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Fallout Tactics Character and Combat Game Guide by Sarin

Version 1.3
May 24, 2001 e-mail: sarin@edsamail.com.ph

This document is Copyright 2001 by Sarin
Fallout Tactics is Copyright 2001 by Interplay/Micro Forte/14 Degrees East

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**Introduction**
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This guide is not a walkthrough, as the title states. I wrote this program to tell you about character creation and combat. These things are vital to your victory in Fallout Tactics, so if you're interested, read on. If you have any comments, suggestions or anything at all that you want to add, please e-mail me.

This is my first guide, so it'll probably show somewhere. If I make a mistake somewhere, or if you feel that what I'm saying is inadequate, please e-mail me so I can make the necessary corrections.

All e-mails that will be posted here are, of course, going to be acknowledged properly.

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**Disclaimer**
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I am not associated with Interplay or any of its divisions. They are not endorsing this guide so don't ask them questions about it. You can alter this file as long as you use it for personal use and that you don't claim the entire work as your own. You can post this file as long as you don't change it. If you changed or edited it in any way and you wish to post it, please do so only with my permission. I may want you to show me the finished file if you want to do this. This file is for free and you may not charge, or in any way profit from, this document.

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**Credits**
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Special thanks goes to Jturner849 for his Gambling tip and to Marc for his correction on the purposes of Charisma.

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**New on this version**
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1.3 Added Justin's powerhouse character. Also did some proofreading and editing.
1.2 Added Marc's correction on Charisma
1.1 Added Jturner849's Gambling tip



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**Character Creation**
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I can't give you accurate tables, but I will provide you with information based on my experience in playing all Fallout games (Fallout, Fallout 2 and
Fallout Tactics).

IMPORTANT NOTE!!!
Remember that since you're playing a squad-based tactics game, you need to develop specialist characters instead of generalists. You can have a maximum of six characters in your squad. Let one character focus on one skill while the others focus on other skills. The squad that I played with had 3 snipers (small guns 130%, perception 9-10 because of the sharpshooter Perk), 1 energy weapons expert (130% energy weapons, perception 9), a grenadier (101% throwing, ST 9), a jack-of-all-trades (intelligence 9, I'll explain this one later) and a sadist (130% unarmed, 100% sneak, ST 12, agility 12. This one was a Deathclaw). This doesn't mean that I had a total of seven members, it's just that my energy weapons guy and one of my snipers are the same person.
While other squad members may focus on science, repair or barter, make sure that they're not totally useless on the battlefield. This game is about combat, and though it may require you to use your more technical skills every now and then, they're not as important as having good fighters.

In the Character Creation Screen, you're given your primary stats. All of these stats start at 5 and you're given 5 freebies to distribute. I'll describe each of the stats below and you decide on what you should focus on.

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**Primary Statistics**
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ST - Strength - This is the physical strength of your character. Adjusting this will affect his unarmed and melee damage, his carry weight and what weapons he can use. The higher the number, the more powerful your close quarter combat (CQC) damage. Remember that all weapons require a strength check (which means that Fallout will check your ST to see if you meet the strength requirement set for the weapon) and your ST has to match or exceed the strength requirement. For example, the Pancor Jackhammer, a shotgun-type weapon, requires ST 5, so your current ST will allow you to use this weapon.
However, the Vindicator Minigun requires ST 8, so you need to have ST 8 or above to use it.

Strength accounts for a lot of things in Fallout Tactics, but if you want to use big guns or inflict really good damage using a sledgehammer or power fist, then you should allot more points on ST.

NOTE: There is a Perk called Weapon Handling that will give you +3 to ST when the game does the strength check. The Power Armor will give you a +3 bonus to
ST.

PE - Perception - Perception is the ability of your character to see and hear. Higher perception allows your character to shoot farther, so this is essential for snipers. Perception is highly important in Fallout Tactics because most of your enemies are armed with weapons set on burst mode, so it becomes risky to get close to them. The strategy here is to fight them from afar. "He who has the longer gun is king." So, outshooting your enemies is a great strategy that you can use over and over again.

NOTE: There are several Perks that affect your character's perception and the damage he does per shot. The Sharpshooter Perk will give you +2 to PE.

EN - Endurance - This deals with your hit points and resistances. The higher this stat goes, the more HP you have and the more resistant you are. HP are important, but the game gives you a lot of choices that you can choose from to recover them, from chems like stimpacks to skills like First aid and
Doctor. Decide on what type of character you want. A shooter/sniper doesn't need a lot of HP, so having EN at 5 or 4 isn't so bad. But a brawler-type character needs a lot since he'll be in the line of fire most of the time.

Resistances are important, particularly from radiation. But remember that both poison and radiation can be removed from your body by using antidotes and RadAway. You can also use the chem Rad-X to raise your resistance against radiation.

NOTE: The Perk Lifegiver will give you +4 HP per level up in addition to the usual HP increase. The Perk Living Anatomy will improve your Doctor skill and give you a +5 damage bonus when you hit a living creature. Check your Perks list.

