Character creation (Fallout 3)



A character build is any one of thousands of possible Fallout 3 maxed level (30) characters. Strategic planning on the part of the player to develop a set of traits to their fullest potential, creates a "type" of build. Its hard to quantify a character build as they all have their own merits and sacrifices. In this list the only judgments are playstyles: Diplomat, Sniper, Brawler, Thief, etc.

Commentary
The attributes you select are arguably more than relevant to your playstyle than your character. If you enjoy using V.A.T.S., for instance, you'll want a high Agility, since Agility provides action points for V.A.T.S. If you like melee, you'll want high Strength to increase your melee damage. If you want to play a stealthy character, you'll probably want a high perception. Also your SPECIAL stats determine which Perks you can choose, so if you want Mysterious Stranger then you must have a high Luck.

It may seem counterintuitive based on conventions established in prior Fallout games and other RPGs, but the primary function of attributes (aside from determining perk eligibility) is controlling specific aspects of the game that are not really related to your character, such as the user-interface (V.A.T.S. and compass detection, for instance). To approach the issue from another angle, to improve one's ability to persuade NPCs or avoid detection, one will be much better off improving the relevant skill directly (Speech and Sneak respectively), rather than an the associated attribute.

Considering this, you may find these attributes appropriate (or not) for varying styles of play:

First-Person Shooter Playstyle
If you're a seasoned FPS gamer and you don't use V.A.T.S., you obviously won't want many points in Agility, though you should note that Light Step and Silent Running (which you may find useful for running and gunning) require six Agility. Luck will be the most useful attribute in combat, as it raises your critical effect chance with all weapons. You may want extra points in Strength so you can worry less about inventory management, and more points in Intelligence to raise your skills. Some players may want to pick up Fortune Finder and Scrounger, as shooting without V.A.T.S. is often less efficient.

Sniper Playstyle
The traditional Fallout sniper will want to make extensive use of V.A.T.S., and should have an appropriately high Agility attribute. However, with the sniper rifles, the percentage to hit is oddly low, so most will make use of manual-aiming coupled with sneak attacks until Concentrated Fire becomes available at level 18 (keep in mind that this perk requires a minimum of 60 in both small guns and energy weapons). This perk is easily the most useful for long range precision shooting in VATS, and its requirements are both useful to maximize and worth the stats for a weapons-heavy build. Since concentrated fire adds 5% chance to hit with each VATS attack queued on the same body part, players will want to move away from using a traditional sniper rifle and employ a weapon with low AP and moderate damage. The combination of concentrated fire and using a low AP weapon such as a Laser Rifle or the Wazer Wifle allows the PC to increase their chance to hit by upwards of 40% as opposed to the 10% to 15% gained by using a sniper rifle. With the focus on V.A.T.S., you'll want to plan for the following perks: Concentrated Fire, Action Boy/Girl, Sniper, Commando and/or Gunslinger, and Grim Reaper's Sprint. Mysterious Stranger can be useful, but due to its inherently random nature, it doesn't directly make the player more efficient at killing. Also, quest awarded perks such as Wired Reflexes and Ant Sight will help boost a player's efficiency using V.A.T.S. Players should also consider obtaining gear with AP bonuses such as Ranger Battle Armor and Ledoux's Hockey Mask. This will further increase the number of attacks a player can queue in VATS and, coupled with concentrated fire, further increase the chance to hit the targeted part. Make sure to pick up repair to take care of your weapon (see the special notes about V.A.T.S. regarding condition loss).

Stealth / Thief Playstyle
A stealthy character build will allow the player to move through the environment undetected and bypass security measures such as locks and traps. They may also wish to use silent weapons; a list of these can be found further down this article. Players employing a sneaky style will take advantage of Sneak Attack Criticals and reverse-pickpocketing to gain the upper hand in combat. Also, they will likely make extensive use of the explosives skill to disarm and set mines. Due to the nature of the weapons and strategies being used, the player will probably use V.A.T.S. less than more combat-centric builds. In order to maximize the effectiveness of this playstyle, this build should have strong agility and perception stats and focus on the following skills: Sneak for moving undetected and pickpocketing, lockpick for obvious reasons, explosives for disarming mines and maximizing their damage, and repair for disarming traps. Science is important mainly for disabling turrets, so it's not necessary to increase past 75. It would be a good idea to select a weapon class such as small guns or melee weapons to fall back on if things get hairy, but keep in mind that it can be very satisfying to deal with a group of enemies without using a single bullet. Useful perks to use with a stealthy class are Demolition Expert, Thief, Silent Running, Better Criticals (requires luck and perception of 6), Light Step and Robotics Expert (because it is safer and easier to disable a sentry bot rather than fight it). It is worth noting that Finesse, which increases the chance to crit, is not that important to this build since the majority of attacks will be sneak attacks which automatically crit. Look to use gear which is lightweight and gives bonuses to relevant stats and skills. If you have Operation Anchorage, then the Chinese Stealth Armor is easily the best armor to use with this build. Combining Poplar's Hood, Lag-Bolt's Shades (Broken Steel) and Recon Armor gives an amazing 18 Sneak, 3 Lockpick, plus 1 Agility! This makes this a much better option to Chinese Stealth Armor (Operation Anchorage). Here is the list of silent weapons: Dart Gun, an excellent choice as this cripples anythings legs in one shot (this includes Super Mutant Behemoth), Perforator (a unique Infiltrator (weapon), this is probably the best silent weapon on the game (you will need The Pitt DLC)), Silenced 10mm Pistol, this is a good weapon, it does not do much damage, but the 10mm ammo is very easy to find.

Brawler Playstyle
The brawler will want high Strength and Luck to prevail in melee combat. Endurance is good if you like having lots of health. Tasty perks include Ninja, Silent Running, Better Criticals, Adamantium Skeleton, Mister Sandman, Finesse and Toughness, to name a few. Iron Fist is paired well with the Deathclaw Gauntletas it ignores damage resistance. In addition to high Unarmed and Melee Weapons skills, you'll want a high Medicine skill to get the most benefit from various chems (particularly stimpaks). Really, anything that increases your healing or smashing abilities will be useful. You may also find the Paralyzing Palm perk useful. The Shishkebab paired with the Pyromaniac perk does 60 damage and only uses 28 action points.

