Low-level strategies for survival in Fallout (original)

I've just started playing the original Fallout (and hopefully Fallout 2 when I'm ready), and am loving it. However, I have to admit that I'm getting my butt kicked. I seem to do OK against cave rats, but if there's more than one mole rat or rad scorpion, my best tactic seems to be that of Brave Sir Robin: Run away!

I have a combat knife and a 10MM pistol, so I'm not terribly underarmed. But I've already died once from a random encounter of multiple mole rats, almost died from a mole rat with several cave rats surrounding me in Vault 15, and I think (?) I'm poisoned from a rad scorpion random encounter where I ran like Forrest Gump to get out of there.

What can I do to increase my survivability, short of leveling up a few times?

Solution 1:

The difficulty of starting out in Fallout is one of my favorite aspects of the game; feels more realistic that way. :) My tactic usually involved making sure my character was a good shot with the pistol starting out. A character build without a decent small guns skill will be much harder. Then until I manage to scrounge better armor and weapons, I try to only pull one enemy at a time. It takes a long time to fight through a level one monster at a time, but it's the most survivable tactic when available. Also make sure you use your resources. Chems or grenades might seem like the kind of thing you should save, but especially at low levels use what you've got!

Solution 2:

Inhale some Jet and run faster!

Seriously though, I had the same problem and became addicted to the stuff very early on until I could level up a little -- withdrawing from the addiction was not easy though, but I'd suggest you try some drugs (contrary to what I'd recommend in real life of course)

Solution 3:

You could try using your sneak skill a little more if you want to avoid known enemies (encounters are going to be a problem, though). Additionally I've found that the skills I tend to use are as follows: barter and small guns in early game, and energy weapons and sneak late game. Also, armour does more for survivability than level does (even at the end of the game, you'll still only have around 80hp, but big guns will only do ~10 damage against your hardened power armour).