Nightsolo's Fallout 2 Character Creation Opinions

Notes

The prefab characters aren't really worth much. Choose one only if you're looking for a boring game.
Many other guides go into different types of characters (diplomat vs. bruiser vs. whatever). I won't touch those, as I prefer a more balanced character myself.
All of the below are purely my opinions. Take them with a grain of salt. Or many grains of salt.
The numbers in parentheses are what's required when, in the walkthrough I mention a "high" skill or stat is needed.

Stats

Some Stats can be increased permanently in game. Each one has an associated Perk. Strength, Perception, Charisma, and Intelligence each have a Memory Module that can be used on the computer at the Brotherhood of Steel base in San Francisco. Hubologists in NCR and San Francisco can give you a "Zeta Scan" which has a chance of increasing or decreasing your Luck.

Strength (ST) (8) Useful only for carrying stuff. I prefer to have high Gambling and Barter Skills, that way I'm not making a lot of trips back and forth to sell loot. Given the "too many items" bug, you don't want too much stuff anyway.
Perception (PE) (7) Best for shooting stuff from a distance, or noticing details.
Endurance (EN) (8) Only affects your total Hit Points. This only needs to be high if you plan on engaging in a lot of extended battles, or if you can't find enough Stimpaks.
Charisma (CH) (8) Affects dialog choices, Bartering, and number of NPC slots. I like this one high.
Agility (AG) (8) Determines number of Action Points. Important for combat characters.
Intelligence (IN) (8) Most important stat. Determines conversations and skill points per level. Keep it high.
Luck (LK) (8) Not very important. Affects number of critical hits and chances of getting a Special Encounter.

Traits

You get to choose up to two of these. If you raise a stat with Bruiser, Small Frame or Gifted, you can redistribute the extra point(s) manually, so you can think of them as extra generic stat points.
My picks: Small Frame and Fast Shot.

Fast Metabolism Increases your healing rate, but there's no time limit in the game, so what's the point?
Bruiser ST at the cost of AP. Bad tradeoff.
Small Frame Actually 1 more Stat point. And you don't need to carry more stuff if you've got the money skills high.
One Hander Neutral. Many of the Small Guns are two-handed.
Finesse You'd have to rely on critical hits. Sounds like a lot of saving and reloading.
Kamikaze Sequence at the cost of armor? Bad tradeoff. And it only works for the first round of combat.
Heavy Handed Useless later in the game, as the bad guys are heavily armored and won't take much melee damage.
Fast Shot Targeting is over-rated anyway, and you get to fire more often.
Bloody Mess Bloody useless. Just turn the violence all the way up in the Options menu and you'll see people explode all the time anyway.
Jinxed Very, very risky. Lots of reloading save games when you lose your BFG 9000. Er, wait, wrong game.
Good Natured Only useful if you're a diplomat.
Chem Reliant Useless. Lots of reloading to avoid the addiction, and the drugs don't last that long anyway.
Chem Resistant Useless. Same reason as above.
Sex Appeal Really only useful for female characters, as most people in the game are male. But it really doesn't have that big of an effect anyway.
Skilled Useless if you have a high IN, and I like more Perks, not fewer.
Gifted The extra points you can put in IN make up for the lower starting Skills.

Skills

You get a certain number of points to spend every time you level up. You can tag three of these to start, and a fourth one with a Perk.
A small cheat: if you usually play on a difficulty set to less than "Hard," set it there before spending Skill Points or reading a book. It will lower your skill to less than 100% while on hard, thus you only spend one point per percent. When you set the difficulty back to "Normal" or less, the skill will be higher than it would have been otherwise.
My tags: Lockpick, Speech, Gambling, Small Guns.

