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Event Build: The Judge (FO4)

Tags: #Fallout 4 Build  #Character Build Gunslinger  #Character Build VATS  #Event:Comic Books  #AmoBuild 
  • Member
    February 20, 2017

     

    Listen up maggots! Injustice infects the Commonwealth like a plague and there is only one man who can bring order back to the lawless! The Judge and his trusty revolver are the only thing standing between the innocent and the guilty! Below you will find instructions on how to become a Judge yourself and take up the cause of justice! Prepare to walk in the steps of the great Judge Dredd. One of the finest pre-war law enforcement officers the city of the Boston has ever seen. Below you will learn how to be fast, how to be tough, and how to dispatch any perps stupid enough to get down sight of your handgun. Judgement is coming….

     

    Strength- No points starting here, you use guns! Not melee weapons, and you are certainly not a builder so what use is carry weight for a nomadic character? That said, you will want armorer later on for your later level gear so a point from leveling and a bobblehead will get you three points.

     

    Perception- Nothing here either, feel free to get the bobblehead but this is a pure dump stat.

     

    Endurance- Our first big investment. Six base points plus the bobblehead gives the Judge his toughness and fortitude to take on the wasteland and withstand any foe.

     

    Charisma- Straightforward here, no social perks just two base points and the charisma bobblehead for the mighty Lone Wanderer for our solo running Judge.

     

    Intelligence- Starting with one point, add the SPECIAL book from Sanctuary, and the bobblehead from the library for three points netting you some core utility skills.

     

    Agility- Primary stat two, this is our VATS pool along with most of our damage skills with a mighty ten points with the bobblehead giving great killing power when matched with our third and final stat.

     

    Luck- Our last primary stat, eight points of luck with one from the bobblehead gives the Judge terrifying criticals allowing for an almost never ending stream of critical shots from your trusty handgun.

     

    Combat Skills- Gunslinger 5/5, Gun Fu 3/3, Quick Hands 3/3, Idiot Savant 3/3, Better Criticals 3/3, Critical Banker 4/4, Grim Reaper’s Sprint 3/3, Four Leaf Clover 4/4

    Skills for pistols, skills for criticals, check, check. The Judge dispatches judgement throughout the Commonwealth with the assistance of his deadly sidearm. With your slew of critical skills you can deliver an almost never ending series of critical shots thus meaning that you have little need for high perception to increase your hit chance in VATS. With your very high action point pool you can make up for it with a couple of missed shots, leaving your criticals for tougher enemy head shots.

     

    Defensive Skills- Adamantium Skeleton 3/3, Medic 3/4

    The Judge is tough as nails, capable of walking through the wasteland and surviving the worst of the worst the irradiated monsters of the land can throw at him. Solid endurance, solid armor with good Armorer modifications plus the Adamantium Skeleton perk means you can take a lot of damage with little to no ill effects. At higher levels you will be thankful for the immunity to limb damage. By the end of your playthrough you will feel like you are walking around in power armor without the need for a single fusion core. If you do take damage, healing 80 percent with Medic 3 will make you all warm and toasty inside, as the fire of justice fills your gut.

     

    Utility Skills- Armorer 4/4, Lone Wanderer 3/4, Gun Nut 4/4, Action Boy 3/3

    Backing up the Judge is his utility perks that buff his key areas. Most of these can be found in the non primary SPECIAL stat perk trees. Armorer in strength to supplement his defence, Lone Wanderer in charisma to buff just about everything because Lone Wanderer is awesome. Gun Nut turns the best pistols in the Commonwealth into terrifying tools of justice, and Action Boy keeps your action points regenerating at a truly devastating rate.   

     

    Alright if you haven't caught on yet that this is a Judge Dredd inspired build for the Comic Book event I am not sure you are the man and/or woman for the vacant job of Judge. Or perhaps you are and you just need a little extra time in the academy…. *Clears throat* At any rate….back on track! The Judge is a terrifying pistol user who runs through the wasteland with an almost never ending series of critical shots. VATS will be your friend on this build, although you will certainly use your sidearm outside your Pip-Boy’s Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. A lot of the perks above should be pretty straight forward and I won’t waste your time stating the same information again in a different package. The Commonwealth needs you out there, not here reading for hours on end.

