Lucky 8-ball, and the Ant Sight/Might perk, it is possible to raise your total S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to 68, compared to the 40 you start with; that's very close to maxing it out at 70.

If you have the Broken Steel add-on you can raise all of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to 5 with only one perk if you take the No Weaknesses perk. You can raise them all to 9 with only one perk if you get the Almost Perfect perk before getting any of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobbleheads. For information on increasing specific attributes, please refer to the article for the respective attribute or to Fallout 3 stat-raising items.

Derived statistics
Derived statistics are attributes of a character that are based on (or derived from) the character's primary statistics or attributes that the player cannot influence directly.