Fallout: New Vegas SPECIAL

Character creation
Upon waking up, the player chooses the player character's name, gender, age, stats, and appearance.

The maximum level the player can achieve in Fallout: New Vegas is 30, however, with the new downloadable content being released on December 21 for Xbox 360, Dead Money, the cap is increased to 35.

Primary statistics
The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system should be familiar to Fallout players. 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. NOTE: with an endurance of 7 it is possible to increase the total number of special points to 47. For every endurance point an implant can be bought. Each implant raises the attributes of a S.P.E.C.I.A.L characteristic.

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

Each S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stat governs one or more skills (Excluding Luck):

Strength: Melee Weapons - (Also determines weapon efficiency, inventory carry weight, and melee combat damage).

Perception: Energy Weapons, Lockpick, Explosives - (Also determines compass range).

Endurance: Unarmed, Survival - (Also determines hit points, radiation/poison resistances, and number of implants obtainable).

Charisma: Speech, Barter - (Also determines companion nerve).

Intelligence: Medicine, Science, Repair - (Also determines Skill points per level).

Agility: Guns, Sneak - (Also determines number of action points and action point regeneration).

Luck: Luck does not determine any particular skill, but it governs all skills slightly'. Luck also affects critical hit chances, enemy mishaps, and gambling luck.

A point in a S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stat will increase its governed Skill by a comparative amount. It is however worth noting that it's more efficient to increase the skill itself rather than the Stat if you want to have a high Skill.

S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Stats may be increased temporarily via chem usage or particular equipment. Permanent stat boosts are obtainable through the Intense Training Perk and the Meat of Champions perk. Also the Physical Implants purchased at the New Vegas Medical Clinic.

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 only 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 perks every two levels. Many perks have an attribute requirement, for example the Mysterious Stranger perk requires a luck of 6 to become an option. Other perks have attribute and skill requirements. A perk's S.P.E.C.I.A.L. requirements cannot be met by equipping items or using drugs.

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.

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.