Build 4 — The Executioner (No-Crit-Until-Slayer)

The core insight

Slayer makes every hand-to-hand attack a guaranteed critical — and "hand-to-hand" covers both Unarmed AND Melee Weapons. Once you have it, crit chance is 100% no matter what your Luck is. So this build spends zero resources chasing crit chance before Slayer. No More Criticals perk, no Finesse, no Luck stacking.

Instead every stat point and perk slot goes into things that make each guaranteed crit land more often and hurt more: raw damage, action points, and staying alive long enough to reach level 24.

SPECIAL Radar

Chance vs. Quality — the one nuance. Slayer gives crit chance (100%). It does not raise crit quality — how good each critical rolls on the crit table. Luck and the Better Criticals perk still improve that roll (more armor bypass, knockouts, instakills). This build keeps LK 6 as a floor (it's really there for the Toughness perk) and treats Better Criticals as an optional post-Slayer pick, not an early investment. That honors "no crit chance until Slayer" while leaving the door open to sharpen crit quality later.

SPECIAL — final values (after traits)

Total = 48 points. Luck deliberately low; Charisma raised to 4 to field two companions.

Stat	Val	Why
ST	6	Bonus HtH Damage; →9 in Power Armor
PE	6	Awareness + Earlier Sequence
EN	8	Big HP pool to survive the pre-Slayer grind
CH	4	Two companions as front-line meat
IN	8	All quest dialogue; 16 skill pts/lvl
AG	10	Max AP; Slayer's AG 8 gate
LK	6	Floor for Toughness — NOT for crit chance

Derived stats @ Level 1

Hit Points

Action Pts

Armor Class

Base Crit

Skill Pts/Lvl

Companions

Companions (CH 4 → 2 slots)

Party size = Charisma ÷ 2, so CH 4 fields two companions. Great picks for a melee lead: Sulik (his own melee bruiser), Vic or Cassidy (ranged cover), or Sulik + Cassidy as the classic pair. They tank and shoot while your crit-less early character wears enemies down.

Want a third? Take Magnetic Personality (+1 party slot) or pop Mentats (+1 CH) at the moment you recruit — the game checks current CH when a companion joins.

Tag skills

Unarmed the Slayer carrier (also powers Melee Weapons crits, but Unarmed is the perk requirement).

Doctor Living Anatomy (+5 flat damage vs living) — enormous on a build with no crit chance early, since it adds damage to every ordinary hit.

Speech quests & XP to reach level 24 faster.

Perk progression — damage & AP only until Slayer

Lvl	Perk	Req	Purpose
3	Bonus HtH Damage I	ST 6, AG 6	+2 melee damage
6	Bonus HtH Damage II	ST 6, AG 6	+2 damage
9	Bonus HtH Damage III	ST 6, AG 6	+2 damage (+6 total)
12	Living Anatomy	Doctor 60%	+5 damage vs living
15	Bonus HtH Attacks	AG 6	−1 AP per attack
18	Action Boy I	AG 5	+1 AP
21	Action Boy II	AG 5	+1 AP
24	SLAYER	ST 8*, AG 8, Unarmed 80%	100% crit on every HtH hit
27+	Toughness • Lifegiver • Better Criticals (opt.)	—	Survivability, then crit quality

*ST 8 satisfied by Power Armor (ST 6 + 3). Notice not one pre-Slayer perk touches crit chance — exactly the plan.

How it plays

Levels 1–23 you're a volume-and-brute-force fighter: no reliable crits, but +6 Bonus HtH Damage, +5 Living Anatomy, a Mega Power Fist, and up to five or six attacks per turn chew through anything, while two companions soak aggro. Then at level 24 Slayer flips the switch — every single one of those 5–6 attacks per turn becomes a critical. With EN 8 and Toughness you're also far sturdier than the glass-cannon Build 1. This is the "patient" melee build: it delays the crit fantasy but hits like a freight train the moment it arrives, and survives comfortably getting there.