There doesn't seem to be an equivalent character build thread for New Vegas as there is for FO3 (Forum:Fallout 3 character builds), so I'll try to get things started on this!
The Jack of Most Trades[]
This is a pre-DLC NV character build that I aimed for optimal ranged combat, while being adept at non-combat skills, and also having a wide variety of perks to be available for customization. It ignores Melee and Unarmed. Melee related perks have demanding requirements that my methods don't pretend to meet, and without the perks to make your melee useful and dangerous, why bother? (Pyromaniac will be available, though, to enhance the Shishkebab, it will just swing slower without meeting the wield requirements, and that would be irrelevant if you use melee weapons for sneak attacks. Special Unarmed moves like Ranger Takedown and Khan Trick can still be acquired and be used for combat utility. Poisons will still work. So melee can still play a role for this build without spending any points on the respective skills.)
This build gets natural 100s in Energy Weapons, Explosives, and Guns. The others (with the exception of Sneak which caps at 97 without a Stealth Boy, and Survival since maxing it is mostly unnecessary and you'll still be able to cook what you want,) can be enhanced to 100, and by later levels, the dependency on food and chems for them will reduce.
Starting SPECIAL
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That's right, 1 strength! The melee damage benefit of strength is pointless here, you can have companions lug your stuff around, and strength boosting foods are incredibly easy to come by, to cover weapon strength requirements. Steady does the trick as well. Charisma's effect of "nerve" seems lackluster compared to everything else, but it is not difficult to boost by consumables either, if you feel your companions are in need of it. I took, and recommend, the traits: Built to Destroy and Fast Shot. |
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Implants at level 1
Get implants ASAP!
The way to do this is to head straight to the strip at the start, after looting the generous doc's home so you can have some caps to start with, and amass a fortune through blackjack (or at least enough to get the intelligence implant, which you'll want before entering the Tops.) This should go quickly and easily, considering the 9 starting luck! You'd have to start with the Atomic Wrangler in Freeside so you can have enough caps for the credit check into the strip.
You could get to Freeside the long way around the Mojave, trying to avoid enemies and experience gains (It actually doesn't hurt to hit level 2, as you'll only forfeit the half a skill point remainder you would have at lvl 30..but it does make it so you'll be receiving the extra skill point on even levels instead of odd levels, so keep that in mind.) but there is a way to make a shorter trip, bypassing the Deathclaws around the quarry.
From Goodsprings, head east, through Sloan and into Hidden Valley. Bear left, to the northeast, and make way to Neil's Shack. From here, head north until you run into a cliff. Hug this cliff, following it left, where you'll encounter a ledge, that you can easily jump on thanks to a nearby rock. Pressing in this direction (still hugging the cliff to not attract Deathclaws,) you'll soon get to REPCONN Headquarters. You'll be out of Deathclaw territory, so making it to Freeside from here is cake.
Once you're filthy rich (34,000 caps for implants and maybe some more for gearing yourself) go buy all the implants from Dr. Usanagi, with the one left out due to the Endurance limitation being the regeneration implant. It's outrageously expensive and just as outrageously useless and insignificant.
Leveling Guide
Rather than dictate everything by level, this will show what you would need to distribute, and books you need to find and use, within level ranges so that you can meet the prerequisites for perks when you get to the level for them, particularly Living Anatomy and Jury Rigging. So, you can control what order you distribute points within the level range based on your necessities or preferences, but be sure to keep track of what you are doing.
Tag: Explosives, Medicine, and Repair
| Level | SP Distribution | Perks | Books to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 13 in Guns | Rapid Reload | |
| 3 | 16 in Explosives 16 in Guns |
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| 4 | Comprehension | 4 D.C. Journal of Internal Medicine | |
| 5 | |||
| 6 | Bloody Mess | ||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | 28 in Sneak 26 in Repair |
Living Anatomy | 4 Big Book of Science 4 Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual |
| 9 | |||
| 10 | Finesse | ||
| 11 | |||
| 12 | 15 in Energy Weapons 12 in Repair |
Elective | 4 Dean's Electronics |
| 13 | |||
| 14 | 27 in Energy Weapons | Jury Rigging | 4 Nikola Tesla and You |
| 15 | |||
| 16 | 9 in Energy Weapons 4 in Lockpick |
Weapon Handling²/ Elective |
4 Lying, Congressional Style |
| 17 | 27 in Barter 10 in Energy Weapons |
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| 18 | Better Criticals | ||
| 19 | |||
| 20 | Elective | ||
| 21 | |||
| 22 | Elective | ||
| 23 | |||
| 24 | Elective | ||
| 25 | |||
| 26 | Elective | ||
| 27 | |||
| 28 | Elective | ||
| 29 | |||
| 30 | Elective |
- ¹ 16 if getting the 5th Big Book of Science. I recommend the spare points be distributed in Barter, Speech, and/or Sneak. Or if aiming to be able to craft Tremble, into Survival, and also substituting a point out of lockpick or barter to also put into Survival.
