Fallout 2/Character creation

This walkthrough is different in its approach, and a special "highly-tuned" character is used to maximize effectiveness. The walkthrough will walk you through in getting the Power Armor early on in the game (or at least after Vault City), and that is largely responsible for high and low stats featured in the selected character.

The pre-selected characters can finish the game. Chitsa is the best, as her intelligence will enable her to finish most of the quests. Narg is a melee fighter, which is pretty ineffective since virtually all of the good weapons are ranged attacks. And Mingan, well...a thief-type is horrible at combat and really isn't great. The character included below can be considered a heavily modified Chitsa (I used that character as a base for this one).

Now, here are two traits that need to be acknowledged, though they don't have a big impact on the game:


 * 1) You can choose whether to be female or male. For the most part, it really doesn't matter what your gender is, but there are subtle differences that will be taken into account:
 * 2) *Females
 * 3) **In the Den, females can sleep with a bartender in The Hole for $200. They can also sleep with Joey, the gangster, (though apparently for nothing). One major advantage is that females can sleep with Metzger to buy Vic for half the price.
 * 4) **In Modoc, females can marry either Miria or Davin.
 * 5) **In New Reno, females will have difficulty convincing Stuart to sign you up for the boxing championships. Also, females can sleep with T-Ray (the chop-shop mechanic) to get the car back (he'll steal it) and again to get upgrades.
 * 6) *Males
 * 7) **In the Den, males can hire a sex worker.
 * 8) **In Modoc, males can marry either Miria or Davin.
 * 9) **In Vault City, it's possible to date Phyllis for experience. Males can also donate sperm to diversify the genetic base in Vault City.
 * 10) **In New Reno, males have to pay the car mechanics to get the car back without violence. In addition, males are able to sleep with Angela, Bishop's daughter.

Character sheet (used to beat the game):

Gender: Female Age:   19 years

Primary Skills     Traits         Tagged Skills --     --         -- Strength:     4     Gifted         Small Guns Perception:  6     Small Frame    Melee Weapons Endurance:   6                    Speech Charisma:    8 Intelligence: 9 Agility:     10 Luck:        5

Now, here are details about each of the skills and, in some cases, will describe why the skill levels were chosen for this character.

Main skills
All skills are important, but try to keep Luck, Strength, and Perception at least at 4. Characters with Intelligence values of three or less face a totally different game...the only options that you'll receive in dialogue are "Ruk" and "Eeg," as well as the occasional "Yah," "Uh-Huh," and "want more." The average level for all skills is 5.


 * Strength:
 * It modifies carry weight, hit points, weapon handling, and some weapon skills.
 * In this case, Strength is set at 4. The Power Armor will easily offset the penalty from having low strength.


 * Perception:
 * It modifies some skills and increases accuracy at range.
 * A Perception of 6 will allow your character to shoot at decent range. If you take mentats, you will be able to get the Sniper perk later on.


 * Endurance:
 * Toughness. It modifies some skills, hit points, and resistance to poison and radiation.
 * An Endurance of 6 was simply chosen to offset the hit point penalties incurred from the low strength.


 * Charisma:
 * Looks. It modifies speech and barter, as well as NPC reactions. If you divide it by two and round down, that is the number of NPC's you can have. It decreases if you get second-level armor implants.
 * Having a Charisma of 8 will be beneficial for some dialogue options and will allow your character to have 4 NPC's. If you get armor implants, it'll go down to 7 or 6, which is still a respectable level.


 * Intelligence:
 * It modifies dialogue options (gives you more), skill points given per level, and 'science' skills. High intelligence is important and will enable you to complete most of the game's quests.
 * An Intelligence of 9 won't give every dialogue option, but will be able (I think) to finish every quest available (although you'll have to repeat the game many many times; i.e., side with Hubologists in one game, the Shi in the other, etc.).


