Let’s Make The ‘Final Fantasy VII’ Cast as D&D Characters
Do you prefer video games or tabletop RPGs? Why not both? High fantasy meets Final Fantasy with these character sheets for the FF7 Remake’s main cast.
I genuinely enjoy making character sheets for my favorite non-D&D characters. Sometimes I use them in a game, others it’s just a fun way to pass some time. So when the FF7 remake turned out awesome and making one of the characters playable at the campaign table was requested of me I couldn’t exactly choose between the main cast… So I made all four of them.
Cloud Strife
Cloud was both the most straightforward and easiest to make. His background, motivations, alignment, and traits all shift throughout the game as the player and the character both learn and relearn who he is. I wanted to avoid spoilers while keeping the fact that he’s even a mystery to himself in play. For his sword, I found a homebrew rule for the oversized greatsword to represent the truly ridiculous Buster Sword and tried to keep the rest of him as straight-forward fighter/soldier as I could. If it looks like these characters are low on items, we sold any erroneous weapons back t the shop, of course! Spells for Final Fantasy Characters are also interesting because any character can do anything dependent on the material you’ve equipped them with so Cloud is equally likely to have healing magic and the ability to summon a god to smack his enemies. I instead tried to pick out spells I thought would be fun and in character.
Tifa Lockhart
I made Tifa a monk. If we’re going by personality, she’s probably closer to a fighter, but I thought that Flurry of Blows alone was perfect for her. Plus, two fighters in a party would be a little boring, so I wanted to mix it up. The background “bartender” is another homebrew mechanic I had to look up, and it isn’t perfect, but there isn’t a background for “Basically a normal person who works hard and cares about her friends and also happens to be good at punching.” So I settled for a bartender.
The only thing I’m a little disappointed with on her sheet is the lack of weapons. A monk’s unarmed strike is nothing to sneeze at – especially the fourth or fifth time you get hit in one turn – but collecting and trading in more and more brutal brass knuckles and claws for her to use is fun and very much part of her character. If I were actually playing her I’d see if my DM was willing to make something bespoke for her to use.
Barret Wallace
I went back and forth on how to class Barret, but landed on paladin finally because of the courage of his convictions. He runs purely on idealism and love, even if it comes across as a little angry. We all get fed up, I get it. His gun arm is a huge part of his character and backstory, and while I question the practicality on a day-to-day basis, leaving it off of his sheet was hard. I gave him a heavy crossbow instead, but you and I and he all know that it’s not the same. That said, guns are a thing within D&D now, even if you’ll likely not find anything like that in a standard game book. In a game, this is another weapon I’d work with my DM to approximate.
Aerith Gainsborough
She’s sweet, she’s usually the healer, and she’s much more powerful than she looks, I had no questions about how to write Aerith. Easily the squishiest of the four with the lowest AC, I added the “bangles” that characters wear as defense (I think of them as bracers) as an excuse to give her a shield. Nature Domain clerics get a couple of spells that aren’t terribly on brand for Aerith, but I won’t look a gift barkskin in the mouth and added a ton of non-combat healing spells that I thought represented the character a little better.
How would you make these characters for D&D? Who would you like to see sheets for next? Are you disappointed that I didn’t make Red XIII? I thought about it, but he’s not really playable in the remake yet. Let us know in the comments!
Happy Adventuring!
