Which is the best attribute in Fallout New Vegas?

[aweigh]

i used to think it was LUK because of crit. build always being best damage dealer in a fallout game, MORE SO THAN EVER in the last two games and their new gameplay.

fo 3 is irrelevant and not worth discussing.

anyway returning to the matter at hand i've since changed my mind: first i briefly toyed with INT because of it's dialog benefits and stuff and because you gained more skill points faster and skill points dictate how good your character is AT ANYTHING.

but recently, (though this only applies to new FO games), i've realized it's really STR because it determines the amount of loot. the more shit you got on you, the moment you enter your inventory you're basically guaranteed the equivalent of a rest-point/campfire/inn restorarion equivalency benefit as you drug yourself up.

in FNV which has such a ridiculous amount of stuff and ways to make stuff really hammers this home on your later playthroughs. obviously old fallout games rectified this by limiting the use of inventory during combat. duh, huh.

 

[DalekFlay]

A low STR can actually stop you from being retarded and carrying a small apartment's worth of furniture around with you. First 10 hours of the game I always keep trying to carry 5 guns and a ton of shit, only to quickly realize that's dumb. The game has fast travel, so you can always go back to Novac or whatever and get more shit if you need it.

As for best stat, I usually put INT and AGL at 9 to get the maximum amount of skill points and a nice boost to guns from the start, plus VATS headshot for later, when it's a quick and easy way to thin herds.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

obviously old fallout games rectified this by limiting the use of inventory during combat. duh, huh.

Until you realize you are allowed to use items from inside the inventory instead of equipping them, that is.

(besides, you'll always have enough AP to open the inventory at least once per turn, so even without the above exploit it's still godmode)

 

[sigma1932]

A low STR can actually stop you from being retarded and carrying a small apartment's worth of furniture around with you. First 10 hours of the game I always keep trying to carry 5 guns and a ton of shit, only to quickly realize that's dumb. The game has fast travel, so you can always go back to Novac or whatever and get more shit if you need it.

Pretty much this... though I admittedly still raise STR as high as possible (up to 7 starting + implant + OWB bonus) for convenience since I pick up everything not nailed down, it doesn't actually have that much impact on gameplay itself.

Really though, without considering anything else involved, a choice between at most a +6.25% increase in inventory space vs. at most a +5% crit-chance is really just splitting hairs.

As for best stat, I usually put INT and AGL at 9 to get the maximum amount of skill points and a nice boost to guns from the start, plus VATS headshot for later, when it's a quick and easy way to thin herds.

Disagree with at least part of this... I never go above 5 INT (including implant by level 3), which is enough to max all skills without needing to take any skill perks (i.e. don't need comprehension, educated, tag!, skilled trait, etc.) while using only minimal gear swapping (only 1-2 pieces, IIRC), plus it's enough to cover all remotely useful perks that require INT.

I also never feel rushed to put points into any weapon skill early on... in fact, they're usually the last skills I touch, when I have no where else to go with the points.

obviously old fallout games rectified this by limiting the use of inventory during combat. duh, huh.

Until you realize you are allowed to use items from inside the inventory instead of equipping them, that is.

(besides, you'll always have enough AP to open the inventory at least once per turn, so even without the above exploit it's still godmode)

You still generally had to give up a shot or two to open your inventory in the originals though, which translated into at least a minimal tradeoff of potentially allowing the enemy an extra chance to one-round you after you heal up to full from your inventory.

That aside, all games considered as-is, NV did the best job at fixing this, at least in theory, by making healing work over time instead of instant like all previous FO games. The rest of the game's design, however, makes it a failed effort in practice (i.e. IIRC, no limit on how many healing effects you can activate at once, no tradeoff for using them mid-fight, over-abundance of different healing items to be found, combat becomes trivial very quickly due to other flawed mechanics so no need to heal in the first place, etc.)

Neither method is without loopholes, though the originals' method probably would take the least and/or simplest tweaking (i.e. just make it so using items from your inventory screen consumes AP) to close them.

