How to Build Celes from Final Fantasy VI in DnD
Much more than some opera floozy, Celes was a general in the Gestahlian Empire who defected and joined the resistance. Much like other leading lady Terra Branford, Celes has pretty solid fighting abilities, is able to equip most weapons and wear most armor, but is also one of the few characters in the game to learn magic naturally. Her Runic Blade ability allows her to nullify harmful spells cast against the party, making her invaluable when facing enemy mages. This concept has a pretty similar build in DnD, so read on!
Picking a Class and Subclass
As a magic knight-type character, Celes has solid fighting and magic abilities. The closest equivalent in DnD is a Paladin, having much of the offensive and defensive capabilities of the best martial classes while also packing a magic punch with smites and some limited spells. A lot of the offensive power of Paladins comes from smites, so a Dexterity build can work just as well as a Strength build for a Celes-type character.
For subclass, we have to consider Celes's unique ability. Her Runic Blade allows her to absorb enemy magic. The best Paladin subclass fit is Oath of the Ancients, which gets an aura ability that grants resistance to all damage from spells. That right there is as close to Runic Blade as you're going to get in DnD. Oath of the Ancients Paladins also have some nature-themed spells and abilities, including some control options.
If the nature theme isn't doing it for you and you'd rather lean into Celes's story than her mechanical elements, Oath of the Crown might be a good fit. As a former general, Celes was devoted to her country, but more so the Oath of the Crown tenets of Law, Loyalty, Courage, and Responsibility. When her country could no longer fulfill her ideals, she defected, initially having nothing but her ideals, but learning to redirect those ideals into something bigger than herself. When the villain Kefka destroyed everything, Celes’s ideals put her on a path to rebuild society.
I'm guessing you're probably wanting to play more into the mechanical aspects of Celes's character, though, so I'm recommending Oath of the Ancients.
Picking a Race
As a character concept, Celes is pretty race-agnostic—many different races can work with the story or the mechanics. From a story perspective, Celes’s power is the result of unethical experimentation, so it’s possible that she’s a monstrous race that was taken in by a larger empire. It’s also possible that she was a member of the empire herself, and an empire that expands quickly and crushes all in its path sounds like a human empire. Either of those could have drastically different backstories before the experiments began.
If you want something to tie in more closely with the Oath of the Ancients, an elf might be a fantastic fit. Living out the tenets of that oath is very thematic for elves. This character might be from a small village that was absorbed into the empire when she was little, or it could be a tyrannical elf ruler that led her people astray.
Background, Alignment, and Personality
If you’re trying to re-create Celes, the Soldier background is the best fit. Just like with the race, this can vary quite a bit if you want to play a character that was plucked out of her home and trained as a weapon of war, but the Soldier background is the most faithful adaptation of her story.
Her alignment is the main source of her inner conflict. She’s a hard Lawful Good and sees herself as both right up until shortly before we meet her in the game. The conflict comes when Lawful and Good are no longer compatible in her life—she can choose to be loyal to a tyrannical empire, or good in spite of her orders. As she was arrested for treason, she was still trying to reconcile these two parts of herself, and she struggles with this throughout the first half of the game.
This conflict turns into crisis in the beginning of the second half of the game, when this inner turmoil is so intense and irreconcilable that Celes tries to take her own life. She feels guilty for being disloyal, and also for her loyalty being evil and causing so much destruction. It’s only when both law and goodness are seemingly taken from her that she’s able to reconcile the two and dedicate herself a higher sense of lawfulness that serves the common good—she seeks to establish new laws and systems that benefit all of society.
Inner conflict is a big part of Celes’s story, and her failure to serve both parts of her values leads her to a lot of regret. This can lead to some inter-party conflict as the party chooses to side with either goodness at the sake of the establishment or the government even in their immorality. If some party members choose one and some choose the other, the Celes character might find themselves caught in the middle, trying to make peace between the two sides, but also feeling attacked by both of them.
Celes’s ability to absorb magic is a useful one for any party, and her background as a deeply troubled former general can be interesting to play out. Even if you don’t go the general route, her origin as the subject of unethical experimentation can make for a complex character as well.
About the Author
Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a web developer and writer in the Kansas City area. He's been playing TTRPGs since 2020 and is involved in the disability-related TTRPG podcast Tales from the Crips. He's into classic movies, mental health, and, of course, DnD. Also, he's in a band. One time, they rocked so hard it killed a man.