Creating WandaVision's Vision in Dungeons and Dragons 5E

Marvel's WandaVision, the follow-up to Avengers: Endgame, is now over. While its one-season nine-episode run was brief, it was a fantastic spotlight on the characters of Wanda and The Vision and their relationship; like all good things, there just wasn't enough. The series was filled with all kinds of mystery. Even from episode one, viewers had to ask "What's going on with The Vision?" A valid question considering the last time we saw him was after his death at the hands of Wanda Thanos. If you want more out of The Vision though, then who's to say you can't embody him yourself and make him your latest Dungeons and Dragon character.

Unlike our piece on creating Wanda as a playable character, The Vision's abilities don't make him as easy a character to start at 1st level. He can fly, phase through objects, has super strength, can shoot beams out of his head, and is a keen philosopher. This will limit how much can be done for him as a 1st-level character, so instead, we'll be building him up as a 3rd-level character. Of course, you can use the same template and start at 1st level, it just might take some time before he really begins to form himself into The Vision that we see in Marvel's Wandavision.

Part JARVIS, Part Ultron, Part Mind Stone, All Vision

In the MCU, The Vision is a one-of-a-kind Vibranium Synthezoid made of a mixture of different AI, mental patterns, and one of the six Infinity Stones. While it might be complicated to try to explain the differences between a robot, android, and Synthezoid for the purposes of Dungeons and Dragons, Vision's race couldn't be any clearer. He is a Warforge. Introduced in Eberron: Rising from the Last War, the Warforged are a race of sentient automatons created from Wood or Steel. While they began as mindless soldiers, like the Iron Legion in Age of Ultron, they ended up becoming so much more as they learned to feel pain and emotion. If that isn't a dead ringer for the Vision, then I don't know what is.

This Race has some really cool abilities, including an extra +2 to Charisma, fortitude against poison, the lack of a need to eat, drink, or breathe, not needing to sleep, and even innate bonuses to Armor Class. You'll be able to take an added bonus to your Strength Score (this will be important when you pick your class). Being such a knowledgeable being, being married to the Scarlet Witch, and also as a product of the Mind Stone for Vision's Specialized Design, you'd pick a proficiency in Arcana and Carpenter's Tools. To match his wife, he'd know to speak Elvish too.

What Class Can Even Fit Vision?

There are only a few classes that even somewhat fit the Vision's fighting style of close-up and super-strong melee attacks mixed with some other buff abilities and his forehead beam. While the Pack of the Blade Warlock has both melee and spellcasting, the emphasis is on the spellcasting. Our Vision will be a Fighter and follow the Eldritch Knight Archetype. The need for melee and spellcasting is what's forcing us to create him as at least a 3rd-level character. If you need to work in the inability for spellcasting (ranged beams), you could always have The Vision be newly rebooted, or having some of his systems offline for maintenance to add some flair to your story.

The Vision should take his proficiencies in History and Perception. With the knowledge of the internet at his fingertips, he has a vast memory that would improve his chances at success when trying to recall, and through his general directive to keep gaining information about the world and investigate when something seems wrong, his Perception will help here. While Vision does use a variety of improvised weapons, for his main Fighting Style we'll pick Unarmed Fighting. This allows him to use his hands as his primary weapon, but if not even wearing a shield you'll be dealing 1d8 + Str Mod with each punch.

The Eldritch Knight's Weapon Bond might not work for Unarmed Fighting, but you're still proficient with all Simple and Martial weapons. If you want to have a Hammer that Vision can summon at will, it wouldn't exactly be off brand (just don't tell Thor you're borrowing it).

There are a few Martial Archetype for the Fighter class that are almost great fits for Vision. The Arcane Archer would be perfect if it was a bolt of energy without the arrows. The Psi Warrior is interesting but also limited in what it can do. The Eldritch Knight's Weapon Bond is somewhat wasted when the plan is to punch everything, but it's the access to the Wizard spell list that is exactly what we're after.

Vision Has a Few Tricks Up His Sleeves

We now have a Synthezoid Fighter ready to punch anyone out that comes his way. What won't be expected though is that Vision has a number of special abilities. At 3rd Level, the Eldritch Knight has access to two cantrips and three spells. There's actually a lot more range here that doesn't do well to apply to Vision; we'll be picking a few key spells and then being a bit more experimental with our Vision from there. For the purposes of giving Vision a bit more application with range, we'll be continuing with the idea of him wielding Mjolnir like we saw him pick it up at the end of Age of Ultron.

