The Lawbringer
During my very first playthrough, after killing Kellogg and looting his corpse, I almost immediately started messing around with his gun. It was my first time playing around with a revolver in Fallout 4 and found even the simple act of firing one to be quite satisfying. As the build I was playing didn’t use Gunslinger I didn’t actually incorporate the weapon into my loadout but decided that I would try making a revolver build at a later date. As it turned out holding off on making one wasn’t a bad idea, as Nuka-World ended up introducing some very appropriate equipment for this build. Please note, however, that the build doesn’t require any DLC; vanilla alternatives are provided.
This build, as you might imagine, draws inspiration from the legendary gunslingers of the American Old West. VATS is a great way to simulate their quick reflexes and precise shooting, and for that reason it’s the Lawbringer’s most useful tool in combat. By endgame this build is quite capable of eliminating entire groups of enemies via a round or two of VATS, taking them out before they can turn their guns on him. However, there’s a catch; the Lawbringer’s chosen outfit(s) provide minimal damage resistance and aren’t compatible with additional armor pieces or Ballistic Weave, which means that if the Lawbringer can’t take out his enemies quickly, he’s liable to take heavy damage in return.
SPECIAL
Strength (1): Not particularly useful to the Lawbringer; the increased carrying capacity is more or less negligible and the increased melee/unarmed damage is irrelevant.
Perception (8): As one of the three “VATS stats” alongside Agility and Luck, Perception is one of the Lawbringer’s most important attributes. Be sure to grab the bobblehead and put a point here on a level-up as well.
Endurance (1): As mentioned earlier, the concept behind the Lawbringer is to take down the enemy through a quick round of VATS before they can put a lot of bullets into you, so Endurance unfortunately gets left by the wayside in favor of other stats. That being said, you’ll want to put a point on a level-up here and pick up the bobblehead too so you can grab the Live Giver perk later on.
Charisma (1): The Lawbringer is a gruff, taciturn type of person. Not very charismatic, in other words. That being said, you’ll eventually want to perk Lone Wanderer with this build so when you do you’ll want to grab the bobblehead and put a point on a level-up here as well.
Intelligence (2): Like Endurance, this gets largely ignored in favor of the VATS-related stats. Do pick up the bobblehead here though for some extra EXP gain and the ability to perk Gun Nut.
Agility (8): Obviously, you’ll want lots of AP for using VATS, making a high Agility score essential. Be sure to grab the bobblehead here and put a point on a level-up towards this as well.
Luck (7): Criticals form a major part of the Lawbringer’s offense, so you’ll want to have plenty of Luck. As with Perception and Agility, you’ll want to have this at ten by endgame; you’ll be able to achieve that through a combination of the bobblehead, You’re SPECIAL, and a point on a level-up.
Perks
Listed (roughly) in order of priority. All of them should be maxed out (with the exception of any Far Harbor exclusive ranks) unless indicated otherwise.
Gunslinger: Obvious perk choice, you’ll want to be able to maximize the damage you deal with your gun, and it’s also required for upgrading the Western Revolver.
Gun Nut: Again, you’ll want to maximize the damage you deal with your gun, so you’ll want to perk this. The third rank also lets you craft .44 ammo with the Contraptions DLC, which is quite helpful.
Scrounger: .44 ammo can be hard to come by, and this build uses a lot of it, so this perk is essential for keeping yourself supplied. You can also sell off all of the other ammo types you find to buy even more .44 ammo along with supplies for crafting it if you have Contraptions.
Lone Wanderer: Initially you’ll want to keep MacCready around until you unlock his companion perk (Killshot, which increases VATS headshot accuracy by 20%). After that, ditch him and starting perking Lone Wanderer; this build is meant to be played solo.
Better Criticals: By far the most important of the Lawbringer’s critical related perks, this is what makes them go from simply being a nice damage boost to truly fearsome.
Critical Banker: While the Lawbringer is capable of racking up criticals quite quickly, it’s never a bad idea to keep a couple in reserve.
Life Giver: Helps to mitigate the fact that you have low health, plus the health regeneration is rather nice.
Grim Reaper’s Sprint: Lets you keep up the VATSing even longer.
Penetrator: Not even cover will save your enemies from your VATS onslaught.
Quick Hands: With only six shots to work with, being able to reload your gun faster is quite nice. The second rank is useful as well; since you can easily queue up more than six shots in a single VATS session there will be times where you have to reload during VATS. Nuka-World introduces a third rank (which gives you ten more Action Points) but I chose to skip it in favor of other perks.
Concentrated Fire: The improved hit chances are always nice, but the big draw of this perk is the damage boost from the last rank.
Gun Fu: Another perk with VATS boosts too good to ignore.
Four Leaf Clover: More crits? More crits.
Action Boy: More AP is always nice.
You should be at level 50 once the build is complete.
Gameplay
The Lawbringer has two choices for endgame equipment. For those with the Nuka-World DLC, you’ll want to go with a Western Revolver, Western Duster, and Cowboy Hat. Note that both the Western Duster and Cowboy Hat increase Endurance by one point each, helping out with the survivability issue somewhat. Those without Nuka-World will want to go with the .44 Pistol (Kellogg’s Pistol is a particularly good choice due to its legendary effect), Colonial Duster, and Militia Hat. Until you can get your hands on your weapon of choice the Pipe Revolver is an effective substitute, and can also be used as a backup weapon should you run out of .44 ammo.
By endgame you’ll be able to use VATS pretty much all of the time, have great hit chances, and use just about all the crits you want. Until you get to that point, however, you may not be able to rely on VATS as much as you like. Fortunately, your gun will function well enough outside of VATS, and even if you end up taking heavy damage, the game is quite generous with the amount of health-restoring items it sends your way. Something worth noting is that the .44 Pistol and Western Revolver (as well as the Pipe Revolver with the proper mods) are more accurate than most other guns when hip fired, so you don’t have to rely on aiming down the sights if you don’t want to.
As far as roleplay goes, the Lawbringer, as the name implies, brings order to the wasteland, killing raiders, super mutants, and others who disturb the peace. In their place, he sets up and protects settlements of honest, hardworking folk. This mentality makes him perfect for the Minutemen, which he will rebuild and lead. It will also lead him to Nuka-World, where he’ll take out the Raiders and free the traders.
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