Small Guns Good. Your primary combat skill.
Big Guns Dangerous. Only if you have a lot of extra carry weight, and don't mind burst-damaging not only your party members, but innocent bystanders as well.
Energy Weapons Neutral. You don't get these until later in the game, and by then you'll be better with Small Guns anyway. Unless you happen across the Alien Blaster.
Unarmed (125) Don't tag it. Plenty of ways to raise this to 100% without using skill points. And it won't do much damage to enemies later in the game.
Melee Weapons Useless. Same reason as Unarmed.
Throwing Useless. I've never found enough stuff to throw to make this worthwhile to put any points in.
First Aid Useless. Resting is easier, Doctor is the same thing but better, and there are better things to put points in.
Doctor (76) Useful only for some sidequest stuff. You'll want this at least 76% eventually, but that's easy enough to do.
Sneak (76) Good. Some strategies involve a lot of sneaking.
Lockpick (100) Essential. There are a heck of a lot of locks in this game.
Steal (30) Useless. Not worth it as long as you don't mind saving and reloading a lot. And your Party Members don't notice it.
Traps (76) Useless. There are no traps that will kill you. Just rest up the lost HP.
Science (125) Neutral. Get it to 81% with books.
Repair (75) Neutral. Raise it with books.
Speech (101) Essential. Affects dialog options.
Barter (95) Useless. Your CH has a greater effect, and Gambling will get you more money than you'll know what to do with.
Gambling (80) Essential. With a low carry weight, I like this one really high so I can essentially loot any slot machine or craps table, and then just buy whatever I need.
Outdoorsman Useless. Random encounters may annoy you, but it doesn't take that long to run off a map. And besides, you'll get extra XP for killing stuff.

Perks

My picks: Bonus Rate of Fire, Gambler, Quick Pockets, Sniper, Tag!, Living Anatomy

Action Boy Neutral. Depends on how many Action Points you have already. You might consider getting enough Action Points to fire three times, or twice plus reload once.
Adrenaline Rush Useless. Stimpaks keep you alive, not killing your opponents only slightly faster.
Awareness Questionable. Just kill the sucker.
Better Criticals Neutral. I prefer to deal higher average damage.
Bonus HtH Attacks Useless. Melee won't really work against late game enemies.
Bonus HTH Damage Useless. Same reason as above.
Bonus Move Questionable. Personally, I don't move much in combat, though it could be useful for a melee character to close the distance.
Bonus Ranged Damage Useless. 2 extra points of damage is nothing.
Bonus Rate of Fire Essential. More attacks per turn means quicker and easier battles.
Cautious Nature Useless. You can run away just as easily without it.
Comprehension Useless. Books only work up to a point, and there are plenty of them.
Cult of Personality Useless. Has no effect in the game.
Demolition Expert Useless. You really don't use explosives much.
Dodger Neutral. Extra Armor isn't all that useful, but if you die a lot it could be.
Earlier Sequence Useless. Only works for the first round of combat, and you don't really have to shoot first, do you?.
Educated Neutral. Handy early on, but eventually you'll run out of things to put these in.
Empathy Useless. The speech options are usually written is such a way that it's obvious which will piss off the listener. Also, sometimes you need to piss them off.
Explorer Neutral. The Special Encounters aren't essential to the game, but they are fun. Maybe take it if you have a low Luck.
Faster Healing Useless. There's no time limit in the game, so no harm in just resting longer.
Fortune Finder Useless. Plenty of cash to be found in the game.
Gambler Essential. About five minutes at a craps table will net you over $100,000.
Gain Agility Neutral. You only get another Action Point if the new number is even.
Gain Charisma Questionable. Only if the new number is even will you get another party member slot.
Gain Endurance Useless. HP is not that important in this game.
Gain Intelligence Essential if your IN is less than 9.
Gain Luck Neutral. Increases your Special Encounter rate and critical hit rate.
Gain Strength Useless. Unless you really want to carry more or heavier guns.
Ghost Useless. I'd rather have the skill points.
Harmless Useless. Steal is not that useful a Skill.
Healer Useless. Resting is just as effective as Doctor or First Aid.
Heave Ho! Useless. Not enough throwing items in this game.
Here and Now Neutral. There are better Perks to choose, unless you really, really need those skill points.
HtH Evade Useless. Unless you're an Unarmed character.
Karma Sutra Master Useless. Fun just to have it.
Karma Beacon Useless. Has no effect in the game.
Lifegiver Useless. Hit points just aren't that important.
Light Step Useless. Absorb the damage and move on. Rest or use a Stimpak if you have to.
Living Anatomy Good. Lots of points to Doctor, and +5 damage.
Magnetic Personality Questionable. Gain Charisma may have the same effect, and do you really need a larger party?
Master Thief Neutral. Maybe if you don't have Lockpick tagged or you really need it now.
Master Trader Useless. Plenty of money to be found anyway.
Medic Neutral. Useful only if you don't have Doctor tagged and you really need the points.
More Criticals Neutral. Sniper and high LK make this useless.
Mr. Fixit Neutral. Useful only if you really need the skill points.
Mutate! Questionable. Try to plan your perks ahead of time. Only use this if you really regret taking something else.
Mysterious Stranger Useless. You are perfectly capable of killing stuff in random encounters, and he's just as useless in combat as your other party members.
Negotiator Useless. Your Speech Skill should be tagged anyway.
Night Vision Useless. Just turn up the brightness on your monitor or in the game Preferences.
Pack Rat Useless. You don't need to carry that much stuff.
Pathfinder Useless. There's no time limit in the game, and this Perk will reduce your chances of finding Special Encounters.
Pickpocket Useless. You'll save before attempting to Steal anyway. Right?
Presence Useless. Very few characters check this. Speech and CH are much more important.
Pyromaniac Useless. Very few Flamethrowers and little Flamethrower Fuel in the game.
Quick Pockets Essential. With enough Action Points, you can fire twice, heal yourself, and reload all in one combat round.
Quick Recovery Useless. You won't get knocked down that often.
Rad Resistance Useless. You won't be exposed to Radiation hardly at all. And when you are, you'll have plenty of Rad-X and Rad-Away to take care of it.
Ranger Neutral. Increases your rate of finding a Special Encounter. Pick it if you have low LK.
Salesman Useless. Plenty of money to be found in the game anyway.
Scout Neutral. Increases your rate of finding a Special Encounter. Pick it if you have low LK.
Sharpshooter Useless. Just put skill points in your weapon skill.
Silent Death Useless. Rogues may do it from behind, but you never kill anyone while stealthed in this game.
Silent Running Useless. Are you that impatient? Just hold SHIFT or turn off the Always Run option in the Preferences.
Slayer Useless. Unarmed isn't that useful that late in the game.
Smooth Talker Neutral. High IN pulls up the extra speech options anyway.
Snakeeater Useless. Just rest off the poison, and there's no time limit in the game.
Sniper Essential. A great way to do extra damage in combat.
Speaker Neutral. Only use if you need the extra Skill Points.
Stonewall Useless. You don't get knocked down often enough for this to be useful.
Strong Back Useless. You don't need to carry that much stuff.
Survivalist Useless. Outdoorsman is a useless skill.
Swift Learner Useless. Over the course of the game it adds up to maybe one level.
Tag! Essential. Get that fourth skill up faster!
Thief Neutral. Only use if you really need the Skill Points.
Toughness Useless. There are better ways to increase Damage Resistance, and HP is not that important.
Weapon Handling Useless. The heavier weapons just aren't that much better than the lighter ones.

