Fun Character Concepts

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OnGame900

First time out of the vault
Since I'm sure many of you have played this game as much as I have (to the point where you get excited when you discover a new string of dialogue,) I'm wondering what creative concepts people have made to make the game interesting. A combination of constraints, objectives, and implied personality that allow people to maximize the game's potential. Characters that aren't necessarily obvious. Here's some of my latest favorites.

An ounce of Good (Dr Moby)
High Perception and Intelligence, very high Endurance. TAG: First Aid, Doctor, probably Speech. Perks: Healer, Lifegiver

A skilled healer who commits no evil. Once you get the two levels of Healer perk, it wont be hard to use First Aid and Doctor as your primary healing skills, since they will heal between 12-30 hit points for free every day. It's kind of a "serious" character who tries to help however he/she can, and never kills anything. That means when you hit a random encounter with some farmers being attack by raiders/wolves, you don't just wait for the battle to end and take the pipe rifle, you do everything you can (use stimpacks, divert fire) to keep the good guys alive, while keeping in mind you have no combat skills. Set difficulty and combat to hard, and don't wear any armor, so you can resist the urge to use combat. With all these constraints you wont be able to do half the quests in the game, but I found it realistic and rewarding to play. Later as combat became more difficult, I got Marcus to do all the fighting for me, and used my incredible knowledge of biolochemistry (jet withdrawal + NPC level up trick) to give Marcus 17 AP, and 21AP for important battles. Combine that with a Psycho when necessary and combat isn't a problem any more, since he can do three Bozar shots in a turn.


Will MrMoneyBags EVER STOP? (MrMoneyBags)
High Stength, very high Intelligence and Charisma, very low Luck and Agility (don't need them,) at least 6 perception. TAG: Steal, Barter. Perks: Strong Back three times.

The idea with this character is to amass every modicum of finite potential wealth in the game. Basically, get as rich as possible without using infinite money tricks like gambling. That means when you find a town, you steal every item off of every inhabitant, raid every shelf, do all the quests with rewards oin the greediest ways. When the farmers in vault city give you a couple hundred caps to buy a plow, you keep the money. If a jet addict has two caps, take them, and shot him if he disagrees. It's pretty fun to see what all the characters in the game are carrying, and great fun to carry 450 pounds of ridiculous junk. Sell acquired items to merchants in exchange for weightless commodities and ammunition for the most wasteful guns you can give your NPCs.


An ounce of BAD ("a Big Jerk" <- makes for funny dialoge)
Combat oriented stats, very high Stength and Endurance. Fast Shot recommended. TAG: Big Guns, Throwing, Traps. Perks: quick pockets.

At a basic level this is just the opposite of the first character; do every thing bad, select the rudest dialogue option even when it initiates combat with the entire town. Be a big jerk. To make it more interesting, I also added the objective to use only explosives for weapons once they became available (in practice you'll need some melee skill too.) Once you get to Modoc there is an infinite supply of dynamite in the town store shelf, it regenerates after being stolen every couple of days. It's possible to use dynamite as a weapon if you set it for ten seconds, wait until your next turn, then drop the dynamite near an enemy and run away. They only seem to go off one at a time, but with quick pockets reducing the total AP cost to 4 it does pretty good damaged compared to other weapons. This is also a pretty good character to get Jet addiction and use Jet before every battle with. Since your initial strength is already high, I recommend using Tesla armor as your final armor upgrade. With a Psycho it actually offers the best defense in the game, minus the vulnerability to your own explosives.


All these characters have a bunch of other constraints of course, but I'm sure you're not interested in details. What are some cool characters you've made in the past?

As an aside, I think I'm going to start up a game where the character is actually a tribal (I've played Fallout2 hundreds of times and always pretended the whole "tribal" thing wasn't there.) I was like, DUH, when I realized I hadn't tried a game like that. Any recommendations for that kind of game?[/b]
 
Hah, awesome ideas. This is why FO1 and 2 are so replayable. I think i'll try all of them once i install megamod.
 
One character I had was a 'non-murderer' who didn't get any humans, mutants, or ghouls on his kill sheet; non-sentient creatures were all fair game. No assassinations by explosives or super stimpacks allowed either. However, I did kill people if there was a special, unique way of doing so (bridgekeeper, New Reno family bosses, releasing FEV in the Enclave, etc). I missed a fair number of quests, but it didn't make the game a whole lot harder. Turrets + Granite's squad = Horrigan dead in 6 rounds or less.
 
Nice ideas, Ongame. I love to play FO2 this way.

I really reccomend playing IRONMAN
for the full-on, hardcore FO2 experience.

I find it limits character builds and perk
progressions (you really need EN 10 and
all the stay alive perks like toughness, and
lifegiver).

My favourite build is the evil, sadistic
knife fighter who's a real junkie jet
addict. He never lasts long on ironman
though :(
 
I think I'm too much of a wuss for Iron man. I better try it one of these days though, especially since I've always wanted to get use out of Toughness and some other perks.

