Full Build Friday - Clive Rosfield [Human Magus] (Patreon)

Personally, I've never played any of the Final Fantasy games, but this build came across my desk as a request. I had to do some serious research, which included a lot of talking to my friends who are more familiar with the series, to bring this to you, and I think it came out pretty solid.

As always, this build is conceptualized entirely in a vacuum, with choices made in my best attempt to fit the character. These choices may not hold up in a campaign with different themes and should be adjusted accordingly.

Finalize your fantasy with this build for Clive Rosfield from FFXVI!

CLIVE ROSFIELD

SOURCE Final Fantasy XVI

BUILD GOALS

o    The unfavorite son of an archduke, Clive was trained in the art of combat before being enslaved as a soldier

o    He eventually seized freedom and sought to fight for a better world while also figuring out some of the mysterious aspects of his past

o    An adept swordsman who thrives in close quarters though he is versatile and also possesses ranged capabilities

o    He can absorb the aether of various Eikons, using a wide array of powers and elements mostly to enhance his melee combat

o    With these various Eikons, he can still produce more general magic, such as producing a chilling orb with Shiva, gaining draconic wings from Bahamut, and calling down lightning with Ramuh

o    However, his primary Eikon is Ifrit, the Eikon of Fire, which he is able to transform into

Summary of Goals: Clive honestly seems to be a fairly straightforward gish – a mix of martial might enhanced by magic that he has absorbed from the Eikons. We’ll be looking to represent the various elements that he can bring to use to both enhance his attacks and cast some more typical spells. Representing his ability to transform into Ifrit will also be important and actually a little tough to pull off.

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Suli Human

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Strength, +Intelligence

o    Ancestry Feat: Elemental Assault

Background: Press-Ganged

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Intelligence

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (T), Labor Lore (T)

o    Background Feat: Armor Assist

Class & Subclass: Magus with Aloof Firmament Hybrid Study

o    Class Ability Boost: +Strength

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Arcana (T), Intimidation (T), Society (T), Stealth (T), Thievery (T)

o    Spellbook: Cantrips – gouging claw, ignition, live wire, scatter scree, slashing gust; 1st – breathe fire, gravitational pull, horizon thunder sphere, pummeling rubble

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +4, Dex +1, Con +1, Int +3, Wis +0, Cha +0)

The core conceit of this build is honestly rather simple and will have a focus on arming Clive with elemental effects and damage. To that end, while we’ll use the human ancestry as a basis, I also want to equip him with the suli heritage, which can immediately lead into Elemental Assault as a simplistic means of him charging up his attacks with elemental effects. Given his noble heritage, the press-ganged background might seem a bit strange, but I wanted to represent his history as an enslaved soldier with it, which I think this is pretty fun for. When it comes to his class, Clive’s martial prowess mixed with his magic leads to me taking the magus class. He seems to wield his sword in one hand without anything in his off-hand, which means that we should be looking at laughing shadow or aloof firmament. I think the latter suits Clive just a bit better as aerial combos are actually part of his gameplay and the sky laughs at waves focus spell lets him fly in before he starts slashing at foes. For his other spells for the level, gouging claw actually resembles a number of Garuda attacks as does slashing gust while the other array of elemental spells can represent some of the other Eikons he has access to. Obviously, there’s ignition for Ifrit or Phoenix, live wire for Ramuh, and something like scatter scree for Titan. His first-rank spells follow a similar idea, but he also adds gravitational pull to his options based on Garuda’s Deadly Embrace.

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Expansive Spellstrike

o    Skill Feat: Titan Wrestler

o    Gear: ring of discretion

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Fleet

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (E)

o    Spellbook: 2nd – elemental zone, flame wisp, sudden bolt

o    Gear: +1 bastard sword, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Wizard Dedication – School of Battle Magic

o    Skill Feat: Courtly Graces

o    Skill Increase: Crafting (T)

o    Gear: flaming star, +1 bastard sword, necklace of knives, ring of discretion

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Wisdom, +Intelligence (Str +4.5, Dex +2, Con +1, Int +4, Wis +1, Cha +0)

o    Ancestry Feat: Natural Ambition

o    Class Feat: Arcane Fists

o    Skill Increase: Arcana (E), Medicine (T)

o    Spellbook: 3rd – lightning bolt

o    Gear: +1 striking bastard sword, flaming star, golden legion epaulets, necklace of knives, cloak of feline rest, ring of discretion

An important aspect of this build is honestly Expansive Spellstrike. A lot of Clive’s spells or attack abilities have wide-hitting, area effects that make this feat somewhat necessary. And speaking of his spells, we’ll be tapping into a Wizard Dedication. The greatest weakness of the magus, aside from needing two to three rounds to power up, is their lack of ranked spells. Tapping into a wizard archetype gives him more spells that scale off of his Intelligence and are within the arcane spell list that we’re already using for the magus. We can further represent Ramuh and its Thunderbolt with sudden bolt, but lightning bolt kind of works for Bahamut’s Gigaflare and flame wisp for its Satellite. We can gain another class feat through Natural Ambition letting us claim Arcane Fists, which is mainly inspired by his Titan powers of Raging Fists or Upheaval. As part of playing into his physicality and one-handed fighting style, I also included Titan Wrestler. Fighting with a free-hand gives him an opportunity to use options such as Grapple, Trip, and otherwise. We do call back to his noble origins with Courtly Graces, and then I went with Fleet as his first general feat because I think that speed is generally more important for anime boys than something like Toughness, which I do still intend to eventually take.

