Melee Weapons

Melee Weapons is a Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, and Fallout Tactics skill. In Van Buren and J.E. Sawyer's Fallout Role-Playing Game, it was to be renamed to simply Melee.

It determines your combat effectiveness with all melee weapons.

Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics
Initial Level: Starting Melee is equal to 55% + (1% x the average of your Strength and Agility). Average characters will have a 60% skill.

Fallout 3
Weapons using this skill are specifically the Police Baton, Chinese Officer's Sword, Combat Knife, Lead Pipe, Ripper, Rolling Pin, Knife, Switchblade, Tire Iron, Repellent Stick, Baseball Bat, Nail Board, Pool Cue, Sledgehammer, Super Sledge, Shishkebab, AutoAxe, Axe, Shovel, and any unique variants of these weapons. As this skill increases, so does the damage inflicted with all of these weapons, both in and out of V.A.T.S. mode. The Melee Weapons skill also allows you to use a melee weapon to block an attack; the higher the skill, the more damage is absorbed.

Melee weapons in Fallout 3 is a Strength based skill and you receive two skill points for each point of Strength. In addition there is a Strength based damage bonus for each melee attack up to +6 damage at 10 Strength. Melee weapons can be used in V.A.T.S. but can't make targeted attacks to specific parts of the body; however, they still gain the accuracy boost to the attacks to the body in general. Unlike Fallout 1 and 2 where some of the higher level Melee weapons like the Ripper used Small Energy Cells with each attack no melee weapons in Fallout 3 require ammunition.

The only specific Fallout 3 Perks for Melee weapons are Little Leaguer and Ninja although other Perks like Toughness or Better Criticals are important for building an effective melee fighter.

In choosing a melee weapon, don't focus too heavily on which weapon has the highest damage. A fast weapon like a Combat Knife or Ripper can make more attacks in a given length of time than a heavy Sledgehammer, potentially generating more damage in a shorter amount of time. Refer to the DPS stat on the Weapons page. More attacks also means more chances to stagger an opponent so they can't attack back as quickly, reducing the damage you take. Shishkebab is generally considered the best melee weapon available as it has the highest base DPS, which is only improved further when combined with Pyromaniac. However, Jack can, depending on whether or not you have a high base critical chance and/or the Ninja/Better Criticals/Finesse perks deal an astounding amount of damage far superior to that of the Shishkebab in a damage-per-second sense. Jack is especially effective when performing a sneak attack critical hit, since these are known to instantly splatter most enemies.

The player can maximize this skill by collecting all Grognak the Barbarian books, provided that the player has the Comprehension skill.