- ² Weapon Handling, combined with T-51b Power Armor/T-45d Power Armor, will open up many weapons to be used without food or Steady dependency, for convenience.
- ³ Only 3 copies of this book are available at this stage of the build without entering expansion territory meant for higher level Couriers. The 4th, in Big Sal's office, requires 100 lockpick.
Customization
This is where I hope the build shines. In sacrificing access the melee specialty perks in this way, you'll get access to a versatile array of perks that you can mix and match. As you go through the game settling in to your preferences of weaponry and tactics, you can adapt your character to suit them!
Really, everything but Comprehension on the above table can be swapped out, they're just strongly recommended; Damage boosts, critical enhancement, and Rapid Reload are "universally" applicable (Living Anatomy seems to be behaving like Ghoul Ecology), and Jury Rigging goes a long way, especially with the Built to Destroy trait.
Here's a list of elective perks:
- Defense
- Toughness (2 ranks)
- Hit the Deck
- Nerd Rage!
- Bounty Hunting
- Gunning
- Stealth
- Energy
- Explosives
- Demolition Expert (3 ranks)
- Splash Damage
- Incendiaries
- VATS Combat
- Concentrated Fire
- Center of Mass
- Action Boy/Action Girl
- Math Wrath
- Plasma Spaz
- Nerves of Steel
- Miss Fortune
- Mysterious Stranger
Level 30 Skills
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This is what you'll wind up with (unbuffed,) assuming you grabbed all the relevant skill books along the way. I put the priority in the combat skills, as the notion of stockpiling magazines in order to upkeep weapon skill for every combat encounter is ridiculous to me. It feels more appropriate to be using magazines (with chem and equipment support) to behave as "keys" for very hard locks and terminals, and instances of formidable dialogue or interaction checks. |
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Stackable Consumables
Remember that for food and drink, the effects will double at 50 Survival, and triple with 100, with the exception of (Cass's) Moonshine and Ant procurements, which are unaffected.
- Strength
- Buffout +2
- Ant nectar +4
- Moonshine +2
- Beer/Scotch/Vodka/Whiskey/Wine +1/2/3
- Bighorner steak +1/2/3
- Brahmin steak +1/2/3
- Mole rat stew +1/2/3
- Cook-Cook's Fiend stew +1/2/3
- Perception
- Coyote tobacco chew +1
- Mentats +2
- Party Time Mentats +2
- Absinthe +1/2/3
- Endurance
- Buffout +3
- Charisma
- Mentats +1
- Party Time Mentats +5
- Ant queen pheromones +3
- Moonshine +2
- Beer/Scotch/Vodka/Whiskey/Wine+1/2/3
- Absinthe +1/2/3
- Intelligence
- Mentats +2
- Party Time Mentats +2
- Agility
Skill Enhancing Equipment
1st Recon beret (Perception +1, Critical Chance +5)
Vault 3 jumpsuit (Lockpick +5, Repair +5)
Followers lab coat (Medicine +10, Science +10)
Naughty nightwear (Speech +10, Luck +1)
T-51b Power Helmet (Charisma +1)
Recon Armor (Sneak +5)
Caesar's armor (Survival +5)
Wasteland outfit (Endurance +1, Agility +1)
T-51b Power Armor (Strength +1)
T-45d Power Armor (Strength +2; If planning on using this with guns with 100 skill requirement, you'll need Milsurp Review magazines or Fire ant nectar, to make up for the Agility -2, or the addictive Steady, which negates strength and skill wield requirements on its own, defeating the purpose of wearing this armor in particular.. so I just wouldn't recommend this armor unless dealing with Explosives and/or Energy Weapons.)
I hope you'll find this versatile and powerful "pseudo-perfect" build to be enjoyable, or at least the organized information useful!
Good luck!
Voltaic Volition 10:09, December 13, 2010 (UTC)
Very nice write up! We need more like this, I will have a Hunter build up in a few days Stealthology 21:35, February 27, 2011 (UTC)Stealthology
Very helpful information, thanks! (Belatedly, I realize this was posted a few years ago!). I did run into a few issues: I found it a little rough to have such a low lockpick skill for so many levels. Also, getting all those skill books before level 12 is very challenging! I'm assuming you would go after the easy ones and pick up other ones later. 8/6/2013
Only one problem... I entered the Tops and leveled up to 4 :( besides that, great guide!s
The Super Human[]
I have a character build that you may wish to consider. You don't have to follow this character build to the letter, but there are a few perks and a trait that I recommend that you get, in order to create a super human.
Starting SPECIAL
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I know your probably thinking that this build doesn't seem like much, but if you get the recommened perks, implants, and all of the skill books including all of the skill books in Dead Money, you will get a very powerful character as you progress through the game.