 * Agility:
 * Speed. It modifies many skills, armor class, and action points. It is one of the most important combat skills.
 * An Agility of 10 will give you 10 action points, which in turn will enable you to shoot twice per round, up to 5 with the right perks and traits.


 * Luck:
 * It modifies critical chance, some skills, and the outcome of the game.
 * A Luck of 5 was chosen - this is "neutral" and will buffer out most random encounters.

Secondary skills
Here is a list of other skills that you'll face. Whenever you create a character, you have to choose three tag skills. Tagging a secondary skill gives you an instant 20% bonus for that skill and 2% increase for each skill point used to increase the tag skill.


 * Small Guns:
 * The use of rifles, pistols, and various small arms. Be sure to tag this one, since most combat will take place with small arms. This skill can be increased by reading the popular magazine 'Guns and Bullets.'
 * This skill was tagged because most of the game's more practical weapons are small guns. Small guns are composed of a very diverse group of guns, from the weak pipe-rifle (pea-shooter) as well as the extremely powerful G11E and M72 guns.


 * Big Guns:
 * The use of miniguns, rocket launchers, and flamethrowers. This skill isn't that great because big guns are fairly easy to aim (with the given strength) and that some small arms are better than these large weapons. (And even then, energy weapons are better than all of these...) Don't tag this one, nor should you really consider building this skill. The only good guns in this selection include the Bozar, CZ53 "Avenger", and the Vindicator minigun.


 * Energy Weapons:
 * The use of all weapons powered by power cells. This one is good in the endgame. The selection of Energy weapons includes the strongest single-shot weapon in the game, the YK42B Pulse Rifle.


 * Unarmed:
 * The use of fists in combat. This category does not exclude the use of brass knuckles, powered mechanical gauntlets and so on. This skill may help early on but becomes relatively useless approaching midgame until you obtain powered fist or mega powered fists. Mega powered fists are among the most powerful weapons in the game for those who want to consider making hand to hand their primary combat.


 * Melee Weapons:
 * The use of knives, sledgehammers, spears, and the like.
 * I tagged this because the Super Sledgehammer can be found early on. It's light and insanely powerful, and can knock down enemies from a long distance.


 * Throwing:
 * Use of throwing knives and grenades. Pretty useless, if you ask me. In the first place, grenades are hard to find and second, even with something like 70% skill, grenades suffer from having a relatively low accuracy to hit your desired target. And grenades are quite expensive.


 * First Aid:
 * Recovers a few hit points. You can increase this skill with first aid books. It is pretty useless to tag or to build since you can read books (and that First Aid kits increase your success with this skill.)


 * Doctor:
 * Recovers a few more hit points than first aid and you can heal crippled limbs. I've healed crippled limbs with 45% skill, and a doctor's bag increases your chance of success with this skill. You should build this to 90% to research combat implants at Vault City.


 * Sneak:
 * The art of moving around without making people notice. I really haven't found much use for this skill. You can ignore it. Even a low skill will enable you to assassinate the President in the end-game. *


 * Steal:
 * Pretty self explanatory. I didn't have a need to steal from other characters, so I ignored it. And the chances of success are greatly enhanced from stealing from the back of the character. *


 * Lockpick:
 * The art of picking locked doors. Now this is one thief-type skill that you should pay attention to. Work on this one and build it to about 65% or so. You won't have to run through the end-game maze with a skill of 85-90% as well as a decent traps skill.
 * NOTE: Using lockpicks increases skill by 25%. Using the upgraded lockpick sets will increase it even more.


 * Traps:
 * The skill of arming explosives and disarming traps. Not too important; 50% is adequate for arming explosives and detecting a few traps. It's also enough to disarm the end-game maze doors.


 * Science:
 * Covers primarily computers as well as biology, chemistry, physics, etc. It can be increased by reading 'The Big Book of Science.'


 * Repair:
 * Covers standard repair techniques. Build to about 60%. It can be increased by using the tool as well as reading 'Dean's Electronics.'
 * NOTE: Using a tool increases skill by 25%. A Super Tool Kit will increase it even more.