 

[GlutenBurger]

I never go above 5 INT (including implant by level 3), which is enough to max all skills without needing to take any skill perks (i.e. don't need comprehension, educated, tag!, skilled trait, etc.) while using only minimal gear swapping (only 1-2 pieces, IIRC), plus it's enough to cover all remotely useful perks that require INT.

I only played through New Vegas once, and haven't really tooled around with character builds because the game discourages it by using one of those tedious dialogue-based character creation systems, but it seemed to me that intelligence along with charisma offered the most attribute-based opportunities for quest solutions. Surely an intelligence of 5 must cut you out of a great number of dialogue possibilities?

 

[Cadmus]

When playing F3 and NV, the biggest impact on your combat survivability is from STR. You become a walking hospital/armory/junkyard and the ability to heal yourself during the combat, no matter if it's over time in NV, is gamebreaking. Basically, the most important things for the combat is money+availability of healing potions shit what are they called, stimpaks.

I'm no spread sheet retard so I don't usually think much about stats and I haven't played NV twice so I had no idea about implants or shit so I just put most points in AG cuz it's fun.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Endurance I think, durability is always important, but 9 more perks via implants? Absolutely necessary. Besides that, the most deadly and common enemies in the game all rely on poison damage, Cazadores, Nightstalkers, Scorpions, having that high poison resistance makes a big difference at being able to survive their attacks.

 

[Dustin542]

obviously old fallout games rectified this by limiting the use of inventory during combat. duh, huh.

Until you realize you are allowed to use items from inside the inventory instead of equipping them, that is.

(besides, you'll always have enough AP to open the inventory at least once per turn, so even without the above exploit it's still godmode)

Then there is also being able to use them from the hold left click drop down backpack icon.

 

[Xeon]

Perception 6 to spot enemies earlier mostly and better crits perk - Agility 6 for Silent Running - Endurance 8 for implants. I rise and lower the rest depending on what type of clothing and equipment I want to use.

JSawyer mod lowers the amount of levels you can level so no max skills IIRC, you can temporarily rise skills and attributes with consumables, Comprehension and Chimist I think are pretty good perks. You get a lot of Speech and Charisma checks so alcohol and the speech magazine and maybe Mentats for that, after clearing an area a repair magazine and Mentats and most times you find clothes with repair for extra skills for fixing items and selling them later.

 

[Commissar Draco]

INT for more Skill points and Charisma for better rewards and skipping tedious fedex sub quests; perception and agility if you plan to use guns and play as sniper; the rest can be at 2 and you won't notice the difference unless you play to got as melee character; than pump into STR and END instead.

 

[eremita]

Because Obsidian devs actually know what's important in RPG (unlike Bethesda), they made sure every stat is important. I'm talking quests outcomes here (dialogue checks included), not combat cause it's shitty and you don't need to worry about effective build. Just slap some points in agility and guns, and you'll be alright. With companions, you don't have to worry about anything combat related at all.

Two most useful stats are IMO intelligence and charisma though (you get most from the game).

EDIT: Also, it's worthy to mention that even though Obsidian repair a lot of things, some remains completely retarded. One of those things are items with stats bonuses. So you'll just equip some hat, coat, gloves and shit and you're fucking genius, best sniper, professional plumber etc. It's retarded, it kills roleplay but it helps to people who want their character to be able solve things in every possible way. Problem with stat/science checks? It's aright, just put this awesome coat on... So, that's another reason why you shouldn't worry about stats. This game is so fucking broken mechanically that you should just enjoy the great quests and story and don't think about anything else...

 

[Hobo Elf]

I always go balls deep into Luck with a side of decent Int. Then I go and clean the vaults in all the casinos and upgrade the rest of my stats with implants. High luck gives you a better chance at winning in casinos so it's kinda good to capitalize on it.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Endurance > Luck > Agility > Strength > Intelligence > Charisma > Perception.

 

[Somberlain]

Besides that, the most deadly and common enemies in the game all rely on poison damage, Cazadores, Nightstalkers, Scorpions, having that high poison resistance makes a big difference at being able to survive their attacks.

Until Old World Blues, where you get a free perk that makes you immune to poison. Endurance is great for those implants though.