Diplomat Playstyle
A diplomatic character will want high Intelligence to give him/her access to extra special dialogue options. You'll want at least 6 points in Charisma to make sure you get access to the Animal Friend and Master Trader perks. And of course you'll want to dump lots of skill points into Speech to make sure your attempts at diplomacy are mostly successful. Be sure to grab Child at Heart and Lady Killer (for the gents) or Black Widow (for the gals) as soon as you can. You can also use Impartial Mediation to raise your speech by 30 if your karma is neutral, which, if you are a diplomat, it should be. Right?

Mix-and-Match Playstyle
Of course, you can combine any of the elements above to create your own unique style of play. You might want to explore some of the more esoteric perks like Cyborg or Cannibal for inspiration. A well-rounded style of play will probably want to focus more on skills, but a highly-specialized style of play (such as a Ninja) will probably want to focus on perk synergies that grant extra abilities. Feel free to explore!

Character Build Format

 * List your character from lvl 2-30 (as you can't choose a lvl 1 perk) and give as much detail per level as to which perks and skills to select
 * Please also list your initial, and end-game SPECIAL stats.
 * Users can take advantage of the specialized character template: Template:FO3 user generated character build.

Opinions

 * Note that the character builds listed here are various people's opinions of what makes a good character.
 * There is no such thing as a perfect character, as some people have written, opinions of a character being perfect may vary. Please do not put "Perfect Character" in your build name, as some new players might find it misleading.
 * Please don't edit them unless to fix a typo, just add your own.

Character Build: TitaniumGene’s Femme Fatal Arielle.308(High Vats/Critical build)
One Shot, One Kill/Multiple Hits (High V.A.T.S) 


 * Tip: if you’re going melee build, invest in perks like Ninja and Pyromaniac. These two perks make the Shishkebab your trump card. On the other hand, I chose Deathclaw Gauntlet as it ignores the opponent's total Damage resistance DR, making the Deathclaw Gaunlet a wicked weapon that does full damage even to the highest DR tesla armors!
 * Tip: Make good use of V.A.T.S system, when using melee or unarmed, there's a trick whereby there's a ten-feet maximum range to do a 95% hit rate while in melee or unarmed, you dont have to wait for the enemy to be close to you, use V.A.T.S when he's around 8-10feet away and it saves you time and makes you the one performing the teleport and hit em first move.
 * Tip: Its good to have a Fallout 3 followers by your side in battle in case situations get hairy, especially when being overwhelmed by multiple enemies, in this case its uncommon.
 * Tip: You can equip your companion with weapons and armors, for weapons, ammo must be provided and for armors anything goes. Remember, companion/follower will also receive stat bonuses from gears given by you. Note: Any armor you equipped your merc with, will never degrade so T-51 power armor is the best choice.
 * Tip: The great thing is, Bethesda studios designed followers/companions in a way that they'll use weapons of choice that is given by you for that particular range. For an example, if its from afar, Charon would lob a grenade or fire missiles using Missile Launcher. If its mid-close quarters, he'll use his custom shot gun or Shishkebab, as you noticed the weapons are given by players and sometimes your follower will use them depending on the situations.


 * 1) Note that my build is very low in charisma and Intelligence, reason is simply being that, speech is a skill that you can ignore as you can save and load as many times as you want till you earn a speech success for Fallout 3. Secondly, barter skill points only affect minimum change in prices, there are many ways to earn caps. Thirdly, science skill books have infinite spawns, I don’t see much reason to invest in these areas.
 * 2) For your SPECIAL, I advise not to invest too much in PE unless your character is meant for sniper built. FYI, This is a sniper/unarmed combat build. PE is invested as it gives unarmed bonuses and also an asset for sniping target as it acts as a “radar” Unless you’re going for Big Guns and melee build, then ST would be a better choice
 * 3) My build focus mainly on chances to do critical strikes as the damage boost upon critical can never be underestimated.
 * 4) If You researched the perks I chose and my weapons of choice, you’ll find out the bonuses given can make your character able to perform 60%-100% criticals depending on your LK and weapon condition thus achieving every hit critical.
 * 5) Refer to my weapons of choice and research on them, not to forget perks like Better Criticals, this gives whopping amount of damage boost that stacks upon criticals. There are times where you scored critical hits but the damage dealt isn’t high enough to kill the enemy, but this built is meant to prove that sentence wrong.
 * 6) As you can see I chose Grim Reaper's Sprint perk instead of Ninja perk. Why? Back to basics 101, if you’re focusing on Unarmed you don’t wanna waste your skill points investing into melee as Ninja perk requires 80 melee and 80 sneak! Unless you’re a melee build then you take ninja. The Shishkebab would therefore be an advantage with Ninja perk.
 * 7) The reason i invested 3 perks into Iron Fist is because in early game, unarmed weapon has a immediate +15 damage bonus! Great for starters, not only it saves you ammo, you have no problem facing tougher enemies too! 3 points to Iron Fist adds a whooping amount of damage, packs a punch! Not to mention Deathclaw Gauntlets with additional 15 damage... OUCH!
 * 8) I'm using Deathclaw Gauntlet for unarmed and Lincoln's Repeater as primary weapon mainly V.A.T.S style of playing. If in FPS mode I'll use Reservist's Rifle
 * 9) I hired Charon, equipped him with T-51b Power Armor, T-51b Power Helmet,Shishkebab for melee tactics and i gave him Missile Launcher, missiles and Frag Grenade, For his armor I prefer T-51b power armor is to make up for his lesser hp and DR. I chose Charon than other companions because of his long range yet deadly custom Charon shotgun arguably, its the overall best shotgun in Fallout 3 for its range and spread radius which makes up for its small magazine capacity.
 * 10) I kept The Terrible Shotgun just in case i met a super mutant behemoth, oh my they're the meanest, deadliest monster in fallout 3.
 * 11) I've found out my build perform instant kill when doing head shots regardless of sneak critical or not, which means I've achieved my goal in this build. When using Lincoln's Repeater, enclave soldiers, tesla armored enclaves and death claws cant stand a single hit from head shots. I'm satisfied with my build. Its my first build of the game too. Spent a week on studying, researching and planning for Xyiana.308.
 * 12) You can try out this build or make it better. Its really awesome. I'm playing Normal difficulty settings.

