Fallout Character Building » Discussions


Best and worst SPECIAL stats?

  • Member
    December 28, 2016

    Bump!

  • Member
    December 28, 2016

    I know I am biased from my playthroughs but a few of my thoughts in no particular order:

    Most powerful- Probubly luck, as others have said the almost never ending stream of criticals at high level is ridiculous and easily counters mediocre strength for melee, and makes sneak attack criticals one shot almost anything in the game. I also think Idiot Savant levels you faster than high intelligence.

     

    Most useful- I am inclined to say intelligence actually. I almost always run high intelligence character and find points on most characters for medic, gun nut, hacker, scrapper, science, chemist, robotics expert, and nuclear physicist. That is 8 out of 10 perks in that tree and way more than any other. That said, I do have a preference for crafting, building, and power armor. Like I said, I know I am biased from my playthroughs.

     

    Least powerful- Endurance without a doubt, almost completely negated by armor, specifically power armor from ignoring rads from food, chem addiction, and sheer damange mitigation.

     

    Least useful- The second half of several trees lol. Unless you are running sniper build, the second half of perception seems almost useless after demolitions. Charisma looses much value after local leader, or lone wanderer if you are not crafting. Conversely, the first half of agility seems rather useless, with most of the value being gun fu and blitz and for most of my characters, just not worth the SPECIAL points to get that high for some very specific albiet powerful perks. I would rather get more out of a tree, such as with my comments on intelligence.

  • Member
    December 28, 2016

    Amornar said:

    Most useful- I am inclined to say intelligence actually. I almost always run high intelligence character and find points on most characters for medic, gun nut, hacker, scrapper, science, chemist, robotics expert, and nuclear physicist. That is 8 out of 10 perks in that tree and way more than any other. That said, I do have a preference for crafting, building, and power armor. Like I said, I know I am biased from my playthroughs.

    Def agree with you on INT for Power Armor builds or any science-y type of character. It can be great, but I do not run as many PA builds as non-PA, so I tend to overlook it. Also, it should be noted that Robotics Expert in a Automatron style character is pretty awesome now that it works properly. You can control robots pretty easily (more so than the CHR perks for humans and creatures) IMO.

     

  • Member
    December 28, 2016

    Agreed. Intelligence is a nice subtle tree, unlike some of the flashier trees. Really comes down to your style of play if you are more of an "active ability" player vs. "passive abilities" player I think. I am personally a passive ability player in games, not just Fallout, but MMOs, RPGs, etc. Probubly why I don't use VATS much as well. Also love building because settlement building=love lol.

  • Member
    December 28, 2016

    I tend to put a lot of points into Charisma and yet the only time I've perked any of the "control" perks is when I was building the beacon to make captured animals friendly. The only reason I put so many points into Charisma is that I love building settlements and high charisma makes procuring supplies much easier, especially when compined with scrounger. So it's definitely one of my favourite of the special stats.

  • Member
    December 29, 2016

    My stat preference depends on what I'm playing so in the end I'm cool with all of them. I do however have an opinion on the best and worst perks. Why did they have to make Hacker and Locksmith the way they are? If I encounter a Master locked terminal or door it irritates me that I can't try my luck at it because I don't have the perk. I think it would be ideal if I could have the option to try and the perks in question would make my attempts a lot easier. One perk that I find unnecessary in all my stealth playthroughs is Ninja. I think Sandman does the job just fine . More sneak damage just breaks the game. But it gets a pass from me because I think they put in Ninja for high difficulties. But I think I said enough about the bad side. I have many preffered perks even though I think Bethesda could have added more for gameplay diversity. My favorites are charisma's pacify/incite/command perks. You need stealth to put them to good use but who doesn't like having a deathclaw pet? :D For someone who plain sucks at shooting stuff and misses a lot of targets, Scrounger is invaluable. Every perk that advances modding is awesome from my perspective and many others which I'm too lazy now to explain why: Cannibal, Ricochet, Sniper, Blitz etc..

     

  • Member
    December 29, 2016

    Noodles - my bigger issue with locksmith is that safes don't have extra special finds! the only thing getting through tough doors or hacked terminals offers is an alternative way to advance an area. Which can be minorly helpful. 

    I remember first playing and thinking I just had to have hacker and locksmith...now I literally never perks them.

  • Member
    December 29, 2016
    Agreed that they are far from mandatory. Esp since hacker usually just opens extra lore reading or unlocks chests you could already pick. All that said it still drives me crazy when I can't open something lol. I want it all! Then again my characters are always overencumbered.....