Poll: Fallout: New Vegas - Character Archetypes

[ReservoirAngel]

So, I finally got my hands on a copy of Fallout: New Vegas. Great, I thought, time to head out into the wasteland and do what I do best...make an ass, bastard and general murderous neusance of myself.

Then...I was given advice from my brother about the game: "you need to be really careful about how you put ur points in to beef up your character."

Well fuck. Careful point assignment is one thing I never do well in. As evidenced by my massive failure with...pretty much ANY MMO i played, or indeed any game where point-assigning levelling was necessary.

So I managed to acquire myself the guide to said game to see what it recommends. Trouble is, it recommends 13 different possible 'character archetypes'.

So, again I find myself at the feet of the internet gaming community, praying they'll be merciful for a moment BEFORE they take my lunch money and throw me in a dumpster.

Without further delay: to anyone who is currently playing, or has played, Fallout New Vegas...which of the THIRTEEN archetypes do you most recommend to an utter noob.

NOTE: I currently have my eye on either Basil 'The Sniper' Crowcross, or Elizabth Fortunate-Bradley: The Cat Burglar.

2ND NOTE: Cause I can only have 8 spots for a poll, I have left out the 5 archetypes that I really have no interest in bothering with at any point.

3RD NOTE: Forget the poll. people might massively support one of the 5 I cut out, so i'll leave a poll out of it

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

Huh? Go for what feels natural, one of my friends started off with science, lockpicking and repair as her main traits and she blitzed through, far better than I did with my guns, melee and whatever my third thing was.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Huh? Go for what feels natural, one of my friends started off with science, lockpicking and repair as her main traits and she blitzed through, far better than I did with my guns, melee and whatever my third thing was.

I don't trust myself with 'doing what feels natural' with stuff like this. I'll just end up cocking it up in rather epic fashion.

 

[oplinger]

some perception, 9 agility.

...That's all you need really. intense training for some luck, don't take the perk that gives you more XP, you don't get enough perks for that. Get the one in the beginning that adds 1 agility (for 10 agility) and the one that makes you 20% more accurate (only works in VATS I believe, so if you don't plan to use VATS, get the four eyes perk.)

And you'll be set for anything. Tag whatever skills you find the most useful (I tagged guns, lockpick and speech.) And then just shoot things. ...You can use that build as a gunslinger -or- a sniper. ..Hell a sniping gunslinger. Just not with laser weapons. or big guns.

 

[loc978]

The only real catch-all needs are agility for VATS, perception for your radar, and enough strength to use whatever guns you plan on using (high intelligence for more skill points is always a plus, too)... then build for either stealth combat (stealth + agility + luck + weapon skills of choice) or armored combat (medicine + survival + endurance + weapon skills of choice) lockpicking, science, speech, and barter are a must for any character (and survival is a must for any character on hardcore mode), but you can generally afford to level them slowly, supplementing with magazines (and the comprehension perk).

Personally, I went with stealth, guns, and melee weapons... focused on sneak attacks and grabbed the Ninja perk at 20... but I like the challenge of fighting stealthy and unarmored.

 

[SimuLord]

My rule of thumb in a Fallout game is "to hell with the NPCs, my character needs to hold up on his own."

The only absolutely mandatory thing I see is starting with 9 Intelligence (boosted to 10 when you get to the doctor outside of Freeside) for maximum skill points, plus the Educated and Comprehension perks taken at level 4 and 6, respectively. In New Vegas the Four Eyes trait is useful because it's basically a free +1 to perception because glasses are always available.