Fallout/Character creation

An impression for the game was "a big dumb ox and a pretty little lady won't have the same experience" - to quote Christopher Smith's great Fallout FAQ.

The three pre-made characters that come with the game can finish it.

First, select your name. The name doesn't make any difference in the game; it is your own preference.

Next, select your age. You can be as young as 16, but as old as 35. Age has an insignificant impact on the game. Probably older characters might have different reactions with young ones, but none that I know of. But at the same time, all of my characters were pretty young.

Now you are ready to select your sex. You can be male or female, and the game does differ if you are a girl or a guy. It's your own choice; try beating both variations of the game. However, there are some issues regarding the sex of your character. The game really doesn't matter if you are male or female, but these are the differences. (Female is recommended for a slightly easier game.)

• Male characters typically get knocked down and have a greater chance of you scoring a critical hit on them if you hit them in the groin. The female character doesn't have any known weaknesses in combat.
• NPC's have different reactions if you are female or male (Killian calls you darling if you're female, Keri can have sex with you if you're male, etc.)
• Probably to offset the male weakness thing, female characters are hated by couple of NPCs, notably Lasher. Harry is a bit harder to BS with if you're female.
• If you are female, there is no charisma bonus to your character, and there aren't any strength and endurance penalties. Ditto for males as well.

Main Skills

They're pretty self explanatory, but on the descriptions it tells what each skill modifies. 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."

• Strength modifies carry weight, hit points, weapon handling, and some weapon skills.
• Perception modifies some skills and increases accuracy at range.
• Endurance - Toughness. It modifies some skills, hit points, and resistance to poison and radiation.
• Charisma - Looks. It modifies speech and barter, as well as NPC reactions.
• Intelligence modifies dialogue options (gives you more), skill points given per level, and 'science' skills. High * intelligence is important, seven or eight as a minimum is recommended.
• Agility - Speed. It modifies many skills, armor class, and action points. An Agility of 10 is recommended for snipers.
• Luck modifies critical chance, some skills, and the outcome of the game.

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.'

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.

Energy Weapons

The use of all weapons powered by power cells. This one is good in the endgame. You should build it if you plan on killing the Master and the Lieutenant and all of those mutants.

Unarmed

The use of fists in combat. This skill helps early on, but it becomes pretty useless in the midgame. If you find the power fist, this skill truly shines. I tagged it so I would have an easy time in Vault 13 and 15 and not having to resort to my gun.

Melee Weapons

The use of knives, sledgehammers, spears, and the like. This one follows like unarmed, except that you'll find super sledgehammers instead of power fists. This one is pretty good if you plan on getting the super sledgehammer.

Throwing

Use of throwing knives and grenades. Pretty useless, if you ask me. In the fist 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. Don't worry much about it.

Sneak

The art of moving around without making people notice. I really haven't found much use for this skill. You can ignore it.

Steal

Pretty self explanatory. I didn't have a need to steal from other characters, so I ignored it.

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. If you work it to 80%, you don't even have to do the Brotherhood quest. It is worth tagging.

Using Lockpicks increases skill by 25%.

Traps

The skill of arming explosives and disarming traps. Not too important; 50% is adequate for arming explosives and detecting a few traps.

Science

Covers primarily computers as well as biology, chemistry, physics, etc. It can be increased by reading 'The Big Book of Science,' as well as taking a few computer courses at the Vault 13 Library and the Brotherhood of Steel. 90% is adequate.

Repair

Covers standard repair techniques. Build to about 60%. It can be increased by using the tool as well as reading 'Dean's Electronics.'

Using a Tool increases skill by 25%.

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 and worked it to 120%.

Barter

This skill is used to determine trade prices. Even with relatively low skill, there will be a couple of merchants whose prices will be higher than yours while bartering. I didn't raise this skill one bit.

Gambling

Again, pretty self explanatory. There are only two gambling places I know of: Gizmo's and the Malatese Falcon. It is not worth putting valuable skill points into this skill.

Outdoors

Practical knowledge of the outdoors. You can read Scout handbooks to raise this skill, and there are a couple at Shady Sands. You don't have to increase this skill by a lot.

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. Note: These are straight out from the Fallout manual.

Stat	Description	Formula	Average
Hit Points	The number of "life" points. If it goes to zero, so will you.	HP = 15 + (2 x EN) + ST.	30
Armor Class	The higher it is, the harder it is for the enemy to hit you.	AC = AG + Armor worn.	5
Action Points	Determines what you can do during combat. They are displayed by the green lights in combat.	AP = 0.5 x AG + 5.	7
Carry Weight	Mass of how much equipment you can carry, rated in pounds. You can barter for more equipment than you can carry.	25 + (25 x ST).	150 pounds
Melee Damage	How much extra damage your character does in melee or unarmed attacks.	ST - 5, min.1.	1
Damage Threshold	How much damage your armor can withstand when you are hit.	DT = 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.	DR = 0% + Armor (Combat Armor has 40% DR)
Poison Resistance	How much poison damage that you can resist.	PR = 5 x EN.	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.	RR = 2 x EN + Armor Resistance (Combat Armor has 30% Resistance).	10%
Sequence	Determines who will attack first in combat. Higher is better.	SQ = 2 x PE.	10
Healing Rate	How much you can heal in three hours of rest.	HR = 0.5 x EN, min.1.	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.	CC = LK.	5%

• Poison is measured in units; keep it below 25.
• Being 'radiated' 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.

Upgrading your statistics

During your adventure, you can receive some bonuses to your statistics.

• Drugs, such as Buffout, Mentats, Psyccho, and RadX can increase them temporarily. (For more info on which stats they alter, refer to the appendix.)
• Armor can provide a good increase in armor class, damage threshold and resistance, as well as radiation resistance.
• Tycho can teach you some outdoorsman skill if you ask.
• MacRae, the guard at the Blades, can teach you some fighting skills if you ask him. It's futile to ask if they're at 91%.
• Watching the Brotherhood Initiate training can give you an increase in melee and unarmed skills.
• The Brotherhood has computer courses that can increase your science skill by 15%.
• Reading books can increase your skills, up to 91%. These include: Scout Handbook (outdoorsman), Big Book of Science (Science), Guns and Bullets (small guns), Dean's Electronics (repair), and the First Aid Book (first aid).
• The Brotherhood surgeon can increase all of your skills (except for charisma and luck) for a price (and long recovery time).
  • Strength  : $2000, 3 weeks
  • Perception  : $4000, 1 week
  • Endurance  : $3000, 1 week
  • Intelligence: $6000, 3 weeks ($3000 for characters with less than 3 Intelligence)
  • Agility  : $5000, 3 weeks
• Patrick the Celt, the wandering bard, can increase your charisma by one if you sing the Gaelic song with him.
• Chuck, the fortune teller, can increase your luck by two if you get your fortune told and choose the right conversation path.