Full ReBuild Friday - Anivia the Cryophoenix (Patreon)

After the last round of votes, Anivia actually tied with Bebop! That's never happened before, so what I decided to do was publish Anivia for this month and will have Bebop's rebuild up next month. I'll be able to better represent his classic weapon with some of the new toys from Starfinder. As for Anivia, I'm not using too many new options, but I did go for a different route in building her this time around.

Nevertheless, 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.

Spread your wings and take flight with this build for Anivia the Cryophoenix from League of Legends!

ANIVIA THE CRYOPHOENIX

CHARACTER Ysjarn

SOURCE League of Legends

BUILD GOALS

o    Freljordian demigoddess representing the cycle of life, death, and rebirth as well as the seasons

o    Resembling a vast bird made of ice, she aided the first humans that came to the Freljord in surviving the harsh landscape

o    Despite that, she is classified as a battlemage, specializing in wide area effects while having surprising defenses

o    This is demonstrated through her Rebirth passive, which allows her to enter an egg state upon taking fatal damage. After a period of time, she is reborn from her egg

o    Flash Frost unleashes a chunk of ice to deal damage and slow targets. It can be recast in flight to shatter it, stunning and damaging enemies nearby instead

o    Another defensive effect is Crystallize, which allows her to create an impassable wall of ice

o    The rather simple Frostbite simply deals magic damage to a target, but interacts with foes becoming iced, at which point it deals double damage

o    Her ultimate is a Glacial Storm, which increases the slow of Flash Frost and can be activated to create an ice storm in an area that continually grows and deals damage

o    In LoR, she has her ability to become an egg and deals damage to all enemies whenever she attacks

Summary of Goals: Anivia is a giant bird made out of ice and snow who wields those very elements to great effect. She has a substantial amount of area effects as well as slowing effects that extend to a full-on stun. Her wall of ice will be super easy to represent, but her rebirth might be a bit harder to cover and one that I missed in my original build of her.

LEVEL 1

Ancestry & Heritage: Undine Awakened Animal (Flying)

o    Ability Boosts & Flaws: +Con, +Wis, +Cha, -Int

o    Ancestry Feat: Rimesoul

o    Size: Large

Background: Blessed

o    Ability Boosts: +Cha, +Int

o    Skill Increase: Freljord Lore (T)

o    Innate Spell: guidance

Class & Subclass: Phoenix Bloodline Sorcerer

o    Class Ability Boost: +Cha

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (T), Diplomacy (T), Nature (T), Religion (T), Survival (T)

o    Suggested Spells: Cantrips – frostbite, gale blast, slashing gust; 1st – chilling spray, heal, purifying icicle

Details

o    Ability Boosts: +Dex, +Con, +Int, +Cha (Str +0, Dex +1, Con +2, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha +4)

There’s a few changes to this build but the core concept stays the same – which makes senses. The character in her home game hasn’t changed even if Pathfinder has shifted around a bit. One obvious change to start off with is the use of the awakened animal ancestry. We can use the Large size, reasoning that she’s a roc, while the cryo part comes in through the undine heritage and its Rimesoul lineage feat. I still like the blessed background for her, letting her draw upon her divine descent, but I did have to switch up her class. Part of that is because using the awakened animal ancestry means she has a flaw to Intelligence and the other is because, through the exploration of the phoenix bloodline (which is legacy but hasn’t been reprinted or anything of the sort, so should still be good!), we might actually be able to cover her passive! For now though, she’s just grabbing all the ice spells she can. You can also likely work in some air spells and probably want to consider a few healing spells as well, which will be relevant later. I particularly like purifying icicle for her Frostbite, at least visually, though representing the double damage is a little harder to represent outside of her rolling a critical hit.

