Scribe Counter is an unarmed perk in Fallout: New Vegas.
Requirements
It can be acquired while Veronica is your current active companion. If you place White Glove Society Attire or Formal Wear into Veronica's inventory, she will, as thanks, offer to teach you the technique (the outfit may then be removed from her inventory with no negative repercussions).
Caution: Due to a script error (see the bugs section of this article for details) you cannot gain Scribe Counter if Veronica has made any of the comments leading up to the quest I Could Make You Care. It is therefore recommended to obtain formal Wear or White Glove Society Attire prior to recruiting her in the first place.
Effects
The Scribe Counter is performed by attacking soon after the player blocks a melee or unarmed attack (or an equivalent non-humanoid's melee attack). The margin of time is a bit generous - attacking approximately within half a second of the blocked attack will trigger the counter. It looks noticeably different from a normal attack, like a quick hit with the back of the player's left fist.
Despite this appearance, the counter-attack functions as a normal attack, except much faster and directly out of a block. Any special effects on the weapon or from the attack (such as crippling body parts or triggering knockdowns) still work, in other words. For this reason, this special attack effectively allows a character to stay in a block the entire duration of any close-combat fight, providing significant damage reduction all the while.
Notes
- After the 1.2.0.314 patch, the perk will be working, but you may not receive any message after Veronica teaches you the move. Just open your Pip-Boy and you should see it listed along with your other perks.
- Some pieces of clothing, (e.g. Dapper Gambler Suit, pre-War parkstroller outfit and Vera's Outfit) when put into Veronica's inventory, will warrant her thanking you for it but not give you the perk. Only offering to teach you the perk if given formal wear or White Glove Society Attire.
Bugs
Upon giving the Formal Wear to Veronica, you may get a conversation with her, and have her "teach" you the technique, but upon the screen recovering from being black, you will not have obtained the "Scribe Counter" perk. This bug can be remedied on the PC by using the console command player.addperk 0015b8ea which gives the perk to the player. (Keep in mind that using console commands will disable achievements until you quit and relaunch the game.)
- This is verified (via reading the scripts in GECK) to happen because of a script bug where a timer object is shared between the "teach Scribe Counter" sequence and the scripts that trigger Veronica's comments leading up to starting I Could Make You Care. If the player gives her the formal wear before triggering any of the nine special comments listed in that quest, the Scribe Counter will be added at the end of the fade-in. Otherwise the conversation, fade-out and fade-in happens, but the perk is not added.
- Sometimes, especially during the quest Beyond the Beef, putting a dress in Veronica's inventory will not cause her to acknowledge it or teach the Scribe Counter perk. You may give Veronica the formal wear, but nothing happens. There is no conversation at all.
- One fix is to simply send her back to the 188 Trading Post and go to her, where she'll immediately show recognition of the dress being in her inventory.
- In some cases entering Vault 11's sacrificial chamber has caused the dialogue to trigger.
- Another possible way to fix the bug is to have Veronica with you when you sit down and stand up from any chair. You may need to access her inventory after you stand up.
- Another possible fix involves sitting down and Waiting after which she will initiate the dialogue thanking you for the dress and offering to teach the move.
- Several game days pass after giving Veronica the formal wear she finally engages you in conversation and gives you the perk.
- After giving Veronica her formal wear or White Glove Society dress, you may lose the option to tell her to go to the Lucky 38.
- In some occasions, after the 1.2.0.314 patch, after receiving the dialogue from Veronica thanking the courier for the dress and offering to teach the Scribe Counter perk you may not see the Pip-Boy tool-tip popup confirming the acquired perk; the perk is added and the perk will be working, but the player does not receive the pop-up message. If the player access to the Perks section in the Pip-boy, the perk can still be seen on the list verifying it has been acquired.
