Creating Aeris/th

[NOhara24]

Hey all,

The first session for my new campaign is this Saturday.For this, I am happy. I'm running a party of four, and they are as follows.

Exiled Modron Wizard
Aasimar Sorcerer
Human Rogue
Desert Half-Orc Barbarian

Their character creation seems to have left a gap that would be perfectly filled by a divine caster. I'm not trying to create a DMPC as much as a recurring NPC that would serve to occasionally dress their wounds and serve as a sort of Den Mother I suppose would be the term. Of course the first thing that came to mind was just straight Cleric, but I didn't see a reason why I couldn't turn it over to you all to have a crack at it.

So, what do you all think?

[MesiDoomstalker]

Radiant Servant of Pelor is the epitome of Healing and Anti-Undead-Ness. But if you go Cleric, you definatly need to make here a Cloistered one. She's a Staff Chick, not a Brawler Girl.

There is also Healer which kinda removes the pesky worhsiping thing. Kinda low OP but like you said, a recurring NPC to treat wounds, not DMPC.

[NOhara24]

RSoP! I can't believe I had forgotten about that. Cloistered RSoP cleric sounds good. What book is the Healer listed in?

[MesiDoomstalker]

Minitures Handbook I believe. I don't own the book but I've heard it on these boards alot.

[Tokuhara]

If you plan on seriously playing Aeris/th, a dead body works very well :smalltongue:.

On a serious note: Healer is a great band-aid dispenser, however it's casting pool is kind of garbage.

[KillianHawkeye]

What does this have to do with Aeris, exactly? :smallconfused:

All her abilities were dependent on what materia she was equipped with. Maybe yours was a healer, but that wasn't anything intrinsic to her character.

[Feytalist]

Aerith is the quintessential staff chick healbot. It was absolutely intrinsic to her character. Hell, in her limit breaks, if nothing else.


You could try Favoured Soul with the alternate class feature from the PHB2, whatever it's called, instead of the weapon proficiency. Load her up with healing and buffing spells, and you're set. Comes with a nice set of wings after about a billion levels.

[Ceaon]

Aerith is the quintessential staff chick healbot. It was absolutely intrinsic to her character. Hell, in her limit breaks, if nothing else.


You could try Favoured Soul with the alternate class feature from the PHB2, whatever it's called, instead of the weapon proficiency. Load her up with healing and buffing spells, and you're set. Comes with a nice set of wings after about a billion levels.

White Mage was more of a quintessential staff chick to me. Even though he/she could be a guy.

[Rejusu]

Unless you want to try and home brew a Materia/Limit Break system then female human cloistered cleric with a quarterstaff. As mentioned because of the materia system she's not a cut and dry healer, but it's kind of hard to emulate the level of flexibility materia offers so just making her a cleric is probably the easiest route.

You could change her race though to something that merely looks human but is a bit more special underneath to try and add in the Cetra aspect.

[AslanCross]

Aerith stood out as a "White Mage" primarily because all her limit breaks were either healing or buffing.

[KillianHawkeye]

Meh, I can't be bothered to remember stuff like limit breaks from 15 years ago. I only played the game once. Still, this could have been mentioned in the OP.

[INoKnowNames]

What does this have to do with Aeris, exactly? :smallconfused:

All her abilities were dependent on what materia she was equipped with. Maybe yours was a healer, but that wasn't anything intrinsic to her character.

Actually, it kinda was, between her Limit Breaks, and her Base Stats. She was designed to be the game's White Mage (until she died, spoiler alert). Her physical stats were low, but her magic stats were very good.

A Fighter could make a decent party face if you went out of your way to make it so, but a Bard is basically built for that roll. Aerith could be built to be a physical fighter, but she was built to be a Mage. And considering her Limits, White is a pretty good color for her.


You could try Favoured Soul with the alternate class feature from the PHB2, whatever it's called, instead of the weapon proficiency. Load her up with healing and buffing spells, and you're set. Comes with a nice set of wings after about a billion levels.