The first cantrip to emulate a beam from the Mind Stone in his forehead is Fire Bolt. Nice and simple, even the colors match correctly as he fires a read beam out. The next cantrip, for use with a hammer, would be Booming Blade. While it would be nice to have these spell effects work on your fist (ask your DM if they're comfortable allowing this), it will hit an enemy and trap them in electrical energy. While it doesn't work with unarmed, it almost works too well playing off the idea of your Vision having Mjolnir as a backup weapon.

When it comes to 1st-Level spells, we need to start getting a bit more creative. Sure we know Vision is a level-headed fighter and might know something like Charm Person or Identify, but we want to keep with his idea of being a strong fighter. Somewhat mimicking the idea of Fire Bolt being a beam from his head, we can do the same with Magic Missile. It's a bit more powerful and also doesn't miss. If there's anything we know from Vision in Civil War it's that even when he misses... he hits. Again the idea of a single bolt or dart needs to be remixed into a beam, but as long as you don't push your luck treating it like a continuous laser, your DM will likely be fine.

The last two 1st-Level spells push the realism even further. You can have Vision drop into a superhero landing, causing an Earth Tremor to appear up to 10 ft away from you. You could remix this to be a spell originating from yourself instead of up to 10 ft away to give it that bit more realism, but with the way we see Vision throw a punch in MCU content, it wouldn't surprise me if everything within his superhero landing became difficult terrain. In keeping with the Mjolnir theme of Booming Blade, we also have Thunderwave. Much like we see Thor creating a shockwave after hitting Captain America's Vibranium Shield, why wouldn't Vision hitting himself create a similar effect? Once again, the thunder damage stays on brand. Is it a bit cheap to pair Vision with Mjolnir? Yes. Am I working with what I've got? Also yes.

How Would Vision Do on His Standardized Tests?

Vision is going to be a little bit more unbalanced with his Standard Array of Ability Scores. There's an important need for Strength coming from his Unarmed Combat, but we also need to factor in the kinds of spells he's trying to fling around. As an Eldritch Knight his spellcasting modifier is based on his Strength too. This leads us to the following scores when picking from a Standard Array. If you've been following up until now the total will be listed after.

• Strength - 15 (16)
• Constitution - 14 (16)
• Intelligence - 13 (13)
• Wisdom - 12 (12)
• Charisma - 10 (10)
• Dexterity - 8 (8)

While the Spell Attack bonus will only be a +3, that's why it's important that we've picked a number of spells that don't rely on it too heavily. The only spell so far that does is Fire Bolt but the rest either require saves from your enemy, or don't miss like Magic Missile.

The best background for Vision is as a Hermit. The Language isn't required at all so take a fun pick, but it's in the Discovery Background Feature that The Vision will pair best. With this feature you'll have access to a "unique and powerful discovery." There's no specification or even limit to what this is, but a being of creation between the best minds on earth, a sentient AI, and the power of an Infinity Stone has got to know something pretty impressive. 

There you have it, that's all it takes to create The Vision in Dungeons and Dragons. If you weren't following along and instead just want to take a look at the final 3rd-Level character, then you can check them out here on DnDBeyond.

Where Does Vision Go from Here?

Sure it took until Vision got to 3rd Level before he really even became the Visio, ,but from here the sky is the limit. At 4th level, you can continue to improve his strength or pick up a new Feat. Some feats that would be recommended might be:

• Charger - After dashing you'll be able to bonus action into a single melee weapon attack or have a chance to shove a creature. There's even ways to increase your damage rolls with this move. Much like Vision flying into battle with a strong hit, it's a surefire way to start combat strong.
• Crusher - As you'd expect from the name, you're strong—like really strong. You get stronger, do more with bludgeoning damage, and on crit others will have advantage until your next turn. You set them up, and have your fellow teammates knock them down.
• Mobile - This allows you more considerations with your melee attacks, makes you faster, but also means if you attempt an attack you'll not provoke an attack of opportunity. Think of it as Vision being able to phase through a punch as he retreats.

Even after all of this, as soon as you hit level 5 you can start making two attacks on every normal attack action instead of just one. Extra Attack will also grow as Vision does. You'll be a powerhouse in no time at all.

Do you think this Vision measures up to the original? Do you think there could have been a better selection of cantrips and spells? Would you want to play this character?