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My advice is to experiment and see the effects for yourself. But if you _really_ want a pre-rolled character, my favourite was something like picking the "Gifted" trait for more points, and then setting the stats to something like:
ST: 6
PE: 7
EN: 5
CH: 6
IN: 9
AG: 8
LK: 6
Let me explain.
Strength 6 is enough for any ranged weapon in the game. More strength does NOT mean more damage with rifles and pistols. Plus, by the end of the game, the Advanced Power Armour will give you a +4 to strength. (And before that, the regular power armour is +3.) But the max is 10. Hence, if you had distributed more than 6 to strength, at the expense of other stats, basically those extra points are lost, and all you'll have is a bunch of under-par other stats.
Mind you, with strength 6 at the start of the game you'll do buggerall damage with your fists, as well as be limited to 175 lbs carry weight. But as soon as you get a pistol, you don't need melee damage, and when you get party members and then a car, the carry weight will be much less of a problem.
Perception is essential for sniping at a range. Ideally, you'd want as much of it as you can. But 7 still gets you a reasonable range, and more than that is basically overkill at the expense of other stats, IMHO. And it's enough to get most perks that have a perception requirement, except for "Sniper". Sniper is a very good perk, but if you want it, you can just get a "Gain Perception" perk before it.
Endurance basically determines your hp gain per level, poison res, and radiation res. For the hp gain per level, you can pick the "Lifegiver" perk twice later, and it'll give you massive hp per level, even with buggerall endurance. You only need 4 endurance to get the perk, so you may even try with it that low, and distribute the extra point to PE. Poison resistance never was a problem for me, and for radiation, IMHO you either need to get it to 95% or don't need it at all. To get it to 95%, you'll need two RadX's anyway, so your natural one is basically irrelevant.
One point where you will miss high endurance is the "Strong Back"
perk. With endurance under 6, you won't get it. Then again, as I've
said, carry weight was the least of my problems after getting the car.
Charisma is mainly important for the number of party members you get.
A value of 6 means you can get 3 party members, in addition to
yourself. Or 4 with the "Magnetic Personality" perk, tho I always
found other perks more useful. Charisma allegedly also modifies npc's
reactions towards you, or so the manual says, but with 6 I didn't
notice any getting hostile for non-obvious reasons. In any case,
saving often is a good idea anyway, regardless of your charisma.
Intelligence is very important. It determines the number of skill
points you get per level, and with "Gifted" you'll be hurting for
skill points. I'd even advise getting the "Gain Intelligence" perk at
level 15. It also determines what you can say in a conversation.
Agility, apart from the obvious armour class, sets how many Action
Points you get per turn. With 8 agility, you get 9 AP, which with the
right perks/traits can be more than enough IMHO. To get 10 AP, you'd
need 10 agility, which means severely downgrading other stats, so IMHO
it's not worth it.
Luck is not only for the initial critical chance, or I would have just
set it to 5. But you also need at least 6 luck to get "Better
Criticals", "Bonus Ranged Damage", and "More Criticals" later.
Now you still have one trait left, so let's look at what you can
choose.
Fast Metabolism -- As it says, it increases your natural healing rate,
but kills your natural radiation and poison resistances. As I've
said, I never had much use for natural radiation and poison
resistances, anyway, so it's not that much of an inconvenience. Then
again, I never had much use for a high natural healing rate, either.
Bruiser -- increases strength by 2, turns your AP to a crap value. As
a side-note, as with any stat increasing trait, you can then proceed
to decrease strength by 2, and use those two points on any other stat
of your choice. E.g., you can use "Bruiser" to get two extra points
to AG, IN, EN, or PE instead of ST. But be warned that the AP penalty
is a right pain in the behind, so it was never my favourite trait.
Small Frame -- +1 to AG, but you can carry very little weight. Just
as with Bruiser, you could just as well use the point elsewhere, such
as PE, IN or EN. Be warned that the resulting carry weight penalty
can be a major pain in the behind. With 6 ST and "Small Frame" you'll
only be able to carry 100 pounds of equipment. That IS a problem very
soon. While I could and did stay under 175 lbs carried weight for
most of the game, under 100 was way too tight. Your call, though.