 

[sigma1932]

I never go above 5 INT (including implant by level 3), which is enough to max all skills without needing to take any skill perks (i.e. don't need comprehension, educated, tag!, skilled trait, etc.) while using only minimal gear swapping (only 1-2 pieces, IIRC), plus it's enough to cover all remotely useful perks that require INT.

I only played through New Vegas once, and haven't really tooled around with character builds because the game discourages it by using one of those tedious dialogue-based character creation systems, but it seemed to me that intelligence along with charisma offered the most attribute-based opportunities for quest solutions. Surely an intelligence of 5 must cut you out of a great number of dialogue possibilities?

That's what consumables (and gear-swapping if necessary) are for... even with low Survival skill, Mentats + Party Time Mentats + Black Coffee = +6 INT. Same deal with CHA, plus, IIRC, there are only about a half-dozen to a dozen checks throughout the entire game that actually use these two stats.

Skills matter far more than SPECIAL attributes do when it comes to dialogue. To that end, not raising weapon skills until after other stuff is taken care of frees up plenty of skill points to raise the dialogue-based skills earlier on.

 

[Cadmus]

Im thinking of replaying Vegas one day with a character that doesn't fight at all if possible. Does the game support this? How would you go about it?

 

[eremita]

Im thinking of replaying Vegas one day with a character that doesn't fight at all if possible. Does the game support this? How would you go about it?

As I said, companions. Pick the robot early on, take Boone as fast as you can, and you're done with fighting...

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Yeah it's supported, putting Charisma high makes all companions do up to 50% more damage, and get more DT. As for the rest of the game there's almost always a speech way of dealing with something IIRC.

 

[Carrion]

Does the game support this?

Yes, and it doesn't really even take that much effort. On my last playthrough I iron manned the game without firing a single shot or recruiting a single companion. It's fairly easy to avoid combat when travelling (high Perception and Sneak help, although they're not necessary) and Speech gets you through most parts of the game. Not all side quests allow you to go full pacifist, though, so if you're going for a completionist run, you might want to invest in Charisma and companions like Onholyservicebound said.

 

[DalekFlay]

Disagree with at least part of this... I never go above 5 INT (including implant by level 3), which is enough to max all skills without needing to take any skill perks (i.e. don't need comprehension, educated, tag!, skilled trait, etc.) while using only minimal gear swapping (only 1-2 pieces, IIRC), plus it's enough to cover all remotely useful perks that require INT.

I don't like to play the higher levels because of HP bloat, so my second and third playthroughs I took the level 30 cap perk. Jesawyer mod also caps at level 30 I believe, which is how I intend to play the game next time. So getting all the skill points you can might be more important, seen through that lens. Plus I am usually eager to level guns, as a sniper, and speech/lockpick/science, so I can get everywhere.

 

[DragoFireheart]

Which is the best attribute in Fallout New Vegas?

Speech, followed by Energy Weapons, followed by Sneak with Silenced Guns.

Now watching this thread.

 

[Wise Emperor]

I like to play well spoken, suave characters, so I always go with high int and ch. Luck as dump stat in FO1, 2 and vegas.

 

[DalekFlay]

I like to play well spoken, suave characters, so I always go with high int and ch. Luck as dump stat in FO1, 2 and vegas.

Is Charisma all that important for speech in New Vegas? I don't remember many charisma checks, it's mostly used for companion stuff.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

No, according to the wiki there may be a few negligible interactions you won't get, but it's mostly to make your companions death machines.

Intelligence is also pretty useless in Vegas imo, since there are the skill books, the boosts you get from skill implants, 50 levels with the broken DLC cap, and the fact that you really only need to max your weapon skill and 8 skills.

 

[Wise Emperor]

No, according to the wiki there may be a few negligible interactions you won't get, but it's mostly to make your companions death machines.

Intelligence is also pretty useless in Vegas imo, since there are the skill books, the boosts you get from skill implants, 50 levels with the broken DLC cap, and the fact that you really only need to max your weapon skill and 8 skills.

Real men go hardcore and use level cap so every skill point is important