LEVEL 2

o    Class Feat: Widen Spell

o    Skill Feat: Forager

o    Gear: psychopomp mask

LEVEL 3

o    General Feat: Toughness

o    Skill Increase: Survival (E)

o    Suggested Spells: 2nd – frozen lungs, rime slick

o    Gear: brooch of shielding, psychopomp mask, cloak of feline rest

LEVEL 4

o    Class Feat: Reach Spell

o    Skill Feat: That’s Not Natural!

o    Gear: rime crystal, brooch of shielding, wayfinder, psychopomp mask

LEVEL 5

o    Ability Boosts: +Dex, +Con, +Int, +Cha (Str +0, Dex +2, Con +3, Int +2, Wis +1, Cha +4.5)

o    Ancestry Feat: Late Awakener – Flying Animal

o    Skill Increase: Athletics (T), Nature (E)

o    Suggested Spells: 3rd – moonlight ray

o    Gear: symbol of conflict, rime crystal, emperor’s peak quartz bracelet, brooch of shielding, psychopomp mask, cloak of feline rest

Anivia starts her feats a little basic with the likes of Widen Spell and Reach Spell. While the spells she’ll be using to represent her Glacial Storm likely won’t be able to take advantage of her Widen Spell for the time being, the widening circle the ability produces inspires the choice of this feat. Unfortunately, the remaining class feats this block aren’t really singing to me, so I went with Reach Spell as it will play into a later feat choice. When it came to her skill feats, I wanted to explore the idea that Anivia aided the first humans in surviving the harshness of Freljord through the use of Survival skill feats. Forager is my first foray into that idea, but That’s Not Natural probably doesn’t really sell that idea. However, it is based on the Watchers that once plagued Freljord, menacing Anivia and her kin and allowing her to be ready to fight them should they arise again. Toughness is based a tiny bit on her battlemage role as well as her survivability via her passive. It’s far from capturing its effects, but it does allow her to recover from the dying condition with greater ease. Then, since I missed out on her heritage but do want to represent Anivia as a giant bird, she uses Late Awakener to reclaim her Flying Animal heritage. Again, her spells are just about ice spells. Her sorcerous gifts might not entirely represent that, but there’s still some decent options that she can be looking at, as well as something like elemental zone to empower her ice spells.

LEVEL 6

o    Class Feat: Witch Dedication – Silence in Snow

o    Skill Feat: Predict Weather

o    Skill Increase: Society (T)

o    Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, symbol of conflict, sleeves of storage, rime crystal, brooch of shielding, wayfinder

LEVEL 7

o    General Feat: Ancestral Paragon – Take Flight

o    Skill Increase: Survival (M)

o    Suggested Spells: 4th – crystallized vapors, freezing touch, ice storm

o    Gear: primeval mistletoe, +1 explorer’s clothing, obsidian goggles, symbol of conflict, rime crystal, emperor’s peak quartz bracelet

LEVEL 8

o    Class Feat: Basic Witchcraft – Basic Lesson – Lesson of the Elements

o    Skill Feat: Environmental Guide

o    Gear: boots of bounding, sure-step crampons, primeval mistletoe, +1 explorer’s clothing, symbol of conflict, sleeves of storage

LEVEL 9

o    Ancestry Feat: Strong of Wing

o    Skill Increase: Nature (M)

o    Suggested Spells: 5th – freezing rain, howling blizzard, wall of ice

o    Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, ethersight ring, primeval mistletoe, ring of the weary traveler, obsidian goggles

LEVEL 10

o    Ability Boosts: +Dex, +Con, +Int, +Cha (Str +0, Dex +3, Con +4, Int +3, Wis +1, Cha +5)

o    Class Feat: Basic Witch Spellcasting

o    Skill Feat: Influence Nature

o    Skill Increase: Occultism (T)

o    Gear: elemental wayfinder (air), +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boreal staff, boots of bounding, sure-step crampons, primeval mistletoe

As a bit of a callback to her original build, Anivia does still make use of a Witch Dedication with a Silence in Snow patron. This will give her more primal spells, but they will notably be keyed off of her Intelligence. That means there are two ways to go about this. You can save your witch spells, which she starts gaining through a Basic Lesson and Basic Witch Spellcasting, for lower-leveled foes who have lower saves or for spells that aren’t as reliant on rolls. For example, she could use her second-rank witch spells to cast elemental zone to buff the damaging cold spells that she casts from her sorcerous slots for greater effect. I do like elemental betrayal from her Lesson of Elements letting her vaguely resemble her iced effect except for one big issue – it doesn’t actually empower cold spells. It empowers water spells. There is at least some overlap there. Of the ranks she can cast thus far, she can take advantage of this effect with snowball, frozen lungs, and freezing rain. Related to the last of this spell, this deity of winter storms takes Predict Weather (because she decides what the weather has), Environmental Guide to help her companions weather the storm of her brother, and Influence Nature as a demonstration of her divine domain. With my intent or representing her ability to fly, she’s going all in on related ancestry feats this block through Ancestral Paragon and Take Flight, which leads directly into Strong of Wing.

