Tips for a Sledgehammer built without stat dumping?

[TelasTheSecond]

Preparing for my first melee run and I was wondering if a Roleplaying Sledgehammer build is viable or not. Min-maxing is not my thing in any kind of games, especially in rpg's. So with that in mind, any tips for a viable Hammer-man with max persuasion and no stat below 5?

[Shredded Cheddar]

Basically any build you can think of is viable if you know the tricks of the trade. There are a lot of tools in the game that are available to you to make things doable in most situations.

To answer your question, sure you can make a viable build with trash stats, but that is your prerogative. In this game having stats at 5 is going to be useless 90% of the time.

Just to explain, let's say we go with your idea. To max out your sledgehammer you want to max strength.

Now we have

STR 10
DEX 5
AGI 5
CON 5
PER 5
WILL 5
INT 5

the dex gives you absolutely nothing, the agi gives you access to 1 agility feat and nothing else, the con gives you access to conditioning, and a meager amount of hp, the per gives you nothing but a slight detection boost, the will gives you nothing, the int gives you access to a couple useful feats. And when I say nothing, I mean almost nothing. Like 10% more effective skill, which is nothing....

On the other hand, if you actually just make a character that is good at stuff - for example you want a tanky dude that swings a big hammer with persuasion, ok that's fine

http://underrail.info.tm/build/?AQoDBgoDAwUAAAAPAAAPAAAAAA8PAA8PAAAADwAMYzk

the 6 agi gives you sprint - vital for melee characters to get into range, 10 con makes you tanky as hell and opens up a bunch of feats, 5 int is good for some melee feats and will allow you to craft decent gear, 10 strength maxes your sledge power.

Bam, you have the a much better character than the one you requested, who is actually good at the stuff they wanna do. you get max persuasion per level through your skill synergy with mercantile. You can craft. you can change these skillpoints around to use evasion, dodge, hacking lockpick, whatever....

[TelasTheSecond]

To answer your question, sure you can make a viable build with trash stats, but that is your prerogative. In this game having stats at 5 is going to be useless 90% of the time.

I have no problem with stats at 5 being useless. To tell you the truth, I kind of like it. Being able to finish the game with a down to earth type of character instead of a mathematical equation in a human form is way more fulfilling for me personally.

I'm currently exploring the Deep Caverns with hybrid assault rifle/Dagger/throwing type of character but contrary to people who are always advising against such builds, I never found the game too hard(normal difficulty), even if I had to spread my feats and stats all over the place. One of the best games i had.


Now if the game allows the same flexibility with a melee only based character I'll be a happy man. Feats like "commando" and "full burst" are staple for Assault rifle builds but is there anything equal powerful for hammer-dudes? 

[Shredded Cheddar]

Lol I get what you're saying, but I don't see how that is fun. You intentionally gimp your build so you can comfortably play on low difficulty? Why not just make a good build and go up 1 difficulty setting?

Anyway, on normal anything is possible. Personally, I think hammer builds can take any feats they'd like, one of the most flexible and forgiving builds in the game as far as feat choices go. Tons of Quality of Life and crafting feats can be taken.

I'd say that pummel and expose weakness are pretty crucial feats, otherwise take whatever you want.

[chimaera]

To answer your question, sure you can make a viable build with trash stats, but that is your prerogative. In this game having stats at 5 is going to be useless 90% of the time.

I have no problem with stats at 5 being useless. To tell you the truth, I kind of like it. Being able to finish the game with a down to earth type of character instead of a mathematical equation in a human form is way more fulfilling for me personally.

Most people aren't 'average in all stats with one stat maxed', though. Your character is every bit a 'mathematical equation' as the rest.

[TelasTheSecond]

Most people aren't 'average in all stats with one stat maxed', though. Your character is every bit a 'mathematical equation' as the rest.

I'm speaking for characters starting with two of their most important stats near 7 and slowly building from there. That way  feats like grenadier(dex6) or armor sloping(int6) or sprint(agi6) etc are always open for the player. 

Just finished Depot A with a hammer-man like that and it was one of the easiest Depot runs I ever had.  Two hypos, 4 bandages, 5 EMP grenades, 2 antipersonel grenades, 5 Molotovs, 1 caltrop. Zero sneaking. It made me smile because I saw it as testament of Underrail's character system flexibility.

The system is indeed flexible and I fear that all this constant talk about min-maxing is going to keep a lot of people away from investing time in the game. I could argue that the game is "easy" no matter the build as long as you know how the systems work. E.g a new player fighting a room full of bots VS a veteran player in the same room with the same crappy build. The former will probably quit the game but the later will be invisible due to knowledge(immune to bullets from a vest and immune to flashbangs from a helmet with shades).

Anyways, original question is answered. 

[chimaera]

I think this depends what you understand as "roleplaying". I'm an old player and for me roleplaying always meant coming up with a character concept first; the backstory, motivation, strenghts and weaknesses. And only then I'd use the available game mechanics to create this character. Because a character is more than a sum of its numbers.

To use your own example, when talking about roleplaying the important questions for me would be: Did you choose to murder all the mutants in Depot A, and if so, why? Or did you choose to resolve it without bloodshed? That's the best part of Underrail: sometimes there are more choices present that might appear at first glance.

If on the other hand you talk about how an average build can defeat all the enemies in depot A, then the discussion moves from roleplaying to combat.