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Basic Wizard Spellcasting

o    Skill Feat: Rapid Mantel

o    Gear: +1 hide, +1 striking bastard sword, lifting belt, flaming star, squire’s tabbard, necklace of knives

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Incredible Initiative

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (M)

o    Spellbook: 4th – flicker, fly, ice storm

o    Gear: endless grimoire, +1 hide, quick runner’s shirt, +1 striking bastard sword, flaming star, golden legion epaulets

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Runic Impression

o    Skill Feat: Intimidating Glare

o    Gear: ring of wizardry (type I), endless grimoire, cassisian helmet, +1 hide, +1 striking bastard sword, lifting belt

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Tetraelemental Assault

o    Skill Increase: Arcana (M)

o    Spellbook: 5th – elemental form, mantle of the magma heart, summon dragon

o    Gear: +1 resilient hide, boots of bounding, ring of wizardry (type I), endless grimoire, quick runner’s shirt, +1 striking bastard sword

LEVEL 10

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Intelligence (Str +5, Dex +3, Con +2, Int +4.5, Wis +1, Cha +0)

o    Class Feat: Spell Swipe

o    Skill Feat: Underwater Marauder

o    Gear: armbands of athleticism, +1 resilient studded leather, greater flaming star, ring of wizardry (type I), endless grimoire, +1 striking bastard sword

I don’t have to really go over the spells when it comes to talking about Basic Wizard Spellcasting because he’ll mainly be looking for options that he already found with the magus class. He’ll mainly be looking for utility and buffing options from this, keeping his damage spells to his higher-ranked magus spells. We can gain another focus spell with Runic Impression as yet another way to add elemental damage to his attacks while Spell Swipe is based on some of the wide swings seen among Odin and Garuda’s moves. Tetraelemental Assault also further helps out his array of elemental damage, letting him cycle his way through an array of elementals whenever he uses Elemental Assault and letting him get a bit more out of it. For his skills feats, I’d start with Rapid Mantel since the magus’s Reflex save lags behind a little bit and this will make it easier for him to catch himself when he falls. Intimidating Glare as always good for a few debuffs, and this block finishes off with Underwater Marauder so that it’s easier for him to battle in a range of environs.

As for his spells for this block, flicker is inspired by Odin’s Rift Slip, fly comes from Bahamut’s Wings of Light, and ice storm could potentially work for the sustained cold effect of Shiva’s Rime. We can start transforming into Ifrit as well, using the likes of elemental form or perhaps more importantly, mantle of magma heart. There aren’t many effects that can grant the Large size that aren’t polymorph effects, but the mantle spells are all morph effects, which means that they can be combined with polymorph effects. That might not seem terribly prevalent right now, but will come up in a few levels.

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Robust Health

o    Skill Increase: Society (E)

o    Spellbook: 6th – flame vortex, frost pillar

o    Gear: +2 striking bastard sword, armbands of athleticism, ashen weapon rune, +1 resilient studded leather, boots of bounding, ring of wizardry (type I)

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Expert Wizard Spellcasting

o    Skill Feat: Leverage Connections

o    Gear: +2 resilient studded leather, +2 striking bastard sword, greater endless grimoire, armbands of athleticism, flaming weapon rune, greater flaming star

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Continuous Assault

o    Skill Increase: Society (M)

o    Spellbook: 7th – fiery body, frigid flurry

o    Gear: +2 greater striking bastard sword, +2 resilient studded leather, master magus ring, greater endless grimoire, armbands of athleticism, ashen weapon rune

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Unsheathing the Sword-Light

o    Skill Feat: Streetwise

o    Gear: propulsive boots, +2 greater striking bastard sword, major flaming star, +2 resilient studded leather, ring of wizardry (type II), greater endless grimoire

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Constitution, +Wisdom, +Intelligence (Str +5.5, Dex +3, Con +3, Int +5, Wis +2, Cha +0)

o    General Feat: Toughness

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (L), Survival (T)

o    Spellbook: 8th – arctic rift

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient studded leather, propulsive boots, keen weapon rune, +2 greater striking bastard sword, master magus ring, greater ash gown

We’ll gain more spells through Expert Wizard Spellcasting and while part of me wants to take Arcane Breadth, I think Unsheathing the Sword-Light is a fitting and fun effect and one that I haven’t really had the chance to demonstrate before. The emanation effect fits for a couple of his effects, such as Ramuh’s Pile Drive and similar effects. While Courtly Graces comes from his noble background, Streetwise comes from his time as an enslaved soldier and he can follow both with Leverage Connections for him to put people to work. We shore up his health a bit with the likes of Robust Health and Toughness whereas Continuous Assault lets Clive make use of his Elemental Assault more regularly. While it isn’t normally associated with fire, Garuda’s Aerial Blast seems to summon a tornado, ala flame vortex while Shiva’s Cold Snap can freeze a foe in place, just like frost pillar. Aside from a few more effects that fit Shiva, we can also take fiery body to fully cover Clive’s ability to turn into Ifrit. This is notably a polymorph effect, but that just means that it can be used alongside his mantle of the magma heart, letting him grow to a Large size before becoming a blazing beast.

