If you are too ashamed to use wikis, then you better break out your note pads. I still very, very much recommend using a build guide since there are two stats that *really* matter, one that's just nice to have above 100%, and like four that you can increase through books that are purchasable.
First Aid and Outdoorsman are nice but not at all worth spending skill points on and Science/Repair aren't super relevant until the last third or so of the game when you're just trying to find stats to dump points into so you don't waste them since you can only store a max of 99 Skill Points.
Endgame stat spread. Living Anatomy and Quick Pockets were the other two Perks. Strength is actually 6 but the Power Armor gives you 4+. Yes, 177% Small Guns. I reeeeeally like sniping the eyes for crits, knockdowns, and OHKO chances and hate missing in the dark.
Must Tag: Small Guns Get above 100% ASAP: Speech/Lockpick Invest in later: Big Guns Get to 60% by lv12: Doctor Reach Skill Book cap before investing: Science/Repair/Outdoorsman/First Aid Nowhere else to spend points: Traps/Steal/Energy Weapons Dump: Unarmed/Melee/Throwing/Sneak/Barter/Gambling
I invested a bit more into Steal just to make robbing my favorite shopkeep a bit easier/less tedious. Threw 25%~ into Traps to speed up a heavily-trapped dungeon area. Pumped Science to get log-in info on the Enclave Oil Rig, and dumped the rest into Energy for funsies.
Looking back, I should have raised Speech a bit more since Speech checks have a chance to fail so I might've flubbed a couple of them without noticing. 111% certainly gooses they odds in my favor the majority of the time, but it's never guaranteed to pass.
Lockpick is weird. It kinda feels like a dump stat candidate, but being able to get through as many locked doors/containers early on is a major boon and while the Electronic lockpick overshadows it later on, deploying it is tedious compared to just being able to use the skill on the field.
Bozar is *the* Big Gun to use, and you can safely ignore investing into the stat for a large chunk of the game since it's not accessible/practical to obtain until much later. It pretty much kills anything at point-blank range and can hit targets behind/in front of whoever is targeted.
I love to run up to enemies and give them a Bullet Hell Close Combat and doing enough damage to kill them thrice over. Almost as much as I love getting instadeath crits by sniping their eyes with the Gauss Pistol.
I pumped Big Guns so I can get better damage rolls and increase the chances of picking up multiple kills when enemies line up, weaken whatever survives enough for my party members to clean up, or to redirect multiple enemies away from my party when they're low on health.
I started dumping stat points into shit like Science (after hitting the stat cap through Skill Books) and Traps because they made things slightly less irritating for me at a specific moment in the game.