Character Build: Bloodwars' Non-VATS General-use
Melee/Ranged General-use Notes: This is a purely non-VATS build that works well with mods like Mart's Mutant Mod,
 * In case there are questions about my builds having low intelligence, I've done some research into why 3 Intelligence is a good idea©.
 * Important information on skill point increases
 * Note: the 10 Agility in this build is for alternative AP use mods like Sprint Mod and Bullet Time. Agility also affects Sprint Mod run speed.
 * and alternative AP use mods like Sprint Mod and Bullet Time.

Character Build: Bloodwars' Ninja
Ninja/Unarmed
 * In case there are questions about my builds having low intelligence, I've done some research into why 3 Intelligence is a good idea©.
 * Important information on skill point increases


 * You lose out on Child at Heart, Robotics Expert, and Adamantium Skeleton for Rank 3 Iron Fist...
 * Paralyzing Palm Works best with Plunkett's Valid Points due to the VERY low AP, Unfortunately a


 * perk has to be thrown away to obtain them, but at least you get some caps for your trouble.

Character Build: Bloodwars' Tank
Tank/Demolitions
 * In case there are questions about my builds having low intelligence, I've done some research into why 3 Intelligence is a good idea©.
 * Important information on skill point increases

Character Build: Bloodwars' Sniper
Stealth/Sniper
 * In case there are questions about my builds having low intelligence, I've done some research into why 3 Intelligence is a good idea©.
 * Important information on skill point increases

Notes: You can switch Commando with Gunslinger and use Blackhawk, Dart Gun or unique energy pistols -
 * or stay with commando and use Lincoln's Repeater, The Terrible Shotgun , or a Scoped Gauss Rifle.

Character Build: Stumpy's - Max Madden
Resourceful Wastelander & Loner


 * 1) --start--
 * 2) Swift Learner(2): IN 4
 * 3) Intense Training(2): +1ST
 * 4) Intense Training(2): +1AG
 * 5) Educated(4): IN 4
 * 6) Comprehension(4): IN 4
 * 7) Toughness(6): EN 5
 * 8) Commando(8)
 * 9) Swift Learner(2): IN 4
 * 10) Bloody Mess(6)
 * 11) Finesse(10)
 * 12) Sniper(12): AG 6, PE 6
 * 13) Silent Running(12): AG 6, Sneak 50%
 * 14) Intense Training(2): +1LK
 * 15) Cyborg(14): Medicine 60%, Science 60%
 * 16) Action Boy(16): AG 6
 * 17) Better Criticals(16): PE 6, LK 6
 * 18) Concentrated Fire(18): Sm Guns 60%, Enery Weapons 60%
 * 19) Intense Training(2): +1AG
 * 20) Grim Reaper's Sprint(20)


 * Beginning Stats: 1,8,9,1,9,7,5
 * Tagged Skills: Small Guns, Repair, Sneak
 * Skill Formula: +2(Stat*2)+Luck/2 (round up)


 * Bobbleheads:+1ST,+1PE,+1EN,+1CH,+1IN,+1AG,+1LK
 * Intense training: +1ST, +1AG, +1LK, +1AG
 * Lucky 8 Ball:+1LK
 * Ant sight:+1PE


 * Survival Guru:+3% crit / +6DR
 * Covert Ops:+3 Science, +3 Small Guns, +3 Lockpick
 * Hematophage:Bloodpack heals +20HP

Character Build: AshRandom's Rambo
Grenadier, Sniper, & Bruiser


 * 1) --start--
 * 2) Intense Training(2):+1ST
 * 3) Intense Training(2):+1AG
 * 4) Comprehension(4), IN 4
 * 5) Intense Training(2):+1PE
 * 6) Gunslinger(6)
 * 7) Toughness(6), EN 5
 * 8) Commando(8)
 * 9) Demolition Expert-I(6), Explosives 50
 * 10) Demolition Expert-II(6), Explosives 50
 * 11) Demolition Expert-III(6), Explosives 50
 * 12) Silent Running(12), AG 6, Sneak 50
 * 13) Sniper(12), AG 6, PE 6
 * 14) Cyborg(14), Medicine 60, Science 60
 * 15) Finesse(10)
 * 16) Action Boy(16), AG 6
 * 17) Better Criticals(16), PE 6, LK 6
 * 18) Concentrated Fire(18), Small Guns 60%, Energy Weapons 60%
 * 19) Intense Training(2):+1LK
 * 20) Grim Reaper's Sprint(20)


 * Beginning Stats: 6,3,7,1,9,8,6 -- 81AP, 6% crit
 * Final Stats: 8,6,8,2,10,10,10 -- 140AP, 18% crit, +50% crit-dmg, +60% frag-dmg, +31DR
 * bobbleheads:+1ST,+1PE,+1EN,+1CH,+1IN,+1AG,+1LK
 * intense training: +1ST, +1PE, +1AG, +1LK
 * ant sight:+1PE
 * Ranger Battle Armor:+1LK
 * Lucky 8 Ball:+1LK
 * Ledoux's Hockey Mask:+25AP
 * Survival Guru:+3% crit / +6DR
 * Barkskin:+5DR