This block features the first great option to resemble Anivia’s Glacial Storm with the rather appropriately named ice storm. The difficult terrain will have to cover the slowing effect, but it’s otherwise a great fit that deals continual ice damage. Crystallized vapors also has that difficult terrain but a much different effect that I actually think represents her basic attacks a bit. As the last of her fourth rank spells that I was looking at, freezing touch is another good thematic way of resembling her iced effect or the immobilizing effect of her stuns. When she gets to fifth-rank spells, freezing rain is another possibility in resembling her Glacial Storm whereas wall of ice is obviously meant to resemble her Crystallize and is pretty perfect for it. From her sorcerous gifts, she does gain breath of life, which she can use to save others from death, but not quite herself just yet.

LEVEL 11

o    General Feat: Diehard

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (E)

o    Suggested Spells: 6th – cryostasis, frost pillar

o    Gear: arctic vigor, elemental wayfinder (air), greater coyote cloak, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, ethersight ring

LEVEL 12

o    Class Feat: Advanced Witchcraft – Greater Lesson – Lesson of Snow

o    Skill Feat: Planar Survival

o    Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, arctic vigor, sanguine pendant, elemental wayfinder (air), boreal staff, greater rime crystal

LEVEL 13

o    Ancestry Feat: Full Flight

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (M)

o    Suggested Spells: 7th – moonburst

o    Gear: greater boreal staff, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, crown of the new moon, arctic vigor, elemental wayfinder (air), greater coyote cloak

LEVEL 14

o    Class Feat: Expert Witch Spellcasting

o    Skill Feat: Morphic Manipulation

o    Gear: major rime crystal, greater boreal staff, bloodline robe, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater symbol of conflict, arctic vigor

LEVEL 15

o    Ability Boosts: +Dex, +Con, +Int, +Cha (Str +0, Dex +4, Con +4.5, Int +4, Wis +1, Cha +5.5)

o    General Feat: Numb to Death//Robust Health

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

o    Suggested Spells: 8th – arctic rift

o    Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, propulsive boots, major rime crystal, greater boreal staff, crown of the new moon, locket of love left behind

With an Advanced Witchcraft for a Lesson of Snow, Anivia can leave enemies with a personal blizzard and can tap into even more spells with Expert Witch Spellcasting. As for her spells for the block, cryostasis is likely better on a Lissandra build, but frost pillar is a great get for the stun of her Flash Frost. Perhaps more important though is her contingency sorcerous gift. Through this, she can prepare a fourth-rank two-action heal spell that triggers when she would take damage or a similar effect to save her from dying – which is the closest we will get to her Rebirth passive! For her skill feats, Planar Survival increases her ability to survive in places beyond the ken of mortals, and Morphic Manipulation gives her another way of representing her role as a deity of regrowth a bit by allowing her to encourage the flourishing of flora. Diehard is further inspired by her Rebirth passive, much like Numb to Death is, but if you don’t qualify for Numb to Death, I would take Robust Health instead as it lets her recover from being damaged with far greater ease. She does also finally achieve Full Flight thanks to her ancestry feat!

LEVEL 16

o    Class Feat: Effortless Concentration

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Guide

o    Gear: greater arctic vigor, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of the snowfields (5th-rank), major rime crystal, greater boreal staff, bloodline robe

LEVEL 17

o    Ancestry Feat: Fearsome Form

o    Skill Increase: Nature (L)

o    Suggested Spells: 9th – wrathful storm

o    Gear: wand of clinging rime (7th-rank), greater arctic vigor, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, propulsive boots, major rime crystal

LEVEL 18

o    Class Feat: Detonating Spell

o    Skill Feat: Legendary Survivalist

o    Gear: bangles of crowns, wand of clinging rime (7th-rank), medal of phoenix’s fire, greater arctic vigor, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of the snowfields (5th-rank)

LEVEL 19

o    General Feat: Robust Health

o    Skill Increase: Acrobatics (L)

o    Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, bangles of crowns, major boreal staff, wand of clinging rime (7th-rank), greater arctic vigor, dragonscale amulet

