I seem like the only one in the world that thinks this, inherently strength is useless for non melee oriented characters based solely off of one chem, steady. Steady negates all weapon sway and accuracy penalties for a limited amount of time, not to mention its high addiction rate can be off set by special perks using chems and its duration can be extended by chemist etc). It can be in steady supply as early as before level 10 f you beat Dead Money right off the bat at level 1, while others might argue carry weight is a big deal it really isn't since you can lug around 2 companions OR get Bessy the cut content Brahman which has the largest carry weight companion of the entire game at about 500LBS i believe. Just a food for thought if anyone is looking to play New Vegas differently.

Character Build for Very Hard/Hardcore

S:1
P:1
E:9
C:9
I:4
A:7
L:9

People usually say Charisma is a dump state while technically true since Charisma has nowhere near as many checks as Fallout 3 did, it does make your companions blatantly overpowered with their nerve not to mention Rex with violettas brain goes at the speed of Mach 5 and stuns enemies.

Perception is inherently useless because ED_E gives you 10 perception basically and his perk can find enemies very well on your compass, not to mention the accuracy penalty is negated by Steady.

Most of the special stats themselves aren't really super useful in new vegas aside from luck and agility. You can have average strength and 100 in unarmed or melee weapons w/ weapon handling or chems and still wreck shit. You can have average intelligence and find a shit ton of mentats at Big MT that will last you for the entire game. Then theres always the implants you can get once you make bank at the casinos w/ 9 luck or once you come from.. pretty much any DLC to sell off all the loot you got.

I myself find the endurance stat to be useless if you know what you're doing. Most of the time you're able to kill enemies before they've even noticed you. At higher levels, you'd have gained enough HP on level up that allows you to be a bit tankier as long as you wear the appropriate armor w/ the right perks. Or you could just have followers do all the work and do the tanking for you regardless of your charisma level

In New Vegas and 3, Perception is arguably one of the most important stats besides Intelligence, given that most of the time you're going to be stuck using VATS anyway due to the wonky gunplay and missing all your shots castrates agility significantly. In Fallout 4, Perception and Agility are even more useless than you say they are in NV given that in Fallout 4, nobody misses their shots because it's dead easy to hit them.

I have a soft spot for Intelligence in all Fallout games because levelling up in RPGs is the gold standard of dopamine releases. I very rarely play builds without 9 or 10 INT.

I agree with you on Strength though. I have never cared for the stat other than for it's vital role in joke builds.

Its all about the roleplay...

But you're technically not wrong, very interesting read

I actually have mods that make it so that you can't hold heavy weapons if you don't meet the strength requirement. There's also sprinting, which you can't do while holding a weapon that's too heavy for you. You can have companions carry some of your stuff but I prefer to carry around plenty of ammo. Plus several perks require some level of strength.

Perception is not that useless. ED-E will give you 10 P for enemy detection, but not for other uses of perception, such as dialogue checks.

Endurance is useful if only because you need it for the implants.

Charisma appears to be more useful than it actually is, since speech checks are often based on skills, not charisma, and there's a lot of ways to boost it, so if I have to pick the most useless stat, this would be it. However companions are more effective the more charisma you have, so if you like using companions, high charisma can make a big difference.

Intelligence is needed in a ton of speech checks and well as for points on leveling up. 50 levels is more than enough to get several skills to 100 so in the long run doesn't make that much of a difference but it does give you a pretty good advantage in the early game.

High agility is a must for me because I hate moving like a slug.

Luck, I think everyone can agree is the most useful one. For critical hits and casino wins.

I liked the mod IPA as it had a nifty strength feature that pretty much kept the player from equipping certain weapons unless they meet the strength requirement. Good for immersion and roleplaying, as it wouldn't make much sense for a character with low strength to still be able to equip and use a minigun for example like someone in power armor or a cyborg with enhanced strength would.

Making the accuracy on weapons dogshit with a low strength in vanilla was meh. With the mod however I actually feel badass when I hop in a suit of power armor and can now equip heavy weapons to go to town on the poor saps in front of me.

It's the little things that always feel like they make the biggest impact.

I started my playthrough with 3 strength and I'm personally starting to regret it now. The fact that the weapon sway is a nuisance that won't go away with the simple adjustment of weapon skills. Just be prepared to deal with it your entire playthrough if you go with low strength

Well,what about the strength requirement of the guns? Like Medicine Stick that have 6 strength req?

I hate not being able to carry all the loot, having to drop and drop and drop things in favor of something more valuable. Inventory management becomes a big deal without strength.