Character Build: AshRandom's Kenshiro
Ninja Warrior


 * 1) --start--
 * 2) Intense Training(2):+1PE
 * 3) Intense Training(2):+1AG
 * 4) Comprehension(4), IN 4
 * 5) Iron Fist-I(4)
 * 6) Iron Fist-II(4)
 * 7) Iron Fist-III(4)
 * 8) Gunslinger(6)
 * 9) Commando(8)
 * 10) Finesse(10)
 * 11) Toughness(6), EN 5
 * 12) Silent Running(12), AG 6, Sneak 50
 * 13) Sniper(12), AG 6, PE 6
 * 14) Cyborg(14), Medicine 60, Science 60
 * 15) Intense Training(2):+1ST
 * 16) Action Boy(16), AG 6
 * 17) Better Criticals(16), PE 6, LK 6
 * 18) Paralyzing Palm(18), Unarmed 70
 * 19) Intense Training(2):+1LK
 * 20) Ninja(20), Melee Weapons 80, Sneak 80


 * Beginning Stats: 6,3,7,1,9,8,6 -- 81AP, 6% crit
 * Final Stats: 8,6,8,2,10,10,10 -- 140AP, 18% crit, (33% hth-crit), +50% crit-dmg, +15 hth-dmg, +31DR
 * bobbleheads:+1ST,+1PE,+1EN,+1CH,+1IN,+1AG,+1LK
 * intense training: +1ST, +1PE, +1AG, +1LK
 * ant sight:+1PE
 * Ranger Battle Armor:+1LK
 * Lucky 8 Ball:+1LK
 * Ledoux's Hockey Mask:+25AP
 * Survival Guru:+3% crit / +6DR
 * Barkskin:+5DR

Character Build: Riff Raff's Sniper Bitch

 * Gender: Female
 * Karma: Evil - Very Evil
 * SPECIAL | Start | Final
 * Strength | 8 | 10
 * Perception | 7 | 10
 * Endurance | 5 | 6
 * Charisma | 1 | 2 --&gt; She's a bitch, remember.
 * Intelligence | 8 | 9
 * Agility | 6 | 8
 * Luck | 5 | 9

Level. Perk
 * NA
 * 1) Intense Training (+1 ST)
 * 2) Black Widow
 * 3) Educated
 * 4) Comprehension
 * 5) Toughness
 * 6) Intense Training (+1 AG)
 * 7) Strong Back
 * 8) Commando
 * 9) Finesse
 * 10) Intense Training (+1 LK)
 * 11) Silent Running
 * 12) Sniper
 * 13) Bloody Mess
 * 14) Cyborg
 * 15) Action Girl
 * 16) Better Criticals
 * 17) Demolition Expert
 * 18) Pyromaniac
 * 19) Grim Reaper's Sprint


 * Bobbleheads:+1ST,+1PE,+1EN,+1CH,+1IN,+1AG,+1LK
 * Intense Training: +1ST, +1AG, +1LK
 * Ant Sight:+1PE
 * Ranger Battle Armor:+1LK
 * Lucky 8 Ball:+1LK
 * Various Head Gear:+1PE
 * Survival Guru:+3% crit / +6DR OR Dream Crusher if you want to keep in character
 * Barkskin:+5DR

Character Build: Nux's Maximum Build
Maximum SPECIAL/Skills


 * This is my attempt to build a Fallout 3 Character that has maxed out Skills and nearly maxed out SPECIAL based on the research done in Talk:Fallout 3 SPECIAL
 * Once your skills are maxed out, you can play this character in nearly every play style, but the equipment and perks lend itself to rifles or Big Guns. Any "two handed Weapon" used in vats will be phenomenally successful.
 * The crucial thing to remember with this build is that it relies of collecting all the skill books in the game, and read them all after getting the Comprehension perk at level 4
 * If you collect every book and bobblehead in the game, you only need to allocate 40 points to each of your skills.
 * After reading User:Bloodwars I've reduced the builds Intelligence to 4, which is the bare minimum, in favor of some more Endurance
 * I've been debating switching out Scrounger for Bloody Mess. Having extra ammo is always useful, especially if you're playing on a higher difficulty level. Also, the wording behind Bloody Mess is a bit unclear. If it is simply a base 5% damage modifer, then it's worth having, but if it is actually a +5 to all weapon skills (Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Melee Weapons, Small Guns and Unarmed), it's not worth taking.
 * In future add-ons, the level cap may be raised. In that case, this build will become even more powerful, allowing for more perks, and possible maximization of SPECIAL
 * This build is a work in progress. Any help improving it would be much appreciated.
 * With the realease of Broken Steel at level 30 you can choose Almost Perfect and max out SPECIAL provided you haven't gotten any of the bobbleheads for SPECIAL.

Here's the boring math behind the build

Skill point Calcucation:

Points Need: 250

Excess Points: 60

Goal Reached by level 14

Character Build: Ashran's Gun Guy
Gun Guy Notes: This build uses higher intelligence to allow for more skill point early on, and makes it so finding ALL the books is unnecessary (Let's be honest, you'd rather be doing something else). You don't need to carry a lot of weapons because you're good at everything (Both rifles and pistols, energy and small guns). By level 14 you are incredibly powerful.

Character Build: Some Sort's Swashbuckler
Swords, stealth, and pistols


 * I love overpowering characters, but despise the tedium of min/maxing and book hunting- this build is designed to achieve the former without resorting the latter. Divide your skills into primary, secondary, and tertiary categories. Your primary skills are your bread and butter- either Small Guns, Energy Weapons, or Melee (pick one of the three), Sneak, Lockpick, and Speech. Your secondary skills are nice skills you use a lot, but not quite as frequently as your primaries- whichever two damage skills you didn't choose for your primary, Big Guns, repair, medicine, explosives. Tertiary skills are the skills you couldn't possibly care less about- Barter, Science, and Unarmed.
 * The goal is to get all of your primary skills to 70 without bobbleheads or books and all of your tertiary skills to 40. This will enable you to max out your primaries with very little effort (1 bobblehead and 10 books), while still allowing you to max out your tertiaries if you decide it's suddenly important to you (1 bobblehead and 25 books).
 * For your secondary skills, season to taste. The more you use it, the closer to 70 you should develop it. The less you use it, the closer to 40 you should leave it.
 * There is a lot of flexibility in perks at levels 2, 3, 8, 9, 18, and 19. There simply aren't any standout perks at those levels that are a must for the class. I posted what my personal preferences are, but there's nothing wrong with getting perks like Ladykiller/Black Widow, Child at Heart, Bloody Mess, Demolition Expert 1-3, Animal Friend, Mr. Sandman, or really anything else that floats your boat.
 * If you're really the impatient type, take Swift Learner at levels 2 and 3 and take Here and Now at level 19.
 * The level 20 perk is also up for discussion. If you're having more fun with the Shishkebab than your guns, go with Ninja. If you prefer your guns, go with Grim Reaper's Sprint.
 * Just because I never take Commando doesn't mean I never use 2-handed guns. I just never use them in VATS. The flamethrower/Burnmaster and Eugene provide awesome crowd control, Xuanlang's Assault Rifle chews through enemies, and The Reservist/Victory Rifle give a crushing advantage on the open plains of the wasteland. And best of all, they all shine outside of VATS as much or more than they shine in VATS.

