Let's discuss the most important trait each character has, their ability scores. Fallout refers to these as your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. abilities, an acronym for the seven abilities that build your character; Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Before we discuss those traits in detail, you have to add numbers to those abilities, which we recommend raising abilities important to your play style and the skills you will use the most.
This is where the game gets tricky, the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system is done on a scale, 1(pathetic) - 10(amazing) for each ability. When you make your character, you have 40 points to allocate to your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. attributes, but the lowest score each attribute can have is 1, and the highest 10. Chems can push the attribute higher then 10, but it cannot permanently rest higher than 10.
STRENGTH-
Strength is what determines a character's carrying weight, the size of the guns they can use, and how good they will be in Melee combat.
PERCEPTION-
Perception increases your characters ability to use certain weapons, and to use abilities that require a lot of awareness of your surroundings, whether you be searching for loot, lockpicking, or catching someone sneaking up on you.
ENDURANCE-
You can't keep a good hero down, especially if he is meant to endure the worst. A soldier with a high Endurance can survive in the world better, and is one hell of an unarmed combatant.
CHARISMA-
Smooth talkers can get far in the world, often times without bloodshed. Masters of the lost art of speech are more likely to find better deals, can gather information, can comfort panicking people, or if it comes to it they can intimidate the snot out of people.
INTELLIGENCE-
A smart individual is good at almost everything. Their potency is seen in the abnormally high skill scores that they have. At the end of every level, everyone gets to spend skill points to upgrade themselves, the smarter the character, the more upgrades.
AGILITY-
Agility increases your skill with a gun, and also your ability to sneak. It also adds to your action points, which is your effectiveness in VATS.
LUCK-
Some people are not aware of how luck effects them in their everyday lives.
**Images and tables are from the strategy guide because I could not convert the text tables from word.
