Let’s Play D&D With a ‘Fallout’ Vault Dweller
Grab your Pip-Boy and watch our for radiation monsters. This week we’re playing D&D with a Vault Dweller from Fallout.
The Fallout streaming series is only a few weeks away. And it looks like it could actually be pretty good! We’re always a little wary when it comes to live-action adaptations of video games or animation. But it looks like Fallout may be one of the shows that make the leap from game to series and sticks the landing. And if not, it sounds like they’re at least going to nail the soundtrack. In the meantime, let’s wait for Fallout to premiere together and play some D&D with a…
Fallout Vault Dweller
Something that’s fun about Fallout is how open-ended gameplay and character creation are. What does your character look like? What kind of weapons do they prefer? What about their moral compass? It’s all up to you, the player. This means that there are a bunch of directions you could take a Vault-Dweller-inspired character for a D&D setting.
Personally, I pinpointed Dogmeat, tracking and survival skills, and shooting skills to be the most important. But if you played more of a melee character, another subclass of Fighter may be a better pick for your character. If you leaned hard into the power armor, Artificer may be the Vault-Dweller for you.
For this character though, I went for a Ranger-Gunslinger duel-class. Ranger gives us access to things hunters mark, some healing spells, and, perhaps most importantly, an animal companion. Which we will of course use to make sure out Vault Dweller has Dogmeat by their side as they take on ghouls and more dangers of the wasteland.
via Amazon
Gunslinger isn’t an official class, but it is a Matt Mercer class, which is close enough. And those trick shots will nicely approximate the Vault Dweller’s ability to slow down time and take aim against enemies.
We also took a few feats and spells. The feats are all very focused on making sure that the character is a little extra tough and aware of their surroundings. Generally, they’re somewhat capable of surviving in a radiation-poisoned world full of horrible monsters. While the spells are a mixture of healing and danger detection.
Finally, while you leave the vault in the signature blue jumpsuit, you can pick up all sorts of armor along the way, up to and including power armor. And this is a character with proficiency in any armor… so we sort of had our pick of anything. I opted for half plate as a sort of middle ground between leather and full power armor. But your Vault Dweller can wear whatever armor they come across out there in the radiation wastes.
Remember in Fallout 4 when you have to go to Lake Quannapowitt? It’s a real place and I used to live in the town where it is! You shouldn’t go swimming in the real Lake Quannapowitt, either, but it’s a very nice 5K run.
How would you make a Fallout Vault Dweller for a D&D setting? Are you looking forward to the upcoming series? What movie, show, game, book, or comic should we make sheets from next time? Let us know in the comments!
Happy adventuring!