Final Stats: ST 10 PE 6 EN 10 CH 2 IN 10 AG 6 LK 9

520 HP, 107 AP, 77% DR

Character Build: Dcruze's Pacifist
The point of this character is to get through the game without killing anything except the one Radroach you have to kill at age 10. The only important parts are to get Barter and Science up to 50% and to pick the Child at Heart perk, the rest is arbitrary. On my user page I have a walkthrough on what I did, which I didn't post here due to extensive spoilers.

Character Build: Master1337cheeZ's Tom Sawyer (With DLCs)
This character build is for those who are looking for a FPS/Sniper playstyle that fits with characters that are self-dependant. Feel free to fix something ONLY if it is added incorrectly, or to fix a typo.

†Skills should be at these levels. Barter, Speech, Melee Weapons, and Unarmed will vary by priority.

Notes & Tips

 * Other quest perks are useful as well, and recommended.
 * Barely any Broken Steel perks are used in my build, as only the long term ones are. Many of the new perks are worthless in my opinion. As with The Pitt, you can become very rad resistant. Not to mention Warmonger is rather worthless unless you cannot live without custom weapons.
 * Also advisable to get Bottlecap Mine and Nuka Grenade Schematics to the third version; Nuka-Grenades for combat, and Bottlecap Mines for reverse pick-pocketing as well as standard use.
 * If you take Comprehension perk in place of Entomologist, be sure to take advantage of the respawning U.S. Army: 30 Handy Flamethrower Recipes, as you will not need to add skill points to Big Guns. The same goes for Science, as the Big Book of Science will respawn similarily to the Big Guns book.
 * This build can run you pretty well on Hard and possibly on Very Hard difficulty

Discussion
See Discussion tab.

Character Build: Panzer89's Jack of all Trades
Why be limited to just one play style? I like every aspect of Fallout 3. It's not fair to you, the player, to need to stick to one play style. This build allows you to switch between big guns, small guns, energy weapons, explosives, and even even melee or unarmed if you want. You also gain the benefit of having a high repair, science, lockpick, speech, medicine, and sneak. The only thing that suffers is barter, but come on, you didn't play this game to be a master trader.


 * The Bobbleheads are placed one on each level for a reason; obtain that one at that level.
 * Yes it is possible to get to Rivet City to obtain the IN Bobblehead at level 2.
 * You will need to find some books, but you won't need to go hunting for them.
 * Even though I'm not a huge fan of unarmed or melee weapons (as shown by the perks I've choose) it is possible to change that around.
 * The perks listed for 18, 19, and 20 are really your choice, but those are I ones I have.
 * The reason behind the high IN, educated, comprehension, and getting the IN bobblehead as early as possible is to get the max amount of skill points at each level.

Character Build: KarmaDog214's V.A.T.S. Montage Mayhem (All 30 Levels) -- Revised thanks to Chrsghoyt
Please, feel free to ask questions:

Planned on it, but didn't have enough space for all three ranks of these perks. AND I don't have enough Strength for this perk. It's good to have in case all skills don't reach 100. But I'll see to it that my character build will work without the need for it. The thing is: I DON'T USE ANY. But this is good for people who do use a lot of Stimpaks. To have plenty of them ready for you on Very Hard and to use the least amount is effective, and it's likely that when people are facing against Super Mutant Overlords, Feral Ghoul Reavers, and Enclave Hellfire Troopers, players will use a lot. Though to be honest, I'd choose Chemist over this perk. Yes it's easy and I suppose it did prove its uselessness...but what the hay? I guess I'll put it up there in case someone takes Nuclear Anomaly. Having Nerd Rage! is like having a back up counter-measure in case your armor wears down and doesn't provide the sufficient damage resistance of 85%. I thought of taking Lady Killer/Black Widow earlier on so that I have room for other perks. Swift Learner becomes useless after level 30 and so, having 2 ranks of it is also pointless (no offense). I think having just one rank of this is fine enough (and there's nothing useful to take besides Swift Learner at Level 3). The point in taking Swift Learner is so that players can level up quicker. I for one prefer to take my time and enjoy the scenery. Whoops. My bad. I re-read the whole thing and I just noticed that my reading was off. Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Changing it once more. I'm sorry if the slashes are a little unclear. Here, I wanted players to feel they had choices for a wide selection of useful firearms and melee weapons, as well as unarmed weapons, and not be geared to one thing. So, yes, the slashes are intended to mean either/or, but...really I want players who to use whatever they want, or at least a variety of weapons at their disposal. These are my personal weapons of choice and they're cool in my opinion. I'll give you an example:
 * Why would you not take Iron Fist at all even though you took Ninja and Paralyzing Palm?
 * Why do you need Comprehension at all since it is so easy to max out all skills with Broken Steel?
 * Do you really find Fast Metabolism to be that useful? I usually have plenty of stims.
 * I'm assuming you took Nerd Rage mostly for the DR bonus since you grab Almost Perfect later. Can't you max out DR pretty easily even wearing light armor?
 * I'll admit this is being a bit picky and will not matter in the end anyways but ever thought about delaying Lady Killer/Black Widow until level 3 so that you can take Swift Learner at level 2 and gain the XP bonus one level sooner?
 * I didn't mean take a second level of swift learner. I meant just swap the order of your first 2 perks so you take your level 2 perk at level 3 and your level 3 perk at level 2. All this accomplishes is getting 10% extra XP when going from level 2 to level 3 and everything else would be the same. In the end it is going to be the same but I was just trying to suggest a minor efficiency improvement. For my build the only reason I have 2 levels of it is because I don't really care about child at heart or iron fist.
 * I'm a little bit confused on the equipment section. Do the slashes mean either/or?

