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:

Casual Play style
This playstyle is for someone who just occasionally plays or just wants to play the main quests. The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes should be ordered by significantly lowering the Charisma and Luck attributes, as they are not necessary for being successful later in the game. This gives you a lot more S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points to add to Strength, Perception, Endurance, Intelligence, and Agility. It is recommended that you make Intelligence the highest since it controls how fast your skills increase, and skills have a significant impact on gameplay. Avoid decreasing any of Strength, Endurance, or Agility below 5, since doing so will adversely affect your ability to carry heavy items, your overall health level, and your ability to use V.A.T.S. in combat, respectively. Some notable perks for this playstyle are Strong Back, Action Boy, Commando and/or Gunslinger, Rad Resistance, and Toughness.

First-Person Shooter Play style
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 Play style
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, Tribal Power Armor (only available with The Pitt dlc) 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 Play style
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. Also, combining Poplar's Hood, Lag-Bolt's Shades (Broken Steel) and Recon Armor gives 18 Sneak, 3 Lockpick, plus 1 Agility. Here is the list of silent weapons:


 * Dart Gun, an excellent choice as this cripples anythings legs in one shot (this includes Super Mutant Behemoths);
 * 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;
 * Grenades and mines, since they won't alert the enemy until they explode (throwing a grenade freehanded still alert them, though), making them good first strike weapons (plus reverse pickpocketing them will ensure that the target is killed instantly);
 * Melee weapons if you can back off quickly (remember, bumping into an enemy will alert them)
 * Microwave Emitter will also keep you in cover(Available in Point Lookout).

The best way to deal maximum amount of damage is to use a single shot from a silent weapon then relocate and wait until the enemy stops searching at which point shoot them again, ad infinitum: to take the Perforator as an example, you can take out more enemies with one magazine if every hit is a critical hit.

Brawler Play style
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. The Ninja perk is very useful in that it raises your critical attack range even higher, though it must be noted that an 80 in Sneak is required for the perk, so plan accordingly.

Diplomat Play style
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 Play style
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!

Near-Perfection Play style
A near-perfect playstyle is one that maximizes all skills at 100 and all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats at 10 by the end of the game. This is not possible without the Broken Steel add-on, which adds a new "Almost Perfect" perk that instantly raises all S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats to 9. If the player avoids acquiring any of the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. bobbleheads until after this perk is taken (which can be a significant handicap through most of the game), he or she can achieve perfect-10 stats by the end. Skills can be maximized even without Broken Steel by choosing the Comprehension perk, an initial intelligence of at least about 8, and an approximately even distribution of skill points at each level-up.

Perk selection for a near-perfect playstyle should avoid perks whose functions become moot after all stats have been maximized. There are 56 total perks (including multiple levels of the same perk) that continue to provide benefit to a stat-maximized player, of which the player can choose at most 27. (There are 29 total level-ups, one of which is taken by Almost Perfect itself, and one of which is wasted at level 2 or 3 since only one of the 56 perks mentioned above is available at those levels.) Of considerable debate is which 27 perks are the most important to possess. See the Character Builds forum for suggestions.

--Epic Monkey