But will she live to gain those wings? Sneak Attack hurts.

Heh. Sephiroth's part Wizard part Rogue.


White Mage was more of a quintessential staff chick to me. Even though he/she could be a guy.

They officially removed the disambiguity in the PSP remake of that game: The origonal White Mage was a Chick, and was intended to be so. And Aerith (and many other such characters) were based from that template.


Unless you want to try and home brew a Materia/Limit Break system then female human cloistered cleric with a quarterstaff. As mentioned because of the materia system she's not a cut and dry healer, but it's kind of hard to emulate the level of flexibility materia offers so just making her a cleric is probably the easiest route.

I'm surprised no one made a joke about Use Magic Device yet.


Aerith stood out as a "White Mage" primarily because all her limit breaks were either healing or buffing.

Except for the odd "Inflict Stop and Silence" on enemies, that's about right.


Meh, I can't be bothered to remember stuff like limit breaks from 15 years ago. I only played the game once. Still, this could have been mentioned in the OP.

I remember way back when I couldn't get past the stupid Scorpion's Tail Lasers.....

I've been looking to add spells to the Healer's spell list, and Final Fantasy actually gave me a bit of inspiration. That's probably the only reason the knowledge is so fresh in my mind.

[grarrrg]

Actually, it kinda was, between her Limit Breaks, and her Base Stats. She was designed to be the game's White Mage (until she died, spoiler alert). Her physical stats were low, but her magic stats were very good.

Her stats put her as the only solid "Mage" (white/black/otherwise) in the group. She was the only one that could NOT be easily made into a melee beatstick.

Her Limit Breaks (and character actions, bah, who reads anyway....) are what peg her as a White mage and not Black.

[QUOTE=INoKnowNames;13012250]Heh. Sephiroth's part Wizard part Rogue.

Arcane Trickster you mean?

[Sutremaine]

I remember way back when I couldn't get past the stupid Scorpion's Tail Lasers.....
Attack it when its tail's up!

[INoKnowNames]

Her stats put her as the only solid "Mage" (white/black/otherwise) in the group. She was the only one that could NOT be easily made into a melee beatstick.

Not completely true. Vincent and Cat Sith both lacked almost, but not quite, as badly in physical attack power as Aerith did, and both have reliably good Magic Power, second only to Aerith and Cloud. Cloud's good at both, and can be made either.


Arcane Trickster you mean?

Can Arcane Tricksters cast RAI Locate City Bombs? I was thinking more Gestalt than anything else.

Dude... I'm surprised no one's stated Sephiroth yet...


Attack it when its tail's up!

I did, and I got instantly killed for it! :smallbiggrin:

[nedz]

Attempting to put the thread back on the tracks :smallsmile:

Healer if you definately don't want to outshine the PCs.

Cleric (or Favoured Soul) if you want to be able to prod them in a certain direction. Consider the spontaneous cleric varient from UA (or here (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/spontaneousDivineCasters.htm)) if you want to avoid work, and drop the character a tier. Cloistered Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#clericVariantCloistere dCleric) has already been mentioned.

And there is always Druid or Spirit Shamen if you like trees.

[Agrippa]

I'd make her a quarterstaff wielding erudite (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060406b). That and I'd focus on healing, protecting and barty buffing powers. That wouldn't exactly make your Aerith expy a divine caster but that's okay.

[dgnslyr]

Aerith is the quintessential staff chick healbot. It was absolutely intrinsic to her character. Hell, in her limit breaks, if nothing else.

I'll have to partially disagree here. On of the more unique parts about FFVII's characterization was that while Aeris certainly looks the part of the sweet, innocent Staff Chick, she's got the personality of the Perky Action Girl, while Tifa is the opposite. I'd say she's practically the subversion of a quintessential Staff Chick. But that's enough derail.

Cloistered Cleric into Radiant Servant is a pretty capable cleric, but the real Aeris-ness comes has to come from her personality. I mean, she's the one who convinced a cold, impersonal mercenary into cross-dressing as a prostitute so he could seduce a pimp.