Fallout 2 Walkthrough → Character Traits
Traits describe various aspects of a character’s personality and slightly influence Skills, Primary Attributes, and Secondary Attributes. A character can only have two Traits. It’s best to choose wisely from the start, as they can only be changed later by acquiring the “Mutate” Perk.
Fast Metabolism – healing by 2, but reduces natural resistance to poison and radiation to 0%.
Bruiser – Increases your strength by 2, but decreases your action points (AP) by 2. The most useless Unique in the game.
Small Frame – You gain +1 to Dexterity, and your Maximum Load becomes 15 lbs. * Strength, instead of 25 * Strength.
Finesse – all your attacks deal 30% less damage (after calculating Damage Resistance, of course), but Critical Chance increases by +10%.
One Hander – You take a 40% penalty to Chance to Hit with two-handed weapons, offset by a +20% bonus to Chance to Hit with one-handed weapons.
Kamikaze – You don’t gain natural Armor Class (your Armor Class is 0 regardless of Dexterity). To gain AC, you must wear armor. Your Action Skills are increased by +5.
Heavy Handed – You gain +4 Melee Damage, but critical hits deal -30% less damage and the chance to break an arm or knock someone unconscious is reduced by 30%.
Fast Shot – You can’t aim, but shooting takes 1 AP less. This Unique Perk doesn’t apply to melee attacks or close combat.
Bloody Mess – has no real effect other than the fact that the characters you kill will always die in the most bloody and painful way possible.
Jinxed – Normal failures of your character, the enemy, or anyone else in battle become Critical Strike twice as often. In practice, this means the battlefield will be engulfed in chaos – weapons on both sides will jam, ammo will be lost, friendly fire will be frequent, and other such unpleasantries will occur.
Good Natured – Your combat Skills are weaker than others, but First Aid, Doctor, Conversation, and Exchange are noticeably better. These Skills are increased by +20%. You receive a -10% penalty to your base combat Skills (Light Weapons, Heavy Weapons, Energy Weapons, Melee, and Melee Weapons).
Chem Reliant – The likelihood of addiction to various substances is twice as high as normal, although you tolerate their effects more easily.
Chem Resistant – Drugs and stimulants only give you half the normal effect, but the chance of addiction is also reduced by 50% of the normal rate.
Night Person – Your Intelligence and Perception increase at night and decrease during the day. You receive a -1 penalty to these Stats from 6:01 AM to 6:00 PM and a +1 bonus from 6:01 PM to 6:00 AM. Remember that even this method cannot raise Stats above 10!
Skilled – Increases the number of skill points gained upon reaching a new level by 5, but the interval for gaining new skills (traits) increases from 3 levels to 4.
Gifted – All your Stats increase by +1, but your Skills decrease by -10%, and you gain -5 fewer Skill Points per Level. A very useful skill.
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