CH - Charisma - In previous Fallout games this stat was important. It used to be important. There was a time when I really appreciated it. Fortunately in
Fallout Tactics, this stat no longer has any discernible purpose. Charisma primarily affects Barter and Speech, but since the game is more combat- oriented, I don't really recommend that you spend valuable stat points on
Charisma. My advice is that you transfer them. By the way, the Speech skill has been replaced by the Pilot skill, so that leaves you with Barter. I recommend that you leave Barter to another squad member, not your main character. But check out Marc's tip just a few lines below before you do anything with your character's Charisma. Just remember that in the end, this is simply a guide. You make the choices, you make the call. I'll just tell you some of the consequences of some of those choices.

Why did I say 'fortunately'? Because you can re-assign some of the stat points used in Charisma to another stat, like Intelligence or Luck.

Marc says that Charisma is one of the greatest factors that can affect how quickly you get promoted in the Brotherhood. Higher Charisma gives you better access to new recruits and weapons. I appreciate the fact that Marc sent me this tip because I couldn't find a significant use for Charisma. Now, I do.

AG - Agility - This is the backbone of Fallout's combat system. It ultimately decides how much you can do within a given turn, both in turn-based and continuous turn-based. Agility primarily affects your Armor Class and your
Action Points, the higher the stat, the better. No matter what kind of character you're making, agility should always be a priority.

In combat, melee attacks usually cost 3 AP and aiming these attacks will cost
4 AP. The amount of AP you use when shooting from a gun depends on what mode you're using: single shots cost 4 AP, aimed shots cost 5 AP and burst fire cost 5 AP. Energy rifles (laser and plasma) cost 5 AP to shoot and 6 AP for aimed shots. Players from previous Fallout games should take note of this.

Other actions such as driving, checking inventory, applying your First Aid,
Doctor and other skills will also cost AP. Each action has its own AP cost.
For example, sneaking will cost 2 AP while Doctor can cost around 12 to 15 AP
(I played the entire game in CTB, so I don't know if AP costs change in turn- based).

NOTE: There are a lot of Perks that can adjust your Agility. Bonus Move will give you additional AP that you can use for moving. Bonus Rate of Fire and
Bonus H2H attacks decrease AP costs of ranged and hand-to-hand attacks respectively. Again, check your Perks list. I won't be listing every Perk there is, just the ones I used and highly recommend.

IN - Intelligence - I mentioned earlier that intelligence is important. This is because of the fact that your Intelligence will decide how much skill points per level up you can get. As your Intelligence goes higher, the number of skill points you get will also increase. Reading books will also give more benefits to the person with high Intelligence. For example, there are two characters, one with IN 8 and another with IN 6. Let's say that both have the same percentages on the Outdoorsman skill. If both read a Scout's Handbook,
Mr. IN 8 will have a higher Outdoorsman skill than Mr. IN 6 because of Mr. IN 8's Intelligence.

NOTE: The Comprehension Perk will improve the number of skill points received from reading books.

LK - Luck - This stat adjusts your critical hit chance to make more critical hits. I don't know if it affects anything else. I keep this at 5 just to be on the safe side.

NOTE: The Better Criticals Perk will give you more effective critical hits (more damage, more disabling hits) but will not affect the chance to make one. It means that it won't make more critical hits, but when you do make one, it's gonna be pretty devastating. The Sniper Perk will upgrade all your ranged attacks to critical hits if you also make the Luck roll. This means that when you shoot at someone, your character only has to make the Luck roll for him to make a critical hit. For example, your character (who has the
Sniper Perk, Luck 5) hits a target. The computer will then make a Luck roll (similar to the ST check mentioned above). If it makes a roll of 5 or below, then the hit is upgraded to a critical hit.

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**Derived Statistics**
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HP - Hit Points - This is the amount of damage your character can take before he dies. How much Hit Points your character has at the beginning of the game depends mainly on his Endurance, although ST can also be a factor. As your character levels up, his Hit Points will also increase.

AC - Armor Class - The higher your AC, the better. This lessens the chances of hitting you. This is primarily based on your Agility and changes when you wear (or not wear) armor.

Melee Damage - This is how much melee damage your character can do in melee or unarmed combat. This is based on ST.

Bonus Damage - The percent added to damage dealt. Perks will adjust this.

Damage, Poison and Rad Resistance - These resistances are better when they're higher. The higher your resistance, the less damage you take, the more likely you're to resist poison and radiation. These three are primarily affected by your Endurance. Rad Resistance can be adjusted by using a chem called Rad-X.

Action Points - This determines how many actions you can do in one turn, or, in CTB, this determines how much your character can do in quick succession before pausing to replenish Action Points. This is based on your Agility.

Carry Wt. - This number tells you how much your character can carry. This is based on ST.

Heal Rate - This tells how fast your character heals over time. This is based on Endurance.

Critical Chance - This is the chance of getting a critical hit, and therefore doing more damage. This based solely on Luck.

Skill Rate - This number tells you how many skill points you get per level up. You can increase this by having higher Intelligence.