"John is a man of focus, commitment, sheer will... something you know very little about. I once saw him kill three men in a bar... with a pencil, with a f**king pencil. Then suddenly one day he asked to leave. It's over a woman, of course. So I made a deal with him. I gave him an impossible task. A job no one could have pulled off. The bodies he buried that day laid the foundation of what we are now. And then my son, a few days after his wife died, you steal his car and kill his f**king dog."
"That "f**kin' nobody"... is John Wick. He once was an associate of ours. They call him "Baba Yaga."
"Well John wasn't exactly the Boogeyman. He was the one you sent to kill the f**king Boogeyman."
INTRO
I'd been playing around with and idea of John Wick in a Fallout build and I've been toying around with it for some time now. I wanted to recreate this violent, yet vulnerable character in the Fallout universe. In the movies, John could fill up a room with bodies in the blink of an eye yet need to stop and stitch up the massive wounds that he took in doing so. Kicking ass and taking names...but needing to be loved and use a stimpack every once in a while... that was the image of The Boogeyman that I had.
This is a layered build; allowing you to take the build as far as you want to go. You can be John Wick, or you can morph into "The Boogeyman".
PERKS
STRENGTH: I wanted to go with a 1 here but we need 3 in order to take Armorer as the only mandatory perk here. We will want that for Ballistic Weave from The Railroad. Take three points in that perk.
PERCEPTION: Take 3 points here to start and then the Bobblehead from the early game. This opens up Lockpicking where you will want three points. We end up boosting this with some gear as the game progresses. *Build Bonus: Rifleman (5/5) is an optional perk if you want more gun choices (or prefer long guns to pistols). You can dump points here in later game play, up to the 10 point max, if you wish.
ENDURANCE: We start with 3 points here to take three perk points in Lifegiver. While this is not necessarily needed for gameplay, I feel that John Wick much be carting around some extra health points somewhere.
CHARISMA: We start with 6 points to open settlement building (which I love for the XP boost mainly, not to mention cap accumulation). However, the main thing we want here and is a MUST HAVE is four points in Lone Wanderer. You will take Dogmeat as a companion as he does not affect this perk and of course, John Wick was set upon his path in life because somebody killed his dog. Dogmeat will help John Wick even the score. Feel free to take Attack Dog if you want Dogmeat to play an even bigger role in your adventure. *Build Bonus: This can be a stat dump (up to 10 points) to reach the Intimidation perk since everyone is scared to death of John Wick.
INTELLIGENCE: Well, we take three points here simply to get the Gun Nut perk for gun mods. Besides, John Wick obviously isn't too smart to get blown to hell all the time and face off with hundreds or thousands of enemies at a time.
AGILITY: We start with 5 points here but this can, and should, be another stat dump for you. Gunslinger will be our main perk here but also grab Mister Sandman and Action Boy as they become available for their benefits. You will want to add two points at a minimum to grab the Ninja perk. *Build Bonus: If you stat dump here, take Gun Fu towards end-game.
LUCK: I would say this is John Wick's most likely stat in the movie. Nobody is "that lucky". We start with 5 points and go with Idiot Savant for the bonus XP and then Bloody Mess for the damage bonus. I made this my main stat dump after anything specifically noted above and all perks above Idiot Savant are fair game.
GAMEPLAY & ROLEPLAY
Obviously John Wick has a heart. This makes the Minutemen perfectly suited for John to help others. The Railroad is a quest line to complete as early as possible to gain Deliverer and up to the point you attain Ballistic Weave from Tinker Tom. This is important for the build. Beyond that, feel free to follow your itchy trigger finger.
For Gameplay, I used VATs heavily and although you don't gain the max bonuses without doing a Stat dump I did just fine with 4 points in Perception. I wanted to get Ballistic Weave as soon as possible and the Armorer perk to add Weave to clothing. Once I did that I put weave onto a Black Suit (you can find these all over the Commonwealth). I much preferred the clean version to the dirty one but there are only a couple around the Commonwealth. A set of Perception Sunglasses or Patrolman Sunglasses complete the basic gear setup. The black suit gives a +2 to Charisma which is of no real use. Alternatively you could go with the fancier Tuxedo (+1 to PERC & CHAR) which helps some but the bow tie didn't suit John Wick for me. *There is a mod to allow all gear to be imbued with Ballistic Weave. If you use this, then the Silver Shroud armor and hat can both be fitted with BW, the look works and has good bonuses as well. In the early going before you get the Weave, use any armor you need to survive. Once BW is received in The Railroad quest line, switch over to your black suit. Weave can be overlayed with stronger stuff when you level up the Armorer perk.
Use Dogmeat as a companion. In the movie, John Wick returned to the world because his dog was killed. In Fallout 4 his son is kidnapped and his wife killed and Dogmeat fills the "dog role" to a T. We take the Lone Wanderer perk to boost our damage reduction.
I did not take any points in Stealth but did still skulk about during gameplay. I was easy to hear but was able to use silenced pistols plus the bonus damage from stealth perks to wreak mayhem. VAT's was used liberally and with Action Boy as well as Deliverer we have plenty of Action Points to load into the VATs cannon.
WEAPON: I went with Pistols and ultimately The Deliverer from The Railroad. I also went with Silencers in the Gun Nut skill set to boost damage from the Luck perks. I sold off all ammo outside 10mm to fund my buying additional 10mm from Carla and the vendors in Diamond City.
ARMOR: In the early game I used whatever gear I happened across. The goal is to get Ballistic Weave from the Railrod and then use the Armorer perk to add weave to a black suit. A set of glasses (your choice) completes the ensemble.
At the end of the day I was able to kill quickly and efficiently but would also take damage. Use Stimpacks or food to heal up during or after fights, much like John Wick does throughout his adventures.
As noted above you can become "The Boogeyman". This entails a stat dump as you continue to level up. SPECIAL should reach 3/10/3/10/3/10/10 and add appropriate perks in the Agility tree and load up fully on the Luck tree from level 5 down to level 10 with max points.
Replies
Amazing build Cajun! I think you’ve done a great job of capturing the essence of John Wick through your gameplay mechanics.
Looks great! Really captured the feel of Mr. Wick here with the gameplay, RP and aesthetics. Very focused and sounds pretty powerful. Nice work!
I'd be interested to see this expanded to encompass more of John's skillset with some close combat skills and potentially rifles/shotguns.
I do have some options to take this much deeper but I didn’t want to end up with a 100 level character which is what I had it worked out to be.