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Hasted Assault

o    Skill Feat: Cloud Jump

o    Gear: greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient studded leather, major endless grimoire, propulsive boots, +2 greater striking bastard sword, major flaming star

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Heroic Presence

o    Skill Increase: Arcana (L)

o    Spellbook: 9th – falling stars

o    Gear: +3 greater striking bastard sword, greater flaming weapon rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient studded leather, propulsive boots, keen weapon rune

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Master Wizard Spellcasting

o    Skill Feat: Unified Theory

o    Gear: commandant’s scabbard, +3 greater striking bastard sword, quickstrike weapon rune, greater flaming weapon rune, +2 greater resilient studded leather, major endless grimoire

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Diehard

o    Skill Increase: Society (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient studded leather, commandant’s scabbard, greater daredevil boots, +3 greater striking bastard sword, greater flaming weapon rune, dragonscale amulet

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Strength, +Dexterity, +Constitution, +Wisdom (Str +6, Dex +4, Con +4, Int +5, Wis +3, Cha +0)

o    Class Feat: Whirlwind Spell

o    Skill Feat: Trick Magic Item

o    Gear: +3 major striking bastard sword, +3 greater resilient leather, true endless grimoire, commandant’s scabbard, quickstrike weapon rune, greater ashen weapon rune

Clive seems to make a lot of fast movements and attacks, which inspires the use of Hasted Assault. The extra focus point is also just nice, but if you want more general spells, you could also just go for Arcane Breadth, which would go along with his Master Wizard Spellcasting. I’d likely end on Whirlwind Spell, again inspired by all of the sweeping and spinning strikes that he makes. This also means that we don’t necessarily have to retrain out of Hasted Assault. He takes some standard legendary skill feats, but he can also use his Unified Theory to benefit with Trick Magic Item, using his Arcana skill even to activate wands or staves that have divine or primal spells. As to his general feat, given what he has seemed to survive, I like Diehard to close out with while Heroic Presence speaks more to him as a character and is still the only seventeenth level human ancestry feat in PF2e. But that’s more than the suli, which doesn’t have any such feat. Finishing out the build is falling stars. There are plenty of other elemental spells that could likely work, but I like this one for the impacts caused by Wings of Light.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: If you use a free archetype game to expand on a wizard archetype, you could get some extra magus feats such as Spell Parry, Attack of Opportunity, or other options that enhance his spell options such as Striker’s Scroll or Fused Staff. Other than that, I’d actually probably pick up some stuff from fighter so that that he’s even more martially masterful. Vicious Swing feels like it would fit with some of his more powerful blows, and Blade Brake seems super anime. The fighter also has a Lunge that I think he could make use. Investigator is always a fun addition to magus and suits his strategic side though something like the Living Vessel Dedication could suit his association with Ifrit.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Clive Rosfield is a suli human magus who has undertaken a hybrid study of the aloof firmament and has a press-ganged background. While Clive is the son of an archduke, which he represents with his Society investment and Courtly Graces, he was also enslaved to be a soldier, hence this background and the Streetwise feat. The magus class means that he can become a master swordsman while also providing him with an array of spells that are further expanded by his Wizard Dedication. By using these spells to focus on elemental effects, he can represent the various Eikons he uses and the abilities they grant him. For Shiva, he can create sustained ice effects such as Rime with ice storm, the freeze with frost pillar, and the dash plus damage of Cold Snap with frigid flurry. The wings seen in a few Bahamut abilities could be his fly while the Sentinels it summons could easily be represented by flame wisp. There’s also lightning bolt for Gigaflare, breathe fire for Flare Breath, and falling stars for his Wings of Light. Many of Garuda’s abilities make me think of gouging claw while the spins and swipes suit Whirlwind Spell, but there’s also gravitational pull for her Deadly Embrace and flame vortex for her Aerial Blast. I haven’t even started talking about Ramuh’s stuff, but I don’t want to list out every little thing after I already went over it in the initial description. That being said, I do want to cover Ifrit, which will take a bit of a combo with mantle of the magma heart and fiery body so that he can be large and in charge.

Brave and brooding, this battler brings blade and bewitchery to bear to beat and butcher beasts, bandits, and brigands before his body burns and blazes into a burgeoning beast.

Have a fantastic Friday!