Special Perks

These can be gained through your actions in game.

Alcohol Lowered Hit Points, Alcohol Lowered Hit Points II, Alcohol Raised Hit Points, Alcohol Raised Hit Points II: Gained in the Parlor Room in Vault City.
Autodoc Lowered Hit Points: Gained from Dr Andrew in Vault City.
Autodoc Raised Hit Points: Gained from Dr Andrew in Vault City.
Expert Excrement Expeditor: Gained from shoveling crap in Broken Hills.
Gecko Skinning: Gained from Smiley in Klamath.
Dermal Impact Armor, Dermal Impact Assault Enhanced, Phoenix Armor Implants: You can get this from doctors in Vault City, Redding or San Francisco once you learn about implants in Vault City.
Vault City Inoculations: Gained from Dr Troy in Vault City.
Vault City Training: Gained from Dr Troy in Vault City.
Jinxed: The pariah dog will bestow this dubious perk upon you.

Reputations

These don't affect anything, except a few people's reactions to you.

Berserker: Kill more good people than bad people.
Champion: Kill more bad people than good people and don't be a Childkiller.
Childkiller: Kill a child for any reason, even by accident.
Gigolo: Have sex a lot (or just once, providing you're extremely good at it). (For a woman, this should actually read "Gigole".)
Grave Digger: Dig up a grave other than Anna's in The Den, the fallout shelter in Golgotha, or the buried ghoul in Golgotha.
Made Man: Join a Family in New Reno.
Married: Marry Miria or Davin in Modoc.
Porn Star: If you shoot a movie at the Golden Globes in New Reno.
Prizefighter: Win the boxing title in New Reno.
Separated: Have your spouse killed or sold into slavery, or get divorced in New Reno.
Sexpert: Have sex ten times.
Slaver: Join Metzger's guild in The Den.

last modified 6 August 2011