There will be spoilers in this, I’m sure.
The plan outline:
1. The Independent path seems to be the easiest to do for this. Nearly all of the bits of it are optional. Charge through the quest as fast as possible.
2. Unarmed weapons seem to be the most useful in the game. This also means that in hardcore mode you’ll be carrying less stuff around with you.
3. To complete the ending as a very wimpy character, you need 100% speech to avoid combating the final boss.
4. The easiest way to get the Caesar’s part of the quest is to “accidentally” let Benny escape over there, then Caesar will let you visit him to clear out the bunker under his camp.
5. To fight Benny’s goons and to allow him to escape, you need a good holdout weapon and fairly good sneak skill. The best holdout weapon is probably Love and Hate.
6. To clear the bunker out, you probably need either very good science, or the Paladin Toaster unarmed weapon.
7. Either skip or complete all of the Yes Man quests, then install him on the mainframe. Use the Paladin Toaster if needed to deal with House’s robots.
8. To save the president, might need good repair skill to disarm the bomb.
9. Hopefully the robots will be strong enough to beat the tar out of the legion so you can get to the final “confrontation.” Not going to be able to help much.
10. Fastest way to get to new vegas is to sneak up along the northern path while hugging the right wall to avoid the deathclaws. Get a fast travel point, then swing back west then south to pick up Love and Hate, while avoiding the Cazadors.
11. To get the paladin toaster, High Lockpick, high sneak and high repair would be useful to finish the “Crazy” quest without fighting the supermutants. That would make the enemies guarding the Paladin Toaster friendly.
12. Use outside knowledge to head straight to boulder city and use speech/negotiation to talk the great khans out. Never did this part, so don’t know how it works. Should lead me to head to new vegas. I should be able to skip this portion though. Should try.
13. While doing this, just enough sidequests should be done to level up the skills needed…
So, it looks like in order of importance, Speech, Sneak, Repair, Lockpick, Unarmed.
Speech relies on Luck and Charisma. Sneak needs Agility and Luck. Repair needs Intelligence and Luck. Lockpick needs Perception and Luck, Unarmed needs Endurance and Luck. This means Strength is probably the dump stat. Focus on charisma, agility, and luck…