No Deathclaws as followers.
The Deathclaws are portrayed as intelligent and talking. According to Fallout 2, the intelligent version was created by the Enclave after the events in Tactics. However, Tactics deathclaws have a normal maximum intelligence of 4, making them slightly smarter than dogs and leaving the most intelligent specimens just barely intelligent enough to speak -- this could have been a minor regional variation much like the appearance of hair.
Hairy deathclawGameplay article: Fallout Tactics The following is based on Fallout Tactics and some details might contradict canon.A deathclaw subspecies living in the area of the former states of Illinois, Missouri and Kansas developed patches of fur to better cope with the colder climate. (However, since reptiles are cold-blooded and produce no own body heat, a real-world reptile with fur would actually freeze to death.) Furthermore, some of them were noted to be capable of speech as early as in 2197, which means that they probably developed speech through spontaneous mutation, or were experimented on by someone other than the Enclave. Another possibility that they were designed to have an intellect and ability to speak before the Great War. They were also more matriarchal than their Western counterparts, with packs being led by a Matriarch. As infants, these deathclaws are less hairy and seem to be absolutely unintelligent, behaving like an animal or simply following the adults. They presumably become self-aware when they grow up.