One Hander -- Basically, reverses the range penalties for
pistols/SMG's and rifles. Without it, you're accurate with rifles,
but have crap accuracy with a pistol. With it, you're accurate with a
pistol or SMG, but have bad accuracy with a rifle or minigun. IMHO,
it's a pretty good trade-off, though I've always found "Fast Shot" to
be a better choice.
Finesse -- +10 to critical chance, but it lowers the normal damage you
do. It's not a particularly bad trade-off, but not one of my
favourites, either.
Kamikaze -- It gives you a relatively minor increase to sequence, but
nukes your natural AC. IMHO it's a pretty bad choice. Most battles
are not one-on-one, and don't end in 1 or 2 turns, either. And beyond
the first turn, it's a problem of you move, they move, you move, they
move, etc. I.e., everyone does get a move per turn, regardless of the
sequence number. I.e., who made the first move doesn't really make
that huge a difference. And no AC makes the beginning of the game a
bit more tricky. By the end of the game, noone seemed to miss me, no
matter how high the AC, and they seemed to sequence before me anyway,
no matter how high the sequence. So my advice would be to forget
about this trait.
Heavy Handed -- You get +4 to melee damage, BUT your criticals will
always be less powerful. Yes, that includes critical hits with ranged
weapons. Personally, I'd advise against it, since most of the game I
fought with guns, and with this trait it means only disadvantage
without any advantage.
Fast Shot -- This is definitely my personal favourite. Let me
explain. With 9 AP, and most handguns and rifles, it means you can do
TWO normal shots per turn, while without it you'd get only ONE aimed
shot. With a .44 magnum or P90c or a Gauss Pistol, it means _three_
normal shots per turn with this trait, versus one aimed and one normal
without it. Etc.
After you also pick the "Bonus Rate of Fire" perk, it gets even
better. With a .44 magnum or P90c or Gauss Pistol and "Fast shot" you
get _4_ normal shots per turn, versus 2 aimed ones without it. If you
also pick a level of "Action Boy" on top of "Bonus Rate of Fire", it's
_5_ normal shots with "Fast shot" vs 2 aimed ones without it.
Now I know that aimed shots cause more criticals, but they're also a
lot more difficult to succeed. Me, I'd much rather go with wholesale
distribution of ammo, than with a few aimed shots.
Bloody Mess -- as the manual says, it just forces the most violent
animations, but other than that it has no influence on game outcome.
Beats me why bother picking it, unless you're in it just for seeing
loads of gore.
Jinxed -- This trait makes fights look almost surrealistic. Everyone
will keep dropping weapons, losing ammo, crippling themselves,
shooting allies, etc. Unlike what the manual says, it seems to have a
lot less influence on you than on npc's, but it does have a lot of
influence on the people in your party. After seeing Sulik lose the
third weapon or so to critical failures, I just restarted and picked a
different trait. This trait is a bad choice, if you ask me.
Good Natured -- You lose 10% on all your 6 combat skills, but get +15%
to 4 other skills. The sum of points gained equals that of points
lost, if that's not obvious. Since at least half of your combat
skills you'll never really need to use (energy weapons, melee,
thrown), this basically allows you to shift points that would be
useless there to more useful skills. And for the skills you do plan
to use, you can always tag them, and compensate the difference pretty
fast. So IMHO it's one of the very good choices of traits. Not as
good as "Fast Shot", but definitely a close second choice. About the
only problem is that the reduced combat skills make the fights in the
Temple of Trials _much_ harder.
Chem Reliant -- useless trait if you ask me, since I avoided chems
like the plague.
Chem Resistant -- ditto.
Sex Appeal -- effectively, I _think_ it _slightly_ improves the
initial reaction towards you for members of the opposite sex, but
lowers the initial reaction of others. After playing with and without
this trait, my conclusion is that there's no real gain from it. A
good karma and reputation will do you more good, anyway.
Skilled -- as it says, you get +5 skill points per level, but only get
a perk every 4 levels. Could be interesting to use it to compensate
for the -5 skill points per level from "Gifted", but you'll end up
wandering the desert for kill xp for years to get the same perks as
someone without it. It's not necessarily a bad choice, but not one of
my favourites, either.
Gifted -- we just used it, remember?
Again, bear in mind that quests depend on stats and skills. This
particular character will NOT be able to do everything in the
walkthrough, or at least not in this order. Some quests were done
with completely different characters. So don't bother telling me that
you couldn't use it to do this and that. If you think you can do
better, please do create your own character the way you want.
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