Most psychopathic character in New Vegas?

Dayglow Drifter

Dayglow Drifter

Mildly Dipped
For me it's between Dean Domino and Vulpes Inculta.

But Vulpes actually serves some ideological goal so Dean wins.

What do you think?
 
Yeah but they are legitimately deranged, and even then they can't compete with Elijah.

Dean's psychosis is rational and deeply narcissistic, literally every sentient being he interacts with is either a threat to be disposed of or a tool to be used up and discarded. Everyone in his life, from his one-time lover Vera Keyes to you the Player Character, is nothing more than a key to this treasure of humiliating Sinclair on no other basis than "He's so happy and so that means he think's he's better than me"

All the fiend bosses and Elijah are theatrically evil, they have lost all touch with touch with reality and that insanity is what guides them. But the calculating nature of Dean Domino, the narcissism that feeds it, and the fact that nearly 300 years hasn't been enough to dissuade him from it makes him a legitimate psychopath, in my opinion.
 
The Courier. Dude gets shot in the head, chases some bloke in a suit the long way round the Mojave, gets conscripted, and becomes a key figure in the war for Hoover Dam...but pisses off on holiday to the Zion National Park just as things are getting critical as though it's the most normal thing in the world. That guy is insane in the face.
 
Personally I always do Honest Hearts before I even have access to Vegas, I figure it makes a lot of sense from a role-playing perspective. It seems like an easy enough job, what could go wrong?
 
Dayglow Drifter said:
Personally I always do Honest Hearts before I even have access to Vegas, I figure it makes a lot of sense from a role-playing perspective. It seems like an easy enough job, what could go wrong?
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Yeah because I think "total milk run" when I decide to run guard duty on a caravan through a post-apocalyptic Utah that as far as anyone in the caravan knows is overrun with superstitious asshole tribal cannibals and all manner of dangerous mutated fauna. Is your Courier INT 1?
 
You act like nobody in the caravan has been to Utah before, which is demonstrably false once you talk to the people you will be traveling with. The caravan master also explicitly states that you are going to be taking another route (hence one of the primary purposes of the expedition) to intentionally sidestep all of that danger. To any Courier with a bit of spirit and the skills it takes to get to New Vegas (and maybe even explore a certain plant infested vault once they get there) it seems like a fair enough investment for the challenge.

I play with a mod which makes the New Vegas credit check much higher than it is in the base game, so I generally will arrive in New Vegas and do a few quests before I figure "Hey, why not make all this money at once" and head on into Zion. I feel like from a role-playing perspective that isn't preposterous at all once you listen to the pitch that Happy Trails Caravans gives you.
 
You are using psychosis and psychopathy as interchangeable here. They are completely different things. Psychosis describes an inability to determine what is real. Psychopathy is a complex personality disorder stemming from a lack of empathy. They are generally antisocial, egotistical, fearless, and remorseless. It also seems that you might be asking who is the most sadistic (level of cruelty) or monstrous (scale of effect). So what are you asking, and are we judging them based on the extent of their actions, or the extent of their condition?
 
I think No-Bark Noonan is the most psychotic, but he's also weirdly insightful. So I don't see it as a bad thing.

For psychopathic I think several demonstrate an extreme case of it, but I don't know how to really rate them beyond 'extreme'. Elijah, Caesar, Lanius hit all the right notes.
 
I think that there are several world class psychopaths in New Vegas. Dean Domino is the purest, and everything about Father Elijah indicates that he was always a sociopath. House is questionable.

But I think the biggest pure psychopaths are the Think Tank. Maybe not clinically, but in terms of behavior, they are right there with Mengele Klien and Borus match new research that ASPD sufferers have selective empathy. Borus is reckless and you have to shame him to any sympathy with anyone (in this case Gabe). Klien is utterly devoid of empathy. I don't think Mobius, 8, 0 , and maybe Dala weren't sociopaths but they were enablers of the worst type. These people were so bad, Mobius had to trick them into lobotomizing themselves. Mobius is the only one who showed any type of conscience, but not until almost everyone who wasn't senior personnel at Big Mt was dead. Their crimes are so vast and so pointless and so utterly disdainful of human life I'm surprised the Enclave didn't try and evacuate them to the oil rig. They would have fit right in.
 
Charwo said:
everything about Father Elijah indicates that he was always a sociopath. House is questionable.
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How so w/ Elijah? He's disregards human life and suffering; breaks tradition, laws, international agreements against war crimes...he's self aggrandizing, afraid of nothing, and has no regrets whatsoever.

As for House, I agree. He's definitely egotistical to the extreme. Whereas he doesn't need to be perceived as 'antisocial' in order to do whatever he wants, so that's a wash. I have seen him scared, and his actions certainly indicate great caution so he's not fearless. Remorseless does seem to fit for the most part, but I think he does lament mistakes in a rather clinical way.

Also, sociopath is a really confusing term. Sometimes it just means non-standard moral values, as opposed to lacking empathy. Other times it distinguishes between social and biological causes (psychopathy).

Charwo said:
I'm surprised the Enclave didn't try and evacuate them to the oil rig. They would have fit right in.
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Big.Mt was strong enough to survive the bombs, so they would have just taken up space. I do think the Enclave expected to reclaim Big.Mt though. The crater shape and general disarray after they blew up the top, probably looked like an impact sight from a distance though.

Just imagine if the Enclave got their hands on teleportation, matter recombination, or advanced brain preservation tech. Personally I'm picturing a congress of former Presidents because none of them die, they just lose the nomination. That and them being utterly unstoppable.
 
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Lanius
Papa Khan can still be resoned with. player can talk him off to revoke the Khanate alliance with The Legion.. telling him that the Legion willl remove Khan's identity should they win.
 
The most clinically psychopathic character IMO is Clanden, and that's even completely aside from the snuff films and murder of prostitutes. He no guiding principles at all himself and is completely indifferent towards any goals and ideals for whom he works for. The goals of the Legion or Gomorrah don't matter to him in any way or any other faction for that matter, so as long as they just let him do what he wants for making explosives which he boasts about. He'd do anything for any employer whether they're heroic or villainous or anything in-between, and can be convinced to leave as he doesn't really care anyways. Clanden is not just anti-social but in a way a social chameleon with no qualms or feelings or expression towards what he does.

Even after you confront him on the torture and murder of the prostitutes in his spare time he is not just remorseless but also fully un-phased and nonchalant of just being caught and begins threatening you.


In fact I suspect Gomorrah has the highest amount of clinical sociopaths than any other group or faction in New Vegas. It's often taken for granted that they were essentially planning to kill off a huge amount of the strip with chlorine poisoning. Chlorine gas kills you by turning the water in your tissues into a powerful acid.
 
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Wait. Lanius is not a psycho, he is not even evil. Lanius is tribal.

pierce the eyes of slaves? There is no blind slave in his tent.

throw the hounddogs dogs on fire to end the conflict? Can you blame him? The lives of his commanders must be more important. And he does not even like the Legion.

Above all, He respects honor and hates dishonest tactics and intrigues. This is not characteristics of a psychopath.

The only really bad thing I remember that he does was cutting in half the cow of the fort's trader for reasons.
 
Cobra Commander said:
Wait. Lanius is not a psycho, he is not even evil. Lanius is tribal.

pierce the eyes of slaves? There is no blind slave in his tent.

throw the hounddogs dogs on fire to end the conflict? Can you blame him? The lives of his commanders must be more important. And he does not even like the Legion.

Above all, He respects honor and hates dishonest tactics and intrigues. This is not characteristics of a psychopath.

The only really bad thing I remember that he does was cutting in half the cow of the fort's trader for reasons.
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People can be evil and tribal.

How would you know if they're blind or not, and also why would they be in his war tent?

I don't know where you got the impression that psychopaths weren't well at home in honor cultures.

He split a brahmin in half?
 
Gloria Van Graff and her brother Jean-Baptiste are obviously psychopaths.

Most psychopaths aren't really obviously outwardly crazy or cartoonishly evil - in fact they are more often secretly cut throat, cunning, and charming people. They just don't feel emotions or empathy like the vast majority of people, for them having empathy is the same as a blind person lacking sight. So they can do what they want, use and destroy others and never really feel anything.


Every faction there is has a few psychopaths running around. Even certain NCR folk hit all the right notes.
 
The Man From Nowhere said:
Every faction there is has a few psychopaths running around. Even certain NCR folk hit all the right notes.
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I'd like to hear which ones you think are Sociopaths in the NCR? Cassandra Moore is the only one that comes to mind, but it's hard to tell with military types if they're hard-nosed or psychopaths. Captain Parker who shoots a dude for insulting his wife, well he strikes me as a power-tripping asshole, rather than a sociopath (not that it made a difference to that guy he shot).
 
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