Leveling Guide
Tag: Barter, Guns, and Sneak. Note I chose my Explosives skill to be my fourth perk when I got the Tag! perk, because it was my lowest skill at the time.
| Level | SP Distribution | Perks | Books to use |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I try to even out my skills to about the same amount to create a super human. I don't max out any of my skills, because I think that they might add more skill books and/or increase the level cap in future expansions, If they do that it would make my character even more powerful, therefore I recommend that you don't max out any of your skills and just use skill magazines and other boosts. | Traits Small Frame and Wild Wasteland. Note Wild Wasteland can be replaced for another trait if you so choose or just have Small Frame as a trait. | |
| 2 | Confirmed Bachelor/ Elective |
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| 3 | |||
| 4 | Educated | ||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | Comprehension | 6 Big Book of Science 5 Chinese Army: Special Ops Training Manual | |
| 7 | |||
| 8 | Intense Training | ||
| 9 | |||
| 10 | Intense Training | ||
| 11 | |||
| 12 | Intense Training | ||
| 13 | |||
| 14 | Intense Training | ||
| 15 | |||
| 16 | Intense Training | ||
| 17 | |||
| 18 | Intense Training | ||
| 19 | |||
| 20 | Intense Training | ||
| 21 | |||
| 22 | Intense Training | ||
| 23 | |||
| 24 | Intense Training | ||
| 25 | |||
| 26 | Intense Training | ||
| 27 | |||
| 28 | Here and Now/ Elective |
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| 29 | |||
| 30 | Tag! | ||
| 31 | |||
| 32 | Swift Learner/ Elective |
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| 33 | |||
| 34 | Swift Learner/ Elective |
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| 35 |
My current SPECIAL
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Level 35 Skills
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Please excuse the large spacing inbetween the heading of the charts and the charts themselves, I don't know how to fix it while editing. I hope that this character build will be very fun and helpful to you and if you have skill magazines you'll be ready for anything. :)
Charismatic[]
This build is made so that you can earn a BUNCH of money in casinos, talk your way out of anything, and sneak away from/shoot your way out of anything you can't. I find that you can pass more speech checks with the female perks than with the male perks, but either sex will work. Starting SPECIAL
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Now, I know most of you will want more endurance or more perception or more agility, but this is honestly all you will need. Your tag should be: Speech, Guns, and either Repair or Barter (whichever you prefer for repairing your gear) Traits: Small Frame and Four Eyes. These will be a blessing as agility and perception are now not really needed as implants. Now from here on It's fairly easy. Just add 5 points to speech, Sneak, and guns each level-up and you should be fine. Grab the obvious perks like: Black widow, Cherez le Femme, Terrifying Presence etc. Balanced[]S.P.E.C.I.A.L. = 6.5.9.1.5.9.5. (after geting implants 7.6.10.2.6.10.6.) Traits = Skilled and one you think will give most benefits. Strategy is realy simple, you just need to get inteligence implant before geting level 2. I sugesting skiping educate and posibly Comprehension becouse wen you are level 20+ you main skill are alredy maxed and ther is no point having skill points in skills you never gona use. Generaly it save game balance, perserve image of your specialization and you can chose perk that will define your build mach earlier. Balanced perception is also important and having 6 perception (7 whit items) will save you from misdirection that can hapen in open area and you will know on which enemy you need to focus. After geting implant and finishing Old World Blues your strength will be in range of 8-9 and that alone is inaff for 99% of weapons. And if you live it on 9 you can end up whit 10 str. after finishing other DLC.
Loyal Enclave Soldier[]Honestly, this may seem like a cheap build, and it is geared more towards PC players. You'll want to bump up your energy weapons, repair, speech and barter to 50 through console commands. Additionally, regardless of if you go officer gear or power armour, you'll want to add that gear, as well as a plasma rifle variant as well as a laser pistol variant (non-unique), drop everything else, then set your inventory weight to 0 - as a trained Enclave soldier, you'd be used to carrying your armour and weapons. Make sure to side with House and generally place faith in Old World elements (Make the robot head of Primm, etc). Keep on NCR and CL's good side as long as you can, while killing all mutants, ghouls, etc. Honestly, if you want to go full loyalist, prior to the end mission, just murder everyone save vault dwellers. Redirect all resources when possible, such as the Vault/Sharecropppers mission. This is one of the few opportunities you can just be a full asshole. Murder everyone once you're established, recruit the remnants. Avoid all aid sources with radiation. I'd suggest low charisma, 7-8 strength to reflect your martial prowess as one of the last pure humans, intelligence 6 to reflect your academic studies, 8 endurance, average perception since you've been become complacent with your power armour/diplomatic training. Agility and Luck are up to you, though I would suggest a higher Luck than agility rating, to represent your travels through the wastes to this point I'll update as I go along with this play. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 01:46, October 19, 2015 (UTC) (talk • contribs) 222.154.232.126. Please sign your posts with ~~~~!
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