How to Build Terra from Final Fantasy VI in DnD
Terra Branford was the protagonist for the first half of Final Fantasy VI, and her journey of self discovery and redemption drove the plot for other characters as well. Though young, she’s already experienced a lot of things in her life and has powerful abilities that set her apart from the common folk and even some of her peers. Terra is a complex character with an equally complex story and skill set, meaning there are a lot of different ways you could spin her character. This article explains the different aspects of her character as they relate to Dungeons and Dragons, allowing you to build a character based on Terra depending on which aspects of her story and skills you want to focus on.
Picking a Class and Subclass
Terra is a bit of an odd case because there are two very different builds that can fit her. In Final Fantasy VI, Terra is described as a powerful spellcaster, and future games in the Dissidia series play up her spellcasting abilities. But as far as gameplay in Final Fantasy VI, Terra has some impressive martial abilities as well as her magic abilities. Which class you pick is going to depend on if you want her to be a powerful spellcaster with a good mix of healing and offensive abilities, or a hybrid of powerful magic and good martial options.
As a pure caster, Terra seems to be a Charisma caster. She’s also one of the few characters in the game who learns magic naturally (along with fellow leading lady Celes Chere), and she learns a mix of healing and offensive spells. In this regard, the Divine Soul Sorcerer would be a great fit for her. Sorcerers are one of the best blaster casters in the game, and the Divine Soul subclass grants access to some great support magic with the Cleric subclass as well. Having access to metamagic options allows you to more effectively use your offensive magic, such as minimizing friendly fire on AOE spells or hitting multiple targets, but it also allows you to double the effectiveness of your healing spells by using the Twinned Spell metamagic, making this character great at both.
If you want this character to be a powerful caster who’s also pretty dangerous with a melee weapon, we’ll have to depart from the Charisma caster role and instead use the Bladesinging Wizard subclass, which uses Intelligence and Dexterity as its main stats. The Bladesinging Wizard is the only subclass that gets a weapon and armor proficiency (light armor in this case), and they can also spend a bonus action to activate Bladesinging, which grants them bonuses to armor class and walking speed and makes it easier to pass their concentration checks if they’re hit. As they level up, they gain further offensive and defensive martial capabilities, and the Wizard’s impressive spell list is fully available to them.
Both of these builds have a lot of choices available to them—the Divine Soul Sorcerer has limited spell choices, and having double the amount of spells to choose from makes the choice even harder; the Bladesinging Wizard has to split their stats between Intelligence, Dexterity, and Constitution, making it hard to excel at one role. They’re both powerful subclasses that can make for excellent builds, but they’re not recommended for newer players because of the complexity of the builds.
The Divine Soul Sorcerer and the Bladesinging Wizard are very different builds, but honestly, either one of them could work for a character based on Terra. Think about whether you want to be a powerful spellcaster with good offensive and defensive capabilities, or a mixture of martial capabilities with the Wizard’s usual array of offense, control, and utility.
Picking a Race
As a half-esper, Terra has an otherworldly feel to her that leads her to feel like an outsider or even broken by human standards. She also loses control of the other side of herself a few times in the plot, and that’s a recurring talking point in the Dissidia series. But when she learns to control it, the esper form becomes a great strength for Terra, allowing her to more effectively protect her friends in battle.
The closest equivalent to Terra’s esper form comes from the Aasimar race, preferably the new one in Monsters of the Multiverse. This race is a mundane race, like a human, infused with divine energy, which gives it some special abilities. At level 3, you can pick a Celestial Revelation that grants you a more powerful form you can use occasionally, giving powers ranging from the ability to frighten anyone around you, to the ability to shed radiant energy, damaging everyone around you, or even the ability to fly while the ability is active. Terra flies a lot in the Dissidia series, so this can be a great option.
If you want to play up her status as half human, and half powerful magic being, a Genasi might be a good fit too. A Fire Genasi, specifically, gets some fire spells from its race, much like Terra learns some innate magic. This does not grant an additional form that the character can use for tough fights, but the lineage with one parent being an otherworldly magical creature.
Background, Alignment, and Personality
Background is a tricky one. Terra was kidnapped at an early age and raised in a Magitek research facility, but she was born in the esper world, and a large part of her story is rediscovering that world, and also the tragedy that tore her home apart.
The Inheritor background from Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide might fit. It’s all about discovering that your parents or ancestors left you something, and although the background does specify it’s an object, it represents something much bigger—a part of yourself that changes your life when you discover it. This closely mirrors Terra’s discovery of her esper side, and it could be that the discovery of your character’s true lineage is what sets them on the path of adventuring. This might be a better fit if your character was taken from their home at a young age and doesn’t remember it.
The Haunted One background from Curse of Strahd can also fit, matching the invasion and destruction of Terra’s childhood home in the esper world. This is a background based on a traumatic experience, so you can shape it around that separation. Survival seems to be a big part of what this background gives you, so it’s implied that a character with this background has been living on their own for a while. This is a better fit if your character was older when taken from their home and still remembers it vividly.
If you want something more generic than either of these or don’t want to deal with the traumatic aspects of Terra’s past, either the Hermit or Outlander background could work. The Outlander background implies you were raised in a small village with little contact with the outside world, and could be a more generic version of Terra’s early life in the esper world. The Hermit background implies that you isolated yourself and chose to live away from everyone else, perhaps because you were hiding from an evil empire or you were scared you would lose control of your abilities again and hurt someone.
Terra’s character development affects her alignment as well. At the beginning of the game, both before she regains her memories and as she tries to make sense of the destruction she’s caused, she’s a True Neutral character. She understands morality, but she’s worried she’ll break things and hurt people if she gets involved, so she chooses to stay out of things. In the second half of the game, Terra commits herself fully to good and maintains a neutral stance, leaning neither toward lawfulness or chaos.
Making a DnD character based on Terra is an ambitious endeavor, both narratively and mechanically, but can make for a fascinating and complex character. Successfully building and playing this character will probably take some coordination with both your DM and the party, as a lot of the aspects of her character affect other characters and plot points. Just make sure to return the favor to give other characters a chance to shine and work their stories into your plot 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.