     

    As a Judge, you are a wander, a lone wanderer if you will. Traveling the wasteland seeking out those who need your help, or more particularly those who are guilty and need to be judged. Everywhere you look you will find the Commonwealth (and Far Harbor) filled with the guilty who have stolen, murdered, and worse! Raiders, super mutants, ghouls, and more. All of them are guilty in your eyes. As I played through my version of this build, finding what fit well, and making the decisions of roleplay options, perks, etc. An interesting development occurred where I found my playthrough beset by a curious quandary. If you play your Judge’s personality to the hardest line, you will eventually find that -everyone- in the Commonwealth is guilty. There are virtually no people in the world of Fallout that can truly claim to be “innocent”. Because of this we find two main paths the Judge may travel. The lighter path of Redemption inspired by Judge Joseph Dredd himself and the dark path of Retribution inspired by Dredd’s evil brother Rico Dredd.

    Despite all the evils and corruption of the wasteland, the Judge manages to keeps his head through all of it. As he travels he meets and befriends folk who are just trying to survive and works to become a bulwark against the evil that threatens to destroy humanity. You travel from settlement to settlement and although you are not a builder and known little of tools that don’t have muzzles and triggers, you do you best to help those less fortunate. Sure people sometimes lie, cheat, steal, and more from each other, but in the irradiated world you have awoken to, this is the new normal. It is those monsters, who take lives, property, and liberty that you are after. You will befriend the Minutemen, and together with the help of Preston Garvey, you put back together the closest thing to a police force the Commonwealth has known in centuries. You will seek out the Institute and make them pay for kidnapping and killing the innocent and judge them for their crimes. Likewise you see the Brotherhood of Steel as little more than bullies, taking what they want in a way not dissimilar to raiders, only with better technology and more sophistication. The Railroad, while a little idealistic for the grim-faced Judge, are useful in their quest to help those who do not have the means to help themselves and protect those too weak to defend themselves. In Automatron you will seek out this Mechanist and end their threat to the people of Boston. In the lands of Far Harbor you will help the tragic people of the docks to reclaim their island home from the fog and its many dangers. In Nuka-World, you erase the biggest threat of raiders to the Commonwealth and secure the future for justice and peace. Through your strength, determination, and combat prowess, your skills will usher in a brighter future than was thought possible in generations of survivors. In this way you will drag the world around you through the trials of judgement and out the other side in the bright light of redemption. Or….

    They are guilty….they are all guilty. Every single one of them is guilty. The world is fucked! This whole god damned world has been forsaken and you are driven mad by the thought of all the people preying upon each other in a never ending series of crimes. They all deserve to be punished just like every super mutant, ghoul, and synth that walks the wasteland…. You will bring judgement to them. Only the armored giants of the Brotherhood of Steel seem to understand that the only thing that will keep them alive in this awful place is strength of steel. Those Minutemen fools couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Even worse is those Railroad idiots. Helping mindless machines programed to think they are real? Ridiculous! Machines are tools for work, not a replacement for free will. What machine could ever understand what true justice is? No...no the Commonwealth has been tried and has been found guilty. You grow more and more wild with your executions of the guilty until one day the line between the Judge and those he judges is so thin it exists only in name. This is your face-heel turn character development where you can start off with positive intentions, do the begining half or so of the your playthrough with a ‘redemption path’ theme to it. But as you play you will want to get darker and darker as you kill people for virtually any crime until you simply find that the only way to bring justice to the Commonwealth is as the judicial tyrant of the land. To this end you will need tools beyond the ones that fit in your hands. You need manpower and strength of skill and steel. Those Brotherhood guys might have been good for a while, but they have no interest in this land, you know they will move on soon enough and without their presence the wasteland will devolve into lawlessness again. Those Minutemen fools were weak before and weak still. No you need warriors, you need power. Only in Nuka-World will you find your answers. There you will bring warriors under your boot with the strength and power you are searching for to put the Commonwealth to the torch and bathe this world in the fires of retribution. Only when the land has been scorched cleaned by your judgement will you be able to take your place at the top of a throne of the skulls of the guilty and rule with an iron fist, bringing law to the lawless.