The killing-only-animals thing sort of reminds me of a hunter character I made once. Basically just a sniper character with Outdoorsman and Sneak. Use the scoped hunting rifle, combat knife, and motion sensor. Get Dogmeat, obviously. End up spending a lot of time hunting geckos for pelts, and just hunt all the animals you can. The game kind of ends once you fight the Wanamingo's, since that's the biggest hunt in the game, and the only time where the Motion Sensor is potentially useful. It's fun for a while, though.

So hey, here's one more. Did any one know that flares are really useful? Turns out they are! (if you make a highly specialized character, get it to like level 20, and only fight in well lit areas.)

Solidad del Nortes: Old Roads
Very low Endurance and Charisma (like, 2, or less,) very high Agility and Luck (like, 10,) and the remaining stats are all important to keep around 5 or above. TAG: Unarmed, Throwing, Sneak. Traits: Finesse and Jinxed. Perks: HtH Evade, Bonus Critical Damage.

On a tactical level, this is a character that specializes in the throwing skill, and creates a crazy luck swamped battle field, which makes a throwing character viable. Because of your lack of HP and NPC's who share damage, you will die easily and have to rely off of successful sneak skill use so as to take on enemies only a few at a time. Locking doors and using windows during combat is also good. For most of the game, the primary weapon will be throwing knives, since they can do aimed shots. The Jinxed trait helps keep you alive, particularly once you get HtH evade. Eventually, Throwing Knives become completely impossible to use, and grenades are never really that viable. It's around this point that you start using Flares, which have the useful characteristic of doing an aimed shot for 1AP. Along with the Bonus Crit Damage perk you have 10 chances a turn to make an instant death kill, or just incapacitate the enemy enough to use unarmed. I've literally killed groups of four Enclave soldiers in one turn with this build, which is more than I can say for most characters. If you use flares during the day, they don't light up and can be picked up and reused. Vault city, Broken Hills, and NCR are the best places to buy flares.

This build will give you some of the most ridiculous battles you ever experience, and I highly recommend it. I'm tempted to play it again just thinking about it.

Role play wise, I also decided the character was Mexican, and that all of his dialogue was said with a Spanish accent. It's not much of a stretch, it is in California after all. Likewise, he was very passionate, confident, and maybe somewhat superstitious, to fit the stereotype. Another fun thing I did was every time I saved before an upcoming adventure I would name the save file with a cumulative chapter name. "Old Roads" was the name of the last chapter.

A possible modification for Iron man: only 10 saves for your entire game, corresponding to the 10 slots in the save-game screen (and give them continuing chapter names.) It'd be cool at the end to be able to go back to different "chapters" and review the whole game. It might keep me from cheating and saving often, since I'll have the constant reminder of how many saves I have left.
 
Jinxed makes combat more exciting, though not always in a good way. Lots of lost turns, lost ammo, dropped weapons, knocking down and hurting self. Sometimes you get destroyed weapons, crippled limbs, dud rockets. And more than one can happen at the same time. The best I've seen was a rocketbot in the SAD: "Security Robot critically missed and took 6 hit points, knocked down, his weapon exploded and lost his next turn." There was also a bizarre incident when a radscorpion knocked himself down, took damage, and crippled a limb. Having some APs left, he got up and ran away for the rest of his turn. Only then did the game realize that he had taken more damage than he had hitpoints and was supposed to be dead. So he was set to dead, but still standing.

I'm thinking of trying a jinxed character with a luck of 1, and using weapons rather than focusing on HtH. Definitely not ironman.
 
With a Jinxed as a secondary trait, provided by the Pariah dog, with skills above 200% and a luck score of 8 I barely ever got critical misses. It's either a bug, or high skills don't mix with superstition :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
Jinxed, Luck 10 and strength 4 make for a very interesting starting game...

With strength 4 you can't actually use many weapons properly at the beginning of the game. The Desert Eagle becomes your best weapon since the hunting rifle and the .223 pistol are both too heavy for you.

Folk all around you start fouling up whilst your own gun loses its ammo occasionally. For this reasons I never upgraded my pistols to hold more ammo!

I would highly recommend playing with jinxed as a trait to everyone. I found the vanilla game to be very lacking in failures. Only one or two in the entire game. Jinxed brings a whole new element to the battlefield!
 
Kanhef said:
I'm thinking of trying a jinxed character with a luck of 1, and using weapons rather than focusing on HtH. Definitely not ironman.
Click to expand...

DEFINATELY not ironman. I tried a few ironman games trying
to make jinxed work for me hoping to cut down the number
of attacks made against me. Unfortunately the 'miss your next
turn' critical faliure is by far the worst thing that can happen to
an ironman and is usually fatal. :(

But i love jinxed! It can be hilarious, if slightly surreal watching
NPC's and enemies alike trip over themselves and generally make
a real mess of combat! Beware though, be prepared to loose
your most valued weapons as i find its common to drop your
weapon on a pile of corpses in a random encoutner and never
see it again!
 
Josan12 said:
...its common to drop your
weapon on a pile of corpses in a random encoutner and never
see it again!
Click to expand...

