Traps and Steal

[DwayneGAnd]

I forgot about these two skills in the previous thread and feel that they need to be discussed on whether or not they are useful.

The only times I ever used Steal was when I couldn't just take Neil's urn, even though there was no one in the bar at the time, to plant the bug on Gizmo as a good dimwit, or to steal Salvatore's oxygen tank and replace it with the poison tank. I'm not the kind of player who will steal from shopkeepers. Steal has the potential to turn an entire settlement hostile towards you, permanently. In Fallout 1, Steal in my opinion is only good for relieving the burden of your followers, taking items you have given them so you can trade that stuff for better equipment or skill books. They don't even react when you are 'stealing' what you gave them earlier. In Fallout 2, since you can trade freely with your followers, Steal is no longer necessary for this purpose.

There aren't many traps in Fallout 1, though there are more in 2. When I invested into this skill in 2, I only took it up to 76% to get the option from Mrs. Bishop to trap Mr. Bishop's safe. But since you can 'repair' the safe and change the combination even without talking to her, it now feels like a waste of points.

The Nearly Ultimate Fallout Guides don't recommend investing points into these skills. Has anyone ever invested in these two skills and what was your experience?

 

[Gizmojunk]

Well... Most traps are not killers, and there aren't many traps. However, having a developed traps skill allows the PC to rob the [Bishop's] safe without alerting the guards—and starting a fight. I have had my PC wake up in the Bishop's house, rob the safe, and sneak out of the casino (past Bishop, and his henchmen).

Steal (as mentioned before in the other thread) can be used for theft from containers/safes/shelves, etc... with the owner in the room. It is also useful for assassination; eliminating targets in public without alerting the bystanders.

Really the selection of skills in an RPG is for character identity. If your character is a thief, develop Steal. If your character is a tinker/trap expert, develop Traps skill; it's what they'd know, and would like to do when the opportunity arises for them.

*It could also get them into trouble... which is exactly what might often happen to a Thief PC.
**In FO2, an actual Trapper PC (who skins Geckos) might also make sense to know a lot about traps.

The flipside (that few seem to acknowledge) is that it is significant what a lack of skill points indicates in character development. A Tribal Hunter PC from Arroyo might be great in their element, but may have never been exposed to engine repair, energy weapons, or computer science. Being an expert in one field makes them a novice in others... so how do they solve those problems—or simply don't, or can't. In Fallout 2, Vic and Myron would do it for them.

In some cases, knowing a skill would be out of character for the PC.