     

    In the comics, Judge Dredd always has his trademark helmet masking the upper half of his face. To my knowledge he never takes his helmet off at all, and only in the live-action movie from the 90’s do we see any face to this titular character. Unfortunately the world of Fallout is lacking in headgear that fits this unique aesthetic and I do encourage you to find your own fitting visage for your Judge. That said, I do really feel that the anonymous face of justice is very important to this character. While the game forces you to see your face in character creation, once you don a masked helmet early game, I encourage you to never take it off fully and to not let yourself see your character. In time you yourself will even forget what you look like. Bonus points if you randomize your character creation and hide your character’s face from even yourself so even you don’t know what your judge truly looks like!

    A few suggestions for armor can be seen in the pictures above and below. If you have the Automotron DLC I really found the sentry bot helmet to be the best option as it just seemed to have the right feel to me despite covering the entirety of your face. That said things like the medical goggles, combat helmets with goggles, or if you go dark with your Judge things like the disciples bladed helmet or cowl are great.

     

    Armor wise I found that good, bulkier, but still well put together armor looked the best. Things like combat armor, working up to heavy combat armor are great and give good imposing silhouettes. One of my favorites was the marine armor from Far Harbor that gave a really good look and has amazing stats. Just throw on your ultra-light modification to help with the carry-weight. Although, as a wander character this really isn’t much you will need to pick up anyway. Avoid anything that is ramshackle or scrapped together like metal, raider, etc. armor. Things like synth armor could be used if you like that look but white never seemed like my Judge’s color. That said lots of mods out there add some wonderful changes like colors or entirely new pieces you might like more. Lastly, for a retribution character, you will want something befitting your “Raider-Judge” shift with things like heavy disciple or operator armor.

    For weapons you are a pistol user through and through. Kellog’s Pistol is easy to get and can be found quite early in the game if you push the main quest fast and can be used well into the late game. It has a good strong vibe to it and later as you find more legendary items you can find .44 pistols with amazing legendary effects to them that couple with your critical perks to insane effects. While I felt that a ballistic pistol fit the aesthetic I wanted the best, feel free to play around with some energy options. With the Gun Nut perk, you can make some very nice laser and plasma pistols into some very powerful weapons including from existing legendary weapons such as Righteous Authority (great name for a Judge’s gun) or the Sentinel’s Plasmacaster. Even something more exotic like the Alien Blaster can be used for whatever tweaked look or feel you want your Judge to have.

    And that ladies and gentlemen….err I mean maggots and perps, is the Judge! I hope you all enjoyed reading about my build and fully encourage each of you to click on the event build tag for the Comic Book build event, Tamriel Vault’s very first Fallout 4 build event. Special thanks to Noodles and Mottyskills for their excellent leadership and time commitment to this event, the Fallout 4 section of the site in general, and for all their contributions in the future I know they will keep making. Feel free to post any thoughts or questions about the build below. Thanks!

  • Member
    February 20, 2017

    Oh I like this a lot! I think the Sentry Bot helmet is perfect man. The two path option is a unique RP twist too. I feel like if I were playing this, I'd start with the first and finish with the second lol. 

    Lastly - kudos on snagging some perfect screenshots. Love that in a Fallout build. 

  • Member
    February 20, 2017

    Thanks Motty! He was a beast to play and because of testing I rushed some stuff I normally wouldn't but I believe he would be an amazing character to roleplay over time with that slow steady dark turn as even the mighty Judge is corrupted by the wasteland. :D

  • Member
    February 20, 2017

    Yes! That's exactly right. Especially with Nuka World...you could go real dark and corrupt by the end.

  • Member
    February 20, 2017

    Great use of the editing suit here Amornar! Nice to see the Judge Dread theme in the font, while the presentation is stunning all round. Very cool build!

  • Member
    February 20, 2017
    Awesome job Armonar, when I first saw your build pop up when the event first started, I watched Dredd in preparation. We are the Law!
  • Member
    February 20, 2017

    Thanks guys!

  • Member
    February 21, 2017

    Good work with this Armonar. I can see a lot of love has gone into this, and it shines through in the description and presentation

  • Member
    February 21, 2017
    Thanks Paul. I do love me some Fallout 4 builds!
  • Member
    February 21, 2017

    Bad. ASS. Nicely done, Armonar!! :D  When I saw the preview art go up I was totally stoked. You did a great job with the dark and gritty feel here. Easy +1.