Heh.. I remember using plant spikes as a weapon with an edited character.. almost every shot was a critical to the eye resulting instant death.. then I had to recover the spikes from under the corpses.. it was particulary dificult with molerats.. but now, nothing can hide under a corpse animore.
 
Azrael-Arkangel said:
Cool concepts, I'm going to try this jinxed mexican.
Click to expand...

I think I'll do it, too! Maybe even use grenades - I love grenades! If we had more grenades being sold, they would be more used!

I think I'll do a Dog-Lover character in the future: A guy that only finds true friends in dogs. He'll get all dog NPCs of the game - Dogmeat, Robodog, K9 and even Pariah Dog! (he is not going to get Laddie because he will do anything to reunite Laddie and Johny together) He never hurts dogs (except in extreme situations!) and fights anyone who tries to kill any dog! Maybe he'll be a hunter that shuns humans. I must think what kinds of weapons will he use... (Guns? Melee Weapons? His own damn hands?)
I'm thinking of him using (Combat Skill)/Outdoorsman/Steal or something along those lines!
 
IRON MAN!!!!

I'm actually going to try one of those on Fallout 2 tonight and see how far I can get. Going to try what I think would work and then after I die I'm going to search the forum for Iron man characters that have worked. Just need to watch out for those damn rockets.

I really like some of those character concepts and I actually tried something similar to your Dr. Moby character by starting of with those same skills tagged and helping just about everyone good but I decided that through the course of the game he should slowly learn how to use the guns and eventually become a regular bodyguard on the Far Go Traders caravans.
 
I like the dog herding character! I would definitely make his combat be either Melee or Unarmed, since a character like this is probably feral himself. It'll be tricky getting both Dogmeat and the Pariah since one is a luck reward and the other a luck penalty. It might be a fun character to combine with a low intelligence, assuming you can still get the Robodog when he's smarter than you are. Also, just take Laddy and leave the kid with the slags. He's better off having friends his own species any way! (plus, I think you can get Laddy over your normal NPC limit.)

Dr Moby eventually got HtH training from the Dragon, and developed some long distance precision in lasers. He's still not winning any fights on his own, though!

The thing with jinxed, never fire unless you have 95% accuracy. Don't use non-combat NPCs in combat. Leather armor is maybe better than metal armor for the +5 armor class = 2.5% more critical failures for your opponents. And I think having a high luck helps too. The best thing about jinxed is the New Reno boxing matches. Just keep pressing turn until each champ knocks himself out with clumsiness!
 
Ok, I'm doing a tribal character right now and playing with him. He's in Klamath right now and just recruited Sulik!

Here are his stats:
Name: Bladeson
St 08
Pe 06
En 07
Ch 04
In 05
Ag 08
Lk 03
Traits: Small Frame, Chem Reliant (heheheheheh)
Tag Skills: Melee Weapons, Steal, Outdoorsman.

The ideia: He's a tribal. He can barely read (no using books) or use technology bessides his pipboy (no using of computers, energy weapons and holodisks). He can't begin using small guns, only at the mid-end game and as a secondary skill. It's possible to use any small gun, Melee Weapon, Unarmed Weapon or big gun that DOES NOT INVOLVE HIGH TECHNOLOGY, so no Gauss Weapons or Flamethrowners. Energy weapons aren't allowed. Any melee/unarmed weapon that uses fusion cells can't be used, too. And you can't have implants or Power Armor!
I believe that's going to be quite challeging...
 
OnGame900 said:
I've literally killed groups of four Enclave soldiers in one turn with this build, which is more than I can say for most characters.
Click to expand...
Bwahaha, I am so going to try this tonight!

Probably the most fun character I ever played had 1 point of Intelligence. Try it, it's fun! You won't be able to do many quests but you're gonna have great conversations with Torr. :mrgreen:
 
Buxbaum666 said:
OnGame900 said:
I've literally killed groups of four Enclave soldiers in one turn with this build, which is more than I can say for most characters.
Click to expand...
Bwahaha, I am so going to try this tonight!
Click to expand...

How the hell?

I mean, how you can KILL Enclave soldiers with flares? OMG I GOTTSZ DA FLAREZ I NME EYES BUUUURNIIIIGN?! :crazy: I'll try that soon, somewhat!
 
This is beyond awesome.

I've considered making a non-specific character to "role-play" with who doesn't belong to a "class" (stealth boy, combat boy, charisma boy), but never actually did it. The idea of doing so with some sort of background and personality is...I have to try these someday. Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
The Vault Dweller
 
I'm doing a tribal character right now. The beggining is going to be easy, but the end without Power Armor or implants or high-tech weapons is going to be hard! I think I'll drug my tribal guy with Jet, just for fun.
 
Slaughter said:
I mean, how you can KILL Enclave soldiers with flares? OMG I GOTTSZ DA FLAREZ I NME EYES BUUUURNIIIIGN?! :crazy: I'll try that soon, somewhat!
Click to expand...
I presume it's due to the Sniper perk and/or Better Criticals which grants insta-kill crits. Aimed Shot at the cost of 1 AP let's you throw a lot of (non-lit btw) flares...
 
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