The numbers below are this guide’s build’s suggested starting attributes, and the numbers in parentheses are what they’ll be when you get the Implants, complete the “Old World Blues” DLC and select the Small Frame Trait. This does not include any boosts you might get from worn items (temporary boosts) or the free SPECIAL point you’ll get to allocate at the end of the “Lonesome Road” DLC.

Now, for some notes about the build; alternatives aboud, so it’s worth mentioning them rather than pretending this build is absolute. First, the importance of Intelligence has been reduced by the DLCs a bit, but it could stand to suffer more. This has everything to do with perks, so if you’re not familiar with the perks… well, bear with it. With a little bit of number-crunching, this build will - if you get all the skill books - end up with surplus skill points… and this doesn’t even include the random books you can get in “Honest Hearts”. You can even ignore all skill books that require explosives, console codes, and other tricks and still have enough skill points to max everything at 100 (although you’ll admittedly be cutting it rather close). Ultimately, however, having an intelligent character has benefits of its own (a few dialogue options will be unlocked, and having seven allows you to pop Mentats and pretty much get them all, but it’s really a vanity thing). Also… the benefits of raising the other attributes at the expense of Intelligence is rather minute. A few points of Health from Endurance, an extra 1% critical hit chance from Luck, a paltry amount of Action Points from Agility? These are negligible benefits. At the end of the day, it’s nice to be a bit lazy and not have to uncover every book in the game, while also giving yourself a large surplus. People who don’t play in Hardcore mode can safely ignore Survival, however, and save themselves a great bit of skill points, which in turn allows you to safely drop Intelligence even further.