Is it reasonable to focus on small guns or do energy weapons make them obsolete late game? Also, besides lockpick and speech what other skills would you recommend investing in?
Small arms and melee are fine. Energy weapons are strong but come into play relatively late.
Sneak is pretty useful.
Repair and science are helpful but can be learned from books to some degree.
>>3123587
small guns is fine, you don't really need to tag it though. books should be good enough for it.
Outdoorsman is severely underrated
>>3123660
Outdoorsman doesn't do shit in Fallout 1.
Why are the Bethesda Fallouts such cancer bros??
>>3123587
Repair is useful. Not because you use it often, but because you can use it for a required part of the story.
And no, Energy doesn't make small guns obsolete. If anything, Small Guns are slightly better, and Energy is just for flavor.
>>3123587
If you've got the skills to buff up Energy for the end game, cool, but it's not really required - small arms can take you through the whole game.
Plus you can actually loot bodies you crit-kill with small arms instead of having to pick through puddles of goo.
>>3123587
Generally I'd focus most points into small guns and dump whatever is left into energy weapons or big guns.
I found that taking small guns at the start, then switching to energy weapons mid trough the game is the best option. I usually tag small arms, then start investing into energy weapons later, but you don't have to tag it. Also, I usually play with high INT for the skill points, so it might be only viable to do it my way with high INT.
you will have no problem beating FO1 with the .223 or sniper rifle.
energy weapons are ridiculously OP at the end