 * Speech:
 * The act of convincing others that you are right. This skill is second to small guns, and is extremely useful in bullshitting other people.
 * I tagged this one - it enables your character to convince others to do what you want. You can take a diplomatic end-game approach with this skill, and will allow you to complete a few quests.


 * Barter:
 * This skill is used to determine trade prices. Unlike Fallout, where you would receive good prices, Fallout 2's bargains are worse - even if you raise the skill to insane levels you'll be hard-pressed to get good deals.


 * Gambling:
 * Again, pretty self explanatory. There are more places to gamble and more things that require lots of money (compared to Fallout), so you might consider building it up. I passed it.


 * Outdoors:
 * Practical knowledge of the outdoors. You can read Scout handbooks to raise this skill. This skill will determine, to a lesser extent, how far you can travel in a day and what random encounters you'll face.


 * One reader (Prisnr2436@aol.com) has said that he found the Sneak and Steal skills to be useful. He used the Sneak skill to open lockers that a person with low sneak would have difficulty opening (i.e., guards are around) and used the Steal skill to pilfer items from people (i.e., Bozars from the guards at NCR).

Derived statistics
Derived statistics are statistics that are a direct result of the main statistics, in other words, increase and decrease a skill and see what happens.


 * Hit Points: The number of "life" points. If it goes to zero, so will you.
 * Formula : HP = 15 + (2 x EN) + ST. Average is 30.


 * Armor Class: The higher it is, the harder it is for the enemy to hit you.
 * Formula : AC = AG + Armor worn. Average is 5.


 * Action Points: Determines what you can do during combat. They are displayed by the green lights in combat.
 * Formula : AP = 0.5 x AG + 5. Average is 7.


 * Carry Weight: Mass of how much equipment you can carry, rated in pounds. You can barter for more equipment than you can carry.
 * Formula : 25 + (25 x ST). Average is 150 pounds.


 * Melee Damage: How much extra damage your character does in melee or unarmed attacks.
 * Formula : ST - 5, min.1. Average is 1.


 * Damage Threshold: How much damage your armor can withstand when you are hit.
 * Formula : DR = 0 + Armor


 * Damage Resistance: How much damage your armor can resist when you are hit. The value given in the character screen pertains to normal attacks, while the value given in the inventory screen pertains to different types of attacks, including normal but also explosive,fire, laser, and plasma to name some.
 * Formula : DR = 0% + Armor (Combat Armor has 40% DR)


 * NPC Slots: How many allied NPC characters that can be in your party.
 * Formula : NPCS = CH / 2, round down (A Charisma of 7 will give you 3 NPC slots). Average is 2 NPC slots.


 * Poison Resistance: How much poison damage that you can resist.
 * Formula : PR = 5 x EN. Average is 25%.


 * Radiation Resistance: How much radiation damage that you can resist. Radiation can affect any character, and the only way to get maximum resistance is using RadX.
 * Formula : RR = 2 x EN + Armor Resistance (Combat Armor has 30% Resistance). Average is 10%.


 * Sequence: Determines who will attack first in combat. Higher is better.
 * Formula : SQ = 2 x PE. Average is 10.


 * Healing Rate: How much you can heal in three hours of rest.
 * Formula : HR = 0.5 x EN, min.1. Average is 1.


 * Critical Chance: Chance of scoring a critical hit on the opponent. I think it increases up to 4 times with a hit to the eyes.
 * Formula : CC = LK. Average is 5%.


 * Poison is measured in units; keep it below 25.
 * Being 'raidiated' qualifies having a rem count of 75, with 300 or above being quite serious. A rem count of 5 or higher will bring symptoms of nausea; a rem count of 75 is quite serious, while a rem count of 300 or higher is fatal. If you have enough radiation in your body to necessitate attention, the message 'Radiation' will appear on the screen.