Originally, I was going to try to do a build for Katarina, the Sinister Blade from League of Legends, but despite having an easier base, some of her abilities ended up being much harder to replicate. In particular, I'm struggling with her ultimate, Death Lotus, so if you have any good ideas for that, lemme know. Instead, I decided to build another League character. I chose this one in particular because it let me dig into the new Lost Omens Ancestry Guide again to figure it out. This build goes level-by-level and is created in a vacuum - skills and feats are chosen for what I think fits the character best, not what would work in a specific campaign. It also features items based off of the magical items a character should have at their level.
With that out of the way, let's get into the build of Anivia, the Cryophoenix from League of Legends!
ANIVIA, THE CRYOPHOENIX
CHARACTER Anivia
SOURCE League of