Terra Brandford was the first female protagonist in a Final Fantasy game and she is often characterized as an incredibly powerful spellcaster. Terra is one of the few people in the world of Final Fantasy VI with the ability to naturally cast spells, and both her unique lineage and magical abilities can easily be replicated in .
In Final Fantasy VI, each character needs to equip an item called Magicite in order to learn spells. The exceptions to this are Terra and Celes, who can learn some spells through leveling up. In Terra's case, this due to the fact that she is half human and half esper, which means that magic naturally runs through her veins. It's due this magical lineage that she is enslaved by the evil Gestahlian Empire, before breaking free and becoming the figurehead of a rebellion against her former captors. In D&D terms, Terra is a sorcerer, but the spells she uses in Final Fantasy VI require her to take an archetype from Xanathar's Guide to Everything in order to be properly replicated.
Terra's Ability Scores, Class, And Background
The version of Terra we have created uses material from the Player's Handbook and Xanathar's Guide to Everything. From a mechanical standpoint, Terra is a half-elf, but she would be defined as a half-esper, with her father being a creature from the Feywild. Terra is a sorcerer, who takes on the Divine Soul bloodline at level one. Using the basic stat spread listed on page 13 of the Player's Handbook and taking her race into consideration, Terr🌱a's starting stats would be STR 10, DEX 15, CON 14, INT 12, WIS 8, and CHA 17.
In Final Fantasy VI, Terra can naturally learn healing spells & resurrection spells, and fire magic. The reason why she is a Divine Soul sorcerer is that it lets her choose spells from the๊ cleric list. If the variant Feat rules are used, then she would benefit from Elemental Adept (Fire), Inspiring Leader, Spell Sniper, or War Caster.
Terra's background is a tricky prospect, as she starts the game with amnesia. Terra was used as a living weapon by Kefka, but when the slave crown is destroyed at the beginning of Final Fantasy VI, her personality is pretty much reset. The closest background to this in the Player's Handbook is Hermit, which accounts for her lack of knowledge regarding the outside world. Taking her background, cl﷽ass, and race into account, Terra's starting skills would be Medicine, Religion, Insight, Animal Handling, Arcana, and Persuasion. Terra's alignment would fall into Neutral or Chaotic Good. Terra initially only sides with the Returners out of necessity, but once she sees the damage the Empire is doing to the world, she steps up and takes on the hero role. She briefly abandons her duty in the World of Ruin section of the game, but the other party members can bring her back on board with a little persuasion and a sidequest.
Choosing Terra's Spells
In Final Fantasy VI, Terra can naturally learn Cure, Fire, Poisona, Drain, Raise, Fira, Teleport, Cura, Dispel, Firaga, Arise, Holy, Break, Graviga, Meltdown, and Ultima. These spells can be replicated through the Divine Soul's mixture of the cleric & sorcerer spell lists. The Dissidia games establish that Terra flies around as much as possible. She will eventually gain invisible wings at level 14 (thanks to the Otherworldly Wings feature), but she can use spells to facilitate flight until then. Terra also has the power to enhance her physical durability and magical prowess when she taps in🍸to her esper form (through the Trance ability).
In terms of spells available in the Player's Handbook, a Terra equivalent would have access to fire bolt, true strike, sacred flame, cure wounds, burning hands, feather fall, mage armor, healing word, enhance ability, levitate, scorching ray, continual flame, dispel magic, fly, fireball, revivify, mass healing word, polymorph, stoneskin, raise dead, teleportation circle, telekinesis, flame strike, mass cure wounds, sunbeam, globe of invulnerability, heal, resurrection, reverse gravity, delayed blast fireball, fire storm, teleport, conjure celestial, incendiary cloud, sunburst, true resurrection, and meteor swarm.
Sorcerers can only learn a limited number of spells in Dungeons & Dragons and picking entries from the cleric list makes the choices even harder. The Divine Soul has a number of features that empower healing spells, while feats can make Terra's fire magic pack a real punch. Terra can act as a combination healer/artillery platform, with magical flight giving her the ability to flit around the battlefield and move anywhere she is needed. The ability to use Metamagic means that she can be an extremely effective healer, with Distant Spell allowing her to use cure wounds without needingᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ to potentially enter melee range of enemies, while Quickened Spell allows her to heal and deal damage in the same turn.
It might take a few levels for Terra to hit her stride, but the unique mixture of healer & fire mage could make for an extremely powerful and versatile character, who can quickly fill different roles when needed. The amnesiac aspect of Terra's character leaves lots of room for the player to develop her personality in reaction to the world around her, as the campaign she appears in will likely be a lot different than the story from Final Fantasy VI or the Dissidia games. The D&D version o🔜f Terra could become a very different person than the one from the video games, depending on the people ⛎around her and the enemies she will face on her adventures.