Firelance/Sydney's 10 mm "Ultra" SMG/Blackhawk

These are just a few of my favorite weapons that are one-handed small guns. These weapons come in handy on three separate occasions. Firelance is very powerful, ESPECIALLY when combined with the Pyromaniac, Better Criticals, Concentrated Fire, Wired Reflexes, Gunslinger, and Sniper perks. STMUSMG with Robotics Expert and all of the perks mentioned previously (w/ exception of Pyromaniac) makes this baby a powerful small arm against machines, such as Sentry Bots and Mr. Gutsys. And the Blackhawk? Well, if you're just not into the Firelance and love Magnums, then this is your weapon of choice OR Callahan's Magnum should you choose to bomb the Citadel.

Character Build: Chrsghoyt's Ranged Build (with Broken Steel)
Please feel free to comment on this build. I'm always looking for suggestions to improve it.

Character Build: KripTiC's SPECIAL Spaz
Note: While wearing the above equipment, every stat will be raised to 10, excluding Intelligence. With this, you will be a SPECIAL Spaz and will be good all around. Collect all the Bobbleheads whenever and collect all the skill books whenever. Remember that the science and Big Guns book respawn every 72/73 hours, so you don't need to waste skill points on those two. Luck will be shown as 9 in the SPECIAL menu due to the lucky 8 ball not showing the + symbol, but you WILL have 10 luck. Also, do not forget to have at least 50 sneak by the time you reach the Silent runner Perk.

Character Build: Modifer Hog
Also note that The Pitt expansion allows you to have an extra 3% DR, which I have not included
 * This build is designed to max out all the important stats and get as many modifiers (from Perks) as possible. It also aims to max out the most important SPECIAL stats. The bonuses that come with Intelligence, Charisma and Perception are not that powerful, so I have not tried to maximize these.
 * I have not attempted to increase Charisma as the advantages it brings are not substantial enough to justify it (Increased disposition is not worth it with 100 speech)
 * This build is aimed towards those who use VATS, if you never use VATS then some perks can be swapped out (Gunslinger and Commando etc) for other perks such as Scrounger (you will need more ammo if you don't ever use VATS) or you could invest more points into SPECIAL (though I believe it is not worth it)
 * If you go for a melee character you could get the Ninja and Paralyzing Palm Perks

(*) This is only advantageous with Female Characters

Character Build: Gemini’s True Assassin (Stealthy, One-shot Killer)
Build Notes:
 * The build is dependent upon the DLC Operation: Anchorage & The Pitt for armor and weapons.
 * The build concentrates on a few special items; Chinese Stealth Armor, Jingwei's Shock Sword, Silenced 10mm Pistol, the Perforator, Dart Gun, & Sniper Rifle. The complimentary weaponry is; Protectron's Gaze/Metal Blaster (prior/after The Pitt), the Alien Blaster, & the Gauss Rifle.
 * The primary perks for this build are Silent Running & Better Criticals.
 * The primary skills are; Sneak & Small Guns. The secondary skill is Repair (have to keep our tools in good working order). Tertiary skills, and in general for gameplay, could be considered as necessary, are; Lockpick, Science, Melee, Energy Weapons, & Speech (to reduce number of reloads and dialogue run-throughs to make Speech checks).
 * Level 20 attributes (with gear on) should be; ST 7 PE 10 EN 6 CH 2 IN 9 AG 10 LK 8. This takes into account acquiring all of the SPECIAL bobbleheads, the Lucky 8-ball (+1L), Ant Sight (+1P), Intense Training (+1L), and wearing the Shady Hat (+1P, +5Sneak) & Lucky Shades (+1L). Note that at the time of this writing, the Chinese Stealth Armor has a glitch that allows the player to wear multiple headgear (example; Lincoln's Hat, Shady Hat, Button's Wig, Red's Bandana, Sheriff's Hat, etc.) giving the player multiple benefits.
 * This build is a beginning-to-end build, that takes into account all the tools and skills necessary to play the game through each level. As such, it is not dependent upon finding all of the Skill Books in the game to maximize your skills, although I do depend upon equipment, which I obtain early on.
 * Build up your skills as needed when leveling. The beginning of the build concentrates upon obtaining the gear and will level you. So, don't worry too much about putting too many points into a skill, you don't need to have 100 in a bunch of skills to maximize this character. I would recommend getting to 65-70 in the most important skills (Small Guns & Sneak) by 12th level, making sure you make your requirements for perks (especially Cyborg) and the ability to picklock or hack your way into what you need to. Repairing your gear in the field is important, so I also like to build upon Repair, but it isn't essential. The books and bobbleheads will come, so be patient and enjoy playing.

