Fallout 3 SPECIAL

This article describes the features of the Fallout 3 version of the SPECIAL character system, as well as its differences from SPECIAL's implementation in previous games.

Character Development
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 dialog options.

Every aspect of the PC chosen during early life can be changed when the PC exits Vault 101.

The maximum level the player can achieve is 20.

Main statistics
The main statistics are the same as they were in previous games. The player's SPECIAL 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 nor higher than 10, regardless of equipment or physical ailment.

SPECIAL stands for: Note In the game you can gain +1 to Strength and Perception by completing the quest Those!. Note: Setting attributes to 10 in the character creation is unnecessarily wasteful as none of your stats can be raised above 10 by any means including chems, clothing, etc. There are bobbleheads to be found that raise each one of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats by one, and either perception or strength can be raised an additional point upon completion of the Those! quest. One possible exception to this rule may be Intelligence. However it is possible to achieve the Intelligence bobblehead at level 2 by traveling directly to Rivet City. This is a trade-off of 1 stat point for 1 skill point; as a stat point gives 2-6 skill points (in addition to other benefits).
 * Strength
 * Perception
 * Endurance
 * Charisma
 * Intelligence
 * Agility
 * Luck


 * Table showing items' influence on SPECIAL stats points.

Skills
Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L points affect your skill points.

List of Skills and corresponding S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute: Gambling and Outdoorsman skills were completely removed.

See Fallout 3 Skills for more information specific to Fallout 3 skills.

Commentary
Many Perks have a trait requirement, for example the Mysterious Stranger perk requires a Luck of 6 to become an option.

Strength
Strength is useful mostly for melee weapons. While some people use guns all the time everyone enjoys beating the stuffing out of Mole Rats. Carrying stuff is helpful but not important for various reasons.

Perception
By becoming more Perceptive of his/her surroundings the Fallout 3 waste-warrior can Sneak up on an opponent and the hit will automatically be a critical hit. Luck factors into the chance of a critical hit and because the crit while sneaking is automatic the two traits, Luck and Perception, are almost mutually exclusive; on the other hand there are some Perks which can only be chosen if your Luck is high enough which increase the power of your critical hits. Perception can also be useful if you just want to avoid encounters.

Endurance
A little bit of Endurance can be useful to in preserving any character's life. The ability to pause time even during combat in Fallout 3 and take a stimpak or two makes a high Endurance superfluous except when face-to-face with your enemy, like in melee. Also if you have low Strength, Agility and Luck then combat may be more difficult to those inexperienced with shooters unless they have a high Endurance.

Charisma
Charisma may influence the amount of dialogue choices you are given in most conversations with an NPC (confirm/deny).

Intelligence
Skill Points influence your effectiveness in nearly every situation and because a higher Intelligence means more skill points to use when you level up. A higher intelligence early on can make a significant impact in nearly every situation however after playing for a long time it is possible to get every skill point to 100 with only a moderate intelligence.

Agility
A high Agility means your character will get off more shots or swings while the game is paused using V.A.T.S.. Feel free to lower this trait if you're experienced with shooters.

Luck
Each point of Luck raises your chance to critically hit an opponent by one percent. Every two points of luck raise all of your skills by one point. The maximum bonus is +2 (at 9 luck), and the maximum penalty is -2 (at 1 luck). Even-numbered luck scores have no extra effect on skills.

Character Editor
A 3rd party character editor is available:  http://rapidshare.com/files/170421859/Fallout_3_Character_Creator_v1.0.rar 

Edited 5th December 2008, created by Oggy1985 (version change: Final version -if no new errors or suggestions appear)
 * Note: please note that Character Creator will work best with MS Office 2007 (version 2003 will have limited functionality in some formulas)

Another character creator is available at: fallout 3 character calculator xls ods

Class Editor
A 3rd party Class editor is available:  http://rapidshare.com/files/170421860/Fallout_3_Class_Editor_v1.1.2.rar 

Author: Macilnar

Version 1.1.2 Released on 12/05/2008

The editor allows you to chose between one of 3 primary classes (Stealth, Close Combat, and Ranged Combat) and a main weapon focus (Melee, Small Gun, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Unarmed, and Big Gun). The editor then gives recommended values to skills, S.P.E.C.I.A.L, and what perks to take.

Author Notes:
 * Only the Stealth class and its weapon focuses are complete. Close and Ranged Combat will be done in the next update
 * Only works with Excel 2007 or newer (sorry for those who don't have it but it just doesn't work in the older versions. If someone wants to try to convert it go right ahead and do it just let me know.)