LEVEL 20

o    Ability Boosts: +Str, +Con, +Int, +Wis (Str +1, Dex +4, Con +5, Int +4, Wis +2, Cha +6)

o    Class Feat: Spellshape Mastery

o    Skill Feat: Aerobatics Mastery

o    Gear: cloak of waves and clouds, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of the snowfields (7th-rank), bangles of crowns, medal of phoenix’s fire, wand of clinging rime (7th-rank)

With a number of sustained spells, especially those that she wants to use to represent her Glacial Storm, Effortless Concentration is an obvious inclusion for the build. I took Detonating Spell so that she can blow up her purifying icicle after firing to represent her ability to shatter her Flash Frost. Then, with the likes of Detonating Spell, Reach Spell, and Widen Spell in her arsenal, I think that Spellshape Mastery is the best option for her. Of note, this means that she can combine Widen Spell with those big, three-action area spells that she would be using to represent her aforementioned Glacial Storm. [NOTE: Actually, she can't use Widen Spell with those! That spellshape can't be applied to spells with a duration and sustained is still a duration. However, it could still work with something like howling blizzard.] Starting in on her skill feats, Legendary Guide is again meant to call back to the aid that she offered to the first Freljordians while Legendary Survivalist is a little more about her and ensure that cold environments have no effect on her whatsoever. I talked about Robust Health a bit earlier, and if you took it then, I’d swap it out for Incredible Initiative because it’s always good for a caster to lay out area spells before their allies start getting in the way of them. Finally, Fearsome Form is actually based less on traditional Anivia but instead her Blackfrost or recently added Old God skins. The final spell of any real note is wrathful storm. You can’t choose the same option twice in a row, but she could continually swap between the blizzard and hail effect while staying true to the character. Also, the idea of using Widen Spell on this and adding a whole 5-feet to its 400-foot burst is a little ridiculous to me.

FREE ARCHETYPE SUGGESTIONS: A very obvious pick for Anivia in a free archetype game is the Witch Dedication. Unfortunately, she doesn’t start with a high enough Intelligence to take it. However, Anivia could start by using the Gelid Shard archetype, which even scales off of her Charisma! It gives her more ice spells to cast, and makes her more resistant to the cold in a variety of forms. I’d still use the Witch Dedication because I like the hexes she can harvest with it, but she should end up with some more sorcerer feats going this route and can taking Detonating Spell much sooner and maybe pick up more spellshape feats, such as Overwhelming Energy or Scintillating Spell so she can leave foes snowblind.

BUILD CONCLUSION

Anivia the Cryophoenix is an undine awakened animal sorcerer of the phoenix bloodline and a blessed background, serving as a nod towards her semi-demigod status. Between the Rimesoul lineage, her Large size, and her late blooming as a flying animal into Full Flight, she resembles herself much more clearly than she did in my initial build as a vast bird made of ice. The aid she offered to the first humans of the Freljord is expressed through a number of her Survival feats, particularly the likes of Forager and Environmental Guide. I aimed to build her a bit beefier than most mages I make given her role as a battlemage, and actually managed to kind of cover her Rebirth passive this time around! It’s a little funky, but the contingency spell provided by the phoenix bloodline with a heal spell might just be close enough. Or at least as close as I can get. As to her activated abilities, I think purifying icicle is a solid fit for her Flash Frost, especially when you combine it with Detonating Spell to create its burst. It does at most merely slow people, and needs a crit for that, so you’ll likely have to rely on frost pillar or freezing touch for its stun. Wall of ice is a super solid fit for Crystallize, no complaints here, while frostbite might simply be any one of her many frost spells while she’s charged up with an elemental zone. There’s actually an array of options for her Glacial Storm, advancing from the aptly named ice storm to freezing rain and then finally to wrathful storm with its 400-foot burst. She can’t increase the area of these spells normally, but with Widen Spell and Spellshape Mastery, she’s able to use the spellshape as a free action and add it onto them. Our arctic avian is armed with an impressive array of wide-ranging snow spells while being a hardy sort of sorcerer to weather the storms of her enemies.

Formed from the forever frost, this formidable and feathered phoenix flings frigid flurries afar, forcing foes from the field less they find their forces too feeble to face her fury.

Have a fantastic and feathery Friday!