Starting Out
 * Upon exiting Vault 101, you should first make your way to the Alien Crash Site and pick up the Alien Blaster. Make sure you get all of the ammo (12 cells, 10 in the magazine and 110 charges remaining), and then fast travel back to Vault 101.
 * Place a marker on the Red Racer Factory and run there. When you get near Greyditch, be sure to QuickSave because Brian Wilks will be running up to you there and you will want to make the Speech challenge. Once you've agreed to help find Brian's dad, head along the road heading South. Stay on the West side of the road (the upper part) since there will be a raider up ahead that is taken out by an Enclave Radio transmitter, until your marker is East of you. Cross the road and start sneaking. When you reach the Red Racer Factory, there will be a few Raiders in the area, just sneak directly East to the entrance to the Bailey's Crossroads metro.
 * Complete the Operation: Anchorage simulation and you should be around level 7 or 8. Upon exiting the simulator head to the armory and immediately grab the W-T1b armor and Chinese Stealth Armor. Put on the stealth armor and W-T1b helm. Arm the Alien Blaster, head out into the hallway and crouch in a place where you can see the 4 targets and then listen to the conversation. Afterwards, you will have your end-game armor, melee weapon and a sniper weapon.
 * I recommend fast traveling to Megaton and acquiring a house (Megaton or Tenpenny, whichever flavor you decide upon) at this point for the storage of your goods. Note that after you get the mission from the Sheriff, if you head to Moriarty's and speak to Mr. Burke there (use your Black Widow selection to make him give you more money and then the device/proof), you can then return to the Sheriff to report Burke's plan. Head back up to the bar and watch the exchange between Burke and the Sheriff, afterwards Burke will shoot the Sheriff in the back and you can then kill Burke and loot both bodies (gaining the Sheriff's house key). Speak to the Sheriff's son to get your reward after disarming the bomb and then go into the Sheriff's house to grab the Strength bobblehead.
 * Shortly thereafter, select The Pitt quest and head North. The most important part of the mission is to obtain 90 Steel Ingots so that you can acquire the Perforator, which will also net you the Metal Blaster although you could just kill the gate guards and grab an Infiltrator from their corpse(s) and then leave, but the Perforator is much better IMHO. Upon leaving The Pitt, you are probably level 10-12 and ready to get on with the rest of your travels, and you are fully equipped with all of your end-game weapons and armor for this build.


 * Tip: Crouching with the stealth armor gives you a Stealth Field just like with a Stealth Boy. Prior to getting Silent Running, you will only attract attention when you make sounds from walking/running. Kicking around carts, tin cans or even playing your radio will not attract their attention, although the glow from your Pip-Boy light or the sword (Jingwei's and Shishkabab both have a glow) will. As long as the HUD is not flashing Danger, you can sit still for awhile and you'll eventually go back to Hidden.
 * Tip: Jingwei's Shock Sword, the Silenced 10mm Pistol, Perforator, & the Dart Gun are all silent weapons. Using them will not notify nearby foes of your location. In fact, it will not notify the target of your location either as long as you are stealthed. This means that you can walk into a large group of foes and attack them directly with these weapons and they are unlikely to ever detect your presence. In fact, I found it especially enjoyable at the end of The Pitt to walk through Uptown while it was infested with Trogs and kill each of them with the sword (one swing, one kill) while dozens were surrounding me. With a high Sneak and Silent Running, most foes can actually run into you and bump you around and you will still be in Caution mode.
 * Tip: The use of the Sniper Rifle is useful for long range engagements, but even if you one-shot the target, the surrounding foes may be notified of your position. Hiding and sitting still will oftentimes lead the foes to revert to Caution and eventually Hidden again.
 * Tip: The use of the Alien Blaster, Protectron's Gaze/Metal Blaster and Gauss Rifle should be limited because they alert the enemies to your location based upon the sound emitted from the weapons. I typically will only use these in situations where using the other weapons are impractical or a one-shot kill is necessary. Note that the Alien Blaster has limited ammo and that the Gauss rifle has no corresponding weapon to repair it with so it must be repaired by a merchant, preferrably Crazy Wolfgang.
 * Tip: The Protectron's Gaze and Metal Blaster are both shotgun-like laser weapons. Protectron's Gaze emits 5 beams and Metal Blaster emits 9, each beam is capable of a critical hit making these weapons capable of surpassing the Terrible Shotgun in terms of damage and their range is better due to less spread. Note that you should not use either of these weapons in VATS, since they seem to be less effective and accurate.
 * Tip: The Chinese Stealth Armor can be repaired by Recon Armor to a max of 28DR.


 * Note on Perk selections: At levels 11 and 19, there is some freedom in selecting what you like best. I've left some notes below on my thoughts about particular perks at these points.
 * Gunslinger (6): Useful for when you're using the Alien Blaster so that you don't waste ammo, but by the end game, the silenced 10mm is more of a toy for finishing targets off (or taunting them) and the Dart Gun is silent and darts are abundant so you shouldn't have to worry about wasting that ammo.
 * Radiation Resistance (8): 25% additional rad. res. is nice in general, but might have limited usefulness with the number of Rad-X and Radaway available.
 * Night Person (10): +2 to Per and Int at night sounds great, but we're going to get to 10 on both anyways and the other attributes aren't that valuable that we should commit to playing only during dark hours.
 * Demo Expert (6): There are a few instances in the game where scripted assaults will be facilitated by having more damage from mines or grenades, but in general I pick up way more mines than I'll ever use. However, there is something to be said for Exploding Pants...
 * Intensive Training (2): +1 to SPECIAL could be useful if you need to make requirement for another perk, but that seems silly. This build works perfectly throughout the levels without need for more SPECIAL points.
 * Pyromaniac (12): If you want to use the Shishkabab instead of Jingwei's, this would be something to consider, otherwise why?
 * Mysterious Stranger (10): First of all, it happens too infrequently, and secondly I don't need his help, I kill stuff just fine, thank you.
 * Light Step (14): I actually have found this to be quite useful for those duh! moments when you forget to pay attention and mistep on a bear trap or land mine. When you consider that you will probably reload to your last save and have to retrace all of your steps up until that point, this is more of a personal timesaver for people like me that never want to take damage and hate having to reload because of a stupid mine under a caution cone (yeah, I'm looking at you The Pitt).

Final Notes: This build is a lot of fun to play because it skirts a lot of issues which frustrate players. The build makes a super-powerful character that one-shot kills just about everything, and almost never takes damage. Death Claws, Enclave, Giant Radscorpians, and Sentry Bots are not issues for this build and I typically like to reload encounters with them to get more enjoyment out of tormenting them and killing them in more creative ways. At level 20, I only ever took damage from traps/mines, which is why I went back and rebuilt using Light Step. Just about any fetch or kill quest is quickly completed because I can go anywhere and do anything without fear. The only particular weakness of this build would be tough bots prior to getting Robotics Expert (even then, I still easily kill everything but Sentry Bots) and areas that are highly Radioactive. Thus, I took Rad Resistance at level 11 to aid with Radioactive areas for just that reason. Also, while you are able to obtain any of the unique weapons and armor that you want/enjoy, I built this character with a specific weapon list because I didn't like having to make a choice about which toys to play with, I set out guidelines for the Assassin build and stuck to them, which makes life a lot easier when you have to decide what to keep or disgard when lugging around all of your loot deep in a mission/quest. Lastly, the Chinese Stealth Armor is beautiful to look at, unlike some of the other big name armor in the game and even close up, the armor looks great. Have fun!

Character build: Mikkelmunk's build (without Broken Steel)
Perks:
 * 2: Gun Nut
 * 3: Thief
 * 4: Educated
 * 5: Intense Training Endurance
 * 6: Toughness
 * 7: Gunslinger
 * 8: Commando
 * 9: Strong Back
 * 10: Finesse
 * 11: Intense Training Endurance
 * 12: Sniper
 * 13: Silent Running
 * 14: Cyborg
 * 15: Life Giver
 * 16: Better Criticals
 * 17: Action Boy
 * 18: Intense Training Agility
 * 19: Intense Training Strength
 * 20: Grim Reaper's Sprint

SPECIAL: At level 1:
 * Strength:....7
 * Perception:..5
 * Endurance:..7
 * Charisma:....1
 * Intelligence:.....6
 * Agility:........8
 * Luck:..........6

Intense Training will increase Endurance by 2 and Strength and Agility by 1. The Ant Might perk will increase Strength by 1. Shady Hat will increase Perception by 1. The Lucky 8 Ball, Ranger Battle Armor and Lucky Shades will each increase Luck by 1.
 * Bobbleheads will increase them all by 1.

At level 20:
 * Strength:....10
 * Perception:..7
 * Endurance:..10
 * Charisma:....2
 * Intelligence:.....7
 * Agility:........10
 * Luck:..........10

Skills This is build for Small Guns VATS combat. Max Small Guns and do whatever you want with all the other skills.

Armor:
 * Ranger Battle Armor
 * Shady Hat
 * Lucky Shades

Character Build OROC/Nano5002's Biker Build/ 'Chester'
Here is a link to it on the 106 character creator: http://vault106.com/characters/Chester No Broken Steel thus far.

Note, Excalibat is only available through Console Commands. Am working on getting a picture for you all. Chester is supposed to be a neutral, cool looking character. He's got the bad boy motorcycle gang look.

Companions: Sticky, Sergeant RL-3

Equipped Sticky with: Stimpaks,duh. Sniper Rifle, BoS Power Armor, and BoS Power Armor Helmet. He's weak, but even he can't screw that up too bad. You'll need to provide the trigger happy child with ammo, of course.

When I get bored I use the combat knife to make things harder. That's why I have it.

Character Build: Werewolfhell's Jack Of All Trades(Davidus)
This my attempt to make a basic all rounder character for basically anything See the results [|Here]

Character Build: Survivor
Description: Survive in battle for along time, Dealing alot of damage while resisting damage, then when you're about to die, run into an enemy to explode and keep fighting.

Gender: Female

Focus: CRITs, DR, Damage Increase

SPECIAL: Tag Skills: Energy Weapons, Medicine, Science
 * ST - 7
 * PE - 6
 * EN - 4
 * CH - 4
 * IN - 9
 * AG - 5
 * LK - 5

Quest Perks: Ant's Sight or Ant's Might

Dream Crusher or Survival Expert (Junior Survivor / Survival Guru)

Barkskin

Wired Reflexes

Booster Shot

Pitt Fighter

Level Perks: (Requirement/Choice)
 * 2 Black Widow
 * 3 Intense Training 1 (EN4-&gt;5)
 * 4 Educated
 * 5 Intense Training 2 (CH4-&gt;5)
 * 6 Bloody Mess
 * 7 Toughness (EN 5)
 * 8 Intense Training 3 (AG5-&gt;6)
 * 9 Intense Training 4 (CH5-&gt;6)
 * 10 Nerd Rage! (SCIENCE50,IN5)
 * 11 Animal Friend 1 (CH6)
 * 12 Silent Running (AG6,SNEAK50)
 * 13 Sniper (AG6,PE6)
 * 14 Cyborg (MEDICINE60,SCIENCE60)
 * 15 Adamantium Skeleton
 * 16 Intense Training 5 (LK5-&gt;6)
 * 17 Action Girl (AG6)
 * 18 Concentrated Fire (SMALLGUNS60,ENERGYWEAPONS60)
 * 19 Better Criticals (PE6,LK6)
 * 20 Grim Reaper's Sprint
 * 21 Ninja (MELEEWEAPONS80,SNEAK80)
 * 22 Puppies!
 * 23 Intense Training 6 (AG6-&gt;7)
 * 24 Intense Training 7 (EN5-&gt;6)
 * 25 Intense Training 8 (EN6-&gt;7)
 * 26 Nerves of Steel (AG7)
 * 27 Warmonger (IN7)
 * 28 Rad Absorption (EN7)
 * 29 Rad Tolerance (EN7)
 * 30 Nuclear Anomaly


 * I really enjoy seeing a build that doesn't use Almost Perfect. Are you enjoying Nuclear Anomaly?

HELL YES!!! It's good to see a build with Nuclear Anomaly. --KarmaDog214 Not really you need to be to close to death in my view for it to activate and ive lost plenty of dogmeats that way--Silverwolf009

Character Build: Mister Cee's Notorious Commando
One pain in the neck 

Stealth Assasin This build is all about being stealthy and able to kill with one to two hits.

Interesting fact: By Level 16 and using Lincoln's Repeater I can decapitate foes with 1 (on-target) bullet to the head

Character Build: Dordledum's Ultimate Sniper Build (lvl 30)
''Maybe not the most original build, but IMHO, it is the strongest combination of perks out there. Just wanted to share:''

Character Build: Torpedo Reno's Smooth-Talking Gunslinger
Small Guns, Speech, Sneak