Fallout: New Vegas SPECIAL

Character creation
The maximum level the player can achieve in Fallout: New Vegas is 30, however, each add-on installed adds an additional 5 levels to the maximum. With all four DLC's, the level is increased to a final level maximum of 50.

Primary statistics
The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system should be familiar to players of the Fallout series. As has been the case since Fallout, the character's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes default to 5 points per attribute which, with an additional 5 points for distribution for a total of 40 points. As in previous games, individual attributes can be adjusted upwards and downwards so long as the total equals exactly 40. Also as in previous games, individual attributes can not go lower than 1 or higher than 10; any bonus or penalty beyond those are simply ignored.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stands for:
 * Strength
 * Perception
 * Endurance
 * Charisma
 * Intelligence
 * Agility
 * Luck

Unlike Fallout and Fallout 2, the game internally keeps track of your "base stats", in other words your SPECIAL scores without any temporary adjustments (such as from chems or certain equipment). These base stats are used both for calculating whether you meet the necessary prerequisites for a perk and for the number of skill points you gain on a level up. The only ways to increase your "base stats" are through:
 * New Vegas medical clinic implants
 * Intense Training (perk)
 * Completing Lonesome Road (add-on)
 * Taking Four Eyes (trait), which gives you a permanent -1 to Perception while giving you a temporary +2 to Perception when wearing glasses, or +3 with Lucky Shades
 * Taking Small Frame (trait)
 * Completing Old World Blues for +2 Strength

There is a special Endurance calculation used just for the New Vegas medical clinic implant limit. This is your base Endurance minus any Endurance implant. This is to prevent an Endurance implant from being "free" (as otherwise everyone could install an Endurance implant and still have the same number of available implants as before). Taking all these stat buffs will yield the player 24 SPECIAL points, the maximum possible without the use of cheats.

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

The following derived statistics are known to exist in Fallout: New Vegas:
 * Action points
 * Carry weight
 * Hit points
 * Melee damage
 * Unarmed damage
 * Weapon Damage

Skills
Skills in Fallout: New Vegas determine the player's effectiveness in a variety of situations. As in the previous games, the player chooses three tag skills out of thirteen to be the character's specialties. Tagging a skill grants the player a 15 point bonus to that skill. Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points affect the amount of skill points your character starts with.

The skills in Fallout: New Vegas are:
 * Combat skills: Energy Weapons, Explosives, Guns, Melee Weapons, Unarmed,
 * Other skills: Barter, Lockpick, Medicine, Repair, Science, Sneak, Speech, Survival

Perks
Perks are special elements of the level up system which grant special effects and abilities. In Fallout: New Vegas, you gain a perk every two levels. Many perks have an attribute requirement(s), for example the Mysterious Stranger perk, which requires a particular skill to use. Some perks require a high gun skill or a high unarmed skill. Some perks also grant special bonuses. For example, again, the Mysterious Stranger perk. It grants a non-player character from above that comes down to help in combat every once in a while.

For a list of perks, please see Fallout: New Vegas perks.

Traits
Traits modify different aspects of gameplay, including (but not limited to): Primary statistics, derived statistics and skills. Traits always have both positive and negative results. For example, the Small Frame trait which grants a +1 to Agility, but your limbs are more easily crippled.

One can choose up to two traits when designing a character (or none at all).

For a list of traits, please see Fallout: New Vegas traits.

Changes from previous Fallout games
Much of the SPECIAL from Fallout 3 remains intact, with very few new features being added in the way of character creation or stats. Weapons now have a minimum Strength requirement to be used effectively, like in Fallout and Fallout 2. Also returning from the first two games are low Intelligence characters, which can be created by setting your Intelligence less than 3. The SPECIAL bobbleheads have been replaced by implants available from the New Vegas medical clinic.

Bugs
If, for some reason, you have 10 in every SPECIAL trait, Intense Training or any similar action that makes the player add a point to a SPECIAL attribute (such as completing the Lonesome Road DLC), you will be stuck in the SPECIAL menu with no way to even pause the game. There is no way to fix this except by using console commands.

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