“Scribes in the Brotherhood of Steel are often not well-trained in the combat use of the high-tech gear employed by Paladins. They rely on unarmed defensive moves like the Scribe Counter to keep enemies at bay. Perform a standard attack out of a block hit reaction to execute a Scribe Counter.”— In-game description
Scribe Counter is an Unarmed perk in Fallout: New Vegas.
Obtaining
This perk is gained by recruiting Veronica Santangelo as a companion and then completing her unmarked quest by placing either White Glove Society attire or formal wear into her inventory. She will then offer to teach the player the technique (the outfit may then be removed from her inventory after with no negative repercussions).
Caution: Due to a script error (see the bugs section of this article for details) one cannot gain Scribe Counter if Veronica has made any of the comments leading up to the quest I Could Make You Care.
Effects
The technique is executed by performing a standard attack immediately after successfully blocking a melee or unarmed attack (or an equivalent non-humanoid's melee attack), typically approximately within half a second of the blocked attack.
When the Scribe Counter is successfully performed, the player character is shown attacking the blocked enemy with their left fist.
Notes
- Placing certain pieces of clothing, (e.g. dapper gambler suit, pre-War parkstroller outfit and Vera's outfit
) into Veronica's inventory will prompt her to thank the player without granting the perk. Veronica will only offer to teach the perk if given formal wear or White Glove Society attire. - Despite its appearance, the counter-attack functions like a normal attack, except faster and directly from a block. Any special effects from the weapon or special attack (such as crippling body parts or triggering knockdowns) still work. For this reason, this special attack effectively allows a character to stay in a block the entire duration of any close-combat fight, providing significant damage reduction all the while.
- Using the ballistic fist with this weapon will cause its explosion to be released from the player's left hand. This is not merely cosmetic, and will affect the trajectory of gibs or loose items.
Bugs
Upon giving the Formal Wear to Veronica, the player may get a conversation with her, and have her "teach" them the technique, but upon the screen recovering from being black, one will not have obtained the "Scribe Counter" perk. This bug can be remedied on the PC by using the console command player.addperk 0015b8ea which gives the perk to the player. (Keep in mind that using console commands will disable achievements until quitting and relaunch the game.) [verified]
- This is verified (via reading the scripts in GECK) to happen because of a script bug where a timer object is shared between the "teach Scribe Counter" sequence and the scripts that trigger Veronica's comments leading up to starting I Could Make You Care. If the player gives her the formal wear before triggering any of the nine special comments listed in that quest, the Scribe Counter will be added at the end of the fade-in. Otherwise the conversation, fade-out, and fade-in happens, but the perk is not added.[verified]
- Sometimes, especially during the quest Beyond the Beef, putting a dress in Veronica's inventory will not cause her to acknowledge it or teach the Scribe Counter perk. One may give Veronica the formal wear, but nothing happens. There is no conversation at all. [verified]
- One fix is to simply send her back to the 188 Trading Post and go to her, where she will immediately show recognition of the dress being in her inventory. [verified]
- In some cases, entering Vault 11's sacrificial chamber has caused the dialogue to trigger.
- Another possible way to fix the bug is to have Veronica sit down and stand up from a chair. The player may need to access her inventory after standing up.
- Another possible fix involves sitting down and Waiting after which she will initiate the dialogue thanking the player for the dress and offering to teach the move.
- Several game days pass after giving Veronica the formal wear she finally engages the player in conversation and gives them the perk. [verified]
- After giving Veronica her formal wear or White Glove Society dress, the player may lose the option to tell her to go to the Lucky 38. [verified]
- In some occasions, after the 1.2.0.314 patch, after receiving the dialogue from Veronica thanking the courier for the dress and offering to teach the Scribe Counter perk you may not see the Pip-Boy tool-tip popup confirming the acquired perk; the perk is added and the perk will be working, but the player does not receive the pop-up message. If the player access to the Perks section in the Pip-boy, the perk can still be seen on the list verifying it has been acquired.
