My wife and I have recently come back to Fallout 3 after doing New Vegas and taking a break from the wastes for some GTAV. On our previous run, we focused on mainly well-rounded, with a little more towards sneak and energy weapons.
This time, though, we'd like to go with a brute-force tank approach – we've already done our S.P.E.C.I.A.L. so I'm not sure if we've miffed ourselves or not, but we haven't taken the G.O.A.T. and set up our tag skills nor perks.
Given our S.P.E.C.I.A.L. set, what can we do to make sure we'll have a worthwhile tank once we go through the tag/perks and start leveling up outside of Vault 101?
S.P.E.C.I.A.L.
Strength – 10
Perception – 6
Endurance – 8
Charisma – 1
Intelligence – 3*
Agility – 10
Luck – 2
* After we had already done this, someone on the GameFAQs forum suggested a 3 of Intelligence in their tank build, but failed to elaborate on why "it's a good idea" – any suggestions as to why would be neat.
Best Answer
If it's not too late to redo your SPECIAL, consider lowering those 10s to 9s and collect the bobbleheads. This would allow you to increase your luck a little. With intense training (which is worth considering since there are few good perks at low levels, especially if you're male and unable to take Black Widow), you'd be able to get 5 and unlock two perks which would improve your loot. With poor luck you'll get little loot, poor charisma makes it sell for less and poor intelligence prevents you putting ranks in skills.
As I mentioned in my comments, you want to go to Rivet City as soon as possible. Ideally you want to reach Rivet City and get the Int bobblehead before level 4. This allows you to take the essential Educated feat at level 4 and, if you want more skillpoints, Comprehension at level 5.
Consider doing Operation Anchorage early. It's difficult but you'll be rewarded with Power Armor training and the Winterized T-51-B Power Armor. This gives you 55% damage reduction, which can be further improved with perks or med-x.