Paladin Hoss

Paladin Hoss is a member of the Capital Wasteland Brotherhood of Steel.

Unmarked quest: The Lost Initiate
During a training exercise in Falls Church, Knight Church, Paladin Hoss, Initiate Pek, and an unnamed Paladin (RefID=15595) were separated by a Super Mutant attack. Knight Church was killed in the initial attack and Initiate Pek became trapped in an office building while Paladin Hoss and the other Paladin were fighting nearby.

The Lone Wanderer soon arrives and aids Hoss and the Paladin and they eventually push to the office building where Pek is located. Hoss and the Paladin secure the area outside while the Vault 101 Dweller storms inside the building killing the Super Mutants inside. He soon finds Pek cowering in a corner. The Vault 101 Dweller repairs Pek's weapon and they regroup outside with Hoss and the Paladin.

If you come to Falls Church from Grayditch via the Metro tunnels as a side trip during the Those! quest, when you exit to Falls Church, you will see a fight going on between 4-5 Super Mutants and 1-2 Paladins, as described above. In this situation, Hoss usually gets killed even before you get a chance to help and this quest never takes place. If you sit back and wait, both Hoss and the other Paladin wind up dead. You can then get a lot of good loot from their corpses, including Brotherhood Holotags which can later be sold. You can then kill all the Super Mutants (assuming you have a good weapon like the Alien Blaster) and get all the XP and loot for doing so.

Bugs
Hoss is, unfortunately, victim of some of the most serious AI bugs in the game.


 * "Halfway" through completing the quest up to the point of only saving Pek, and then heading back on into Marigold Metro Station will result in Hoss following you around for the rest of the game or until you finish on going to the other side of Falls Church. He will only show up in certain places at seemingly random times however. It is not only terribly annoying but if Hoss manages to get himself killed on these extended roaming sessions he embarks upon, you will not get the XP associated with finishing the incomplete quest.


 * Even if you complete this quest, Hoss will often continue roaming around the wasteland and if you return to Falls Church and re-enter the building where the initiate was taken hostage, the initiate will reappear again when you exit even if you had already rescued him previously. This will cause Hoss to continue to wander. Hoss has a predefined wasteland wandering routine where he visits several waypoints. He usually goes past Megaton, down to the Hubris Comics sewers, through Hubris Comics, Marigold Station, Falls Church Station, and then repeats this process.


 * Another bug associated with Hoss is if he appears when you're exiting your home (currently tested only with the Megaton home) he might steal one random weapon from your home and all ammunition associated with it from one of your lockers. This can be especially annoying if he steals rare or unique items such as the Alien Blaster. Hoss Might also appear if you wait for a period of time in Megaton. (e.g. waiting for Moira Brown to open Craterside Supply). He will appear at the PC, and break for the gate out of megaton. Once he exits, he will run south.


 * On Xbox360 and PS3, Hoss may appear in "My Megaton House," in the bedroom after you have slept. Hoss then does not move.  The option to talk or pickpocket is given, but you cannot engage in these activities.  Instead he just stands there.  The real interesting thing is that you can kill him with one punch, while he is in full armor, with no karma consequence.  You may then feel free to loot a suit of power armor, a missile launcher, a 10mm pistol, ammo, and a B.O.S. holotag.  Now hurry and go sell those items to Moira!


 * You can retrieve your stolen items by killing Hoss. If you kill him outright, you will lose karma. However, if you follow him out of Megaton and let him run, he will stop to fight some Giant ants beside a car and a billboard. If you shoot only the car and cause it to explode, it will kill Hoss and his companion but will not generate any negative karma. Alternatively you can start a fight with Hoss and let your follower kill him to avoid losing karma, for example punching him once and letting a follower kill him. Otherwise, simply follow Hoss around the wasteland until he encounters some enemies and is killed by their hands. If he has armed himself with an especially powerful weapon stolen from your home however, this may never occur and you will have to find some other way to dispatch him if you want your unique items back.


 * To Prevent Paladin Hoss and friends from following you (and appearing in such odd places as Enclave Auxiliary Base Rho, and every point between), demand payment twice when you first meet him. Upon completion of the rescue, he will thank, pay, and bid farewell to the Lone Wanderer, dubbed mercenary. Then, for a mere -300 Karma, a grenade or two should kill all three (make sure they're close together), for two sets of power armor, a suit of combat armor, and an assortment of weapons.


 * On PS3 version, the other Paladin that survived the extraction will instead follow you. The bug cause frame rate issues as well as freezing the game temporally.


 * If you choose to decline helping Paladin Hoss then he and his unnamed companion will sometimes freeze on the spot (you can still press the action button to interact with them, but they just say a caption). Paladin Hoss can also sometimes disappear but still show up on your radar, you cannot interact with him though.


 * The entire group may randomly appear near you. One member will say "Hi" then they will all run away. It seems rather like a childrens game but can be useful if you are under attack during this.


 * If you enter the second, non-Pek office building in Falls Church while Paladin Hoss is following you, he may become stuck outside at the door you entered (it doesn't matter which of the two doors you enter through). He will stop following you around Falls Church and you can no longer speak to him. This can be fixed in the PC version by using the 'moveto player' console command.


 * After completing the Lost Initiate quest, Paladin Hoss may randomly appear when you sleep for over 3 hours. When this happened to me, though he was marked as friendly, Hoss ran onto and was blown up by one of my frag mines.


 * If you really want the unnamed side quest you may reload a saved game, if Hoss dies. For me this has proven to be a bad idea many times. Hoss may respawn when you reload the saved game but with very low health.


 * If you decline the request to rescue Pek, Hoss and the Paladin will wonder on and continue to fight super mutants, leaving Pek behind. in addition to this Pek can be found dead in the office wearing no armor, but if you loot his body combat armor can be found on hin aprently equipped.


 * Without meeting him at falls church he and his buddy may show up at Fort Independence, and kill all the outcasts.