Fallout 3 SPECIAL

This article describes the features of the Fallout 3 version of the SPECIAL character system, as well as its differences from SPECIAL's implementation in previous games.

Character Development
At birth the player chooses the player character's name, gender and appearance. Later as a child in Vault 101, the PC receives a book titled "You're S.P.E.C.I.A.L.!," whereupon the player can set the PC's seven primary character points. Later in life during the teen years the PC's performance on the G.O.A.T. determines which skills of the PC are tagged (tagged means raised by fifteen points); the player can also choose which skills to tag manually via choosing particular dialog options.

Every aspect of the PC chosen during early life can be changed when the PC exits Vault 101.

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. The maximum level the player can achieve in Fallout 3 is 20 (or level 30 after the Broken Steel DLC is downloaded), and the maximum rank any S.P.E.C.I.A.L. statistic can be raised to is 10, so plan your perks accordingly. With all ten Intense Training perks, the Night Person perk, the seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobbleheads, the Lucky Shades, Three Dog's Head Wrap, Vance's Longcoat, the Lucky 8 ball, and the Ant Sight/Might perk, it is possible to raise your total S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to 68, compared to the 40 you start with; that's very close to maxing it out at 70.


 * On a much easier note, if you have the Broken Steel DLC you can raise all of your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. to 10 without any armor or item bonuses and only 1 perk if you get the Almost Perfect perk before getting any of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobbleheads, then get each bobblehead, raising all skills to 10 without bonuses.

Main statistics
The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system should be familiar to Fallout veterans, though there are significant differences from past games. 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.

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

Changes from Previous Fallout Games
Players who are accustomed to the rigid attribute and skill mechanics of the previous games may be happy to know that the new systems in Fallout 3 are much more flexible and allow for more changes during a character's development. For instance, tagging a skill no longer increases the rate of a skill's development, but skills gain their maximum effectiveness (and cap out) at 100. Additionally, while the Gifted trait (along with all traits) has disappeared, primary attributes are simultaneously less important and easier to acquire as your character grows.

Players who played the previous two games should also keep in mind that the SPECIAL system in Fallout 3 is much more forgiving when compared to the first two games: Low ability scores penalize the player less, while high ability scores do not grant as much of a benefit. Where in the first two games lowering a SPECIAL stat to 3 or lower could be a risky move regardless of your character type, characters in Fallout 3 can get away with SPECIAL scores of 1 in particular stats. For example, a character with 1 intelligence will find most character interaction in the first two games impossible, while in the 3rd you simply sacrifice a few Intelligence dependent conversation options and some skill points.

Increasing Attributes
There are multiple ways to permanently increase your attributes after character creation. Taking the Intense Training perk at level-up will grant you an additional attribute point (it can be taken up to 10 times, at any level). The Those! quest will grant you the option to increase your Strength or Perception by one point. Additionally, you can find bobbleheads to increase your attributes as you explore the world.

Because of the way the attribute, perk, and skill systems work in Fallout 3, you may find it wasteful to raise an attribute to 10 during character creation. A high starting Intelligence offers the most obvious benefit because of the bonus to skill points, but min-maxers can acquire the Intelligence-related bobblehead at level 2.


 * Table showing items' influence on SPECIAL stats points.

Should I raise an attribute to 10?
In most cases, no. There will be multiple ways to increase all attributes, such as wearing equipment, acquiring items, using chems, or completing quests. The exceptions might be Intelligence for early skill advancement, and Luck for extra critical chance and special encounters. So, the best way is to raise intelligence to 9 and go to Rivet City after leaving the vault to get the bobblehead. Some rules of thumb to keep in mind are: There is a bobblehead for each stat that will raise it by one, there is a quest,-related perk available for Strength or Perception that raises the chosen ability score by 1, and there is a slotless (i.e. you are not required to wear a certain headpiece or armor piece) item that raises Luck by 1. It is also worth remembering that various pieces of armor and headgear affect certain ability scores: it may be worth taking a look at available pieces of armor and headwear to decide what you will wear.

For Stealth Boys and Small Gunners in general, it may be worthwhile to max your Agility Score if you are planning on wearing armor. There are no Agility boosting armors or chems(minus fire ant necter that adds 4) in the game--just the odd piece of headgear or a low DR uniform--and Power Armor often imposes a penalty. A character that specializes in V.A.T.S. combat, for example, will be wearing Ledoux's Hocky Mask and either Ranger Battle Armor or Tribal Power Armor for the significant AP boosts these items provide. This precludes wearing any AG boosting gear--especially in heavier, higher level combat!

Keeping in mind that ability scores cannot go above 10, you should never start with a 10 in any ability score because you will always be able to raise a stat at least one point with a bobblehead. Strength OR Perception can be raised an additional point through Those!, so these ability scores should not be placed higher than 8, keeping in mind that you can only raise one of the two with this perk. You should also keep in mind that many versions of Power Armor also raise your Strength by varying degrees, so you may want to factor in the Strength bonus from the armor of your choice. Since Luck can be raised both with a bobblehead and a 1 pound miscellaneous item, it should never be raised above 8 at the start.

However, if you want to play a super-strong, super-charming, or super-whatever character, don't let our commentary dissuade you! Remember that you can always take the Intense Training perk if you feel that you're missing out on a particular attribute. Playing the character you WANT to play should take precedence over other considerations, so if you feel like starting a particular score at 10 or do not wish to hunt down various stat increasing items, you should do so.

Skills
Your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points affect your skill points.

List of Skills and corresponding S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attribute: Gambling and Outdoorsman skills were completely removed.

See Fallout 3 Skills for more information specific to Fallout 3 skills.

Strength
Strength slightly increases melee damage and carrying capacity. Melee damage is at 1 damage for every 2 strength (+5 damage at 10) and carrying capacity is an added 10 for every point (+100 at 10). Strength does not affect unarmed damage, even though Iron Fist requires some strength.

Strength increases the skill level of Melee Weapons.

Perception
Perception determines how far away you can detect enemies on your compass (enemies show as red bars). Be aware that only enemies in front of you will be shown on the compass (but not just directly in front of you - close to 180 degrees). Perception is most useful in areas where visibility is poor, such as building interiors with many walls, darkened areas (inside or out), water, etc., but even out on the Wastelands, trees, brush, rocks, and hills can obscure visibility and having high perception will let you see foes before they see you.

Perception complements sneaking and sniping an enemy from a distance. Enemies that have not detected you are typically stationary or move at a reduced rate; this can be seen by watching the red marks on the compass. Knowing where your enemies are gives you a tactical advantage in combat, as you can set traps or ambush them for additional damage.

Perception also influences the skill levels of Explosives, Lockpick, and Energy Weapons.

Endurance
Endurance determines the number of hit points you have, as well as providing bonuses to radiation and poison resistance. It also increases breath capacity for when you swim underwater.

You can pause at any time during combat and use healing items, or even just use them instantly (even while firing) by assigning them to a command button, so you may find that Endurance is not the most useful attribute. However, extra hit points will provide a buffer for players or characters who are unfamiliar with shoot-em-up games, and so new players may appreciate endurance more.

Endurance also affects the skill levels of Big Guns and Unarmed.

Charisma
Charisma influences NPC disposition. Because other factors also influence NPC disposition, and because the perks related the charisma are mostly useless, having a high charisma is not necessary. A moderate charisma will be beneficial to diplomatic characters, but charisma is effectively worthless to anyone who doesn't use speech, and having a high charisma is never needed. As a note, other factors will also affect NPC disposition. Karma level affects it (most NPCs like good characters more), and doing quests related to the NPC in a way the NPC likes will usually raise their disposition as well.

Charisma also boosts the skill levels of Barter and Speech.

Intelligence
Intelligence determines the number of skill points you receive each time you level up. Later increases in Intelligence do not retroactively assign skill points. (The Educated perk provides three bonus skill points per level, also not retroactive.) A high starting Intelligence can provide a significant bonus to skills early in the game, but it is possible to raise all skill to maximum levels with average Intelligence by using the skill books.

Intelligence also influences the starting skill levels of Medicine, Repair, and Science.

Agility
Agility determines the number of action points available for use in V.A.T.S.. (The Action Boy/Girl Perk provides bonus action points.) Expert FPS players may wish to forgo the use of V.A.T.S., but you should be familiar with V.A.T.S. mechanics before you decide to do this, because V.A.T.S. not only increases your reaction speed and allows for more precision shooting, but also greatly reduces damage taken while it is active.

Agility also influences the starting skill levels of Small Guns and Sneak.

Luck
Each point of Luck raises your chance to critically hit an opponent by one percent. Additionally, Luck has a small effect on the starting skill level of all skills. It ups the chance of random encounters as well, such as having the Mysterious Stranger appear in V.A.T.S. and the chance of the alien craft with the Firelance appearing and crashing.

Note
Luck and Action Points for V.A.T.S. can be greatly increased by items (Lucky 8 Ball, Ledoux's Hockey Mask , Lucky Shades and Ranger Battle Armor); bear in mind that you can't equip the Hockey Mask and Lucky Shades at the same time§, so choose your starting scores accordingly.


 * § With the release of the Operation Anchorage DLC (specifically, the OA-exclusive Chinese Stealth Armor), this is no longer strictly the case. Various CSA-related glitch[es] enable characters to simultaneously equip multiple hats, masks, helmets, eyewear, etc -- and while this often results in a serious fashion faux pas, it does enable the player to stack the effects of (for example) Ledoux's Hockey Mask (+25AP) + Lucky Shades (+1LU) + Sheriff's Hat (+1PE) + Pre-War Baseball Cap (+1PE) + Crow's Eyebot Helmet (+1PE) for a total of +25AP, +3PE, +1LU.


 * For more info, see the following pages: Chinese Stealth Armor, Fallout 3: Glitches, Operation: Anchorage

Character Editor (Excel 2007)
A 3rd party character editor is available:  RapidShare link

Edited 5th December 2008, created by Oggy1985 (version change: Final version -if no new errors or suggestions appear)
 * Note: please note that Character Creator will work best with MS Office 2007 (version 2003 will have limited functionality in some formulas)

Class Editor (Excel 2007)
A 3rd party Class editor is available:  RapidShare link 

Author: Macilnar

Version 1.1.2 Released on 12/05/2008

The editor allows you to chose between one of 3 primary classes (Stealth, Close Combat, and Ranged Combat) and a main weapon focus (Melee, Small Gun, Energy Weapons, Explosives, Unarmed, and Big Gun). The editor then gives recommended values to skills, S.P.E.C.I.A.L, and what perks to take.

Author Notes:
 * Only the Stealth class and its weapon focuses are complete. Close and Ranged Combat will be done in the next update
 * Only works with Excel 2007 or newer (sorry for those who don't have it but it just doesn't work in the older versions. If someone wants to try to convert it go right ahead and do it just let me know.)

Character Planner (Google Docs)
Another character creator is available at: Fallout 3 character calculator

Downloadable files:

 * XLS format
 * ODS format

Character Builder (online)
The Fallout 3 Character Builder is available at this link. The builder imitates green Pip-Boy 3000 interface and it allows to create and level up characters. Characters are stored on the server and are given unique URLs for reference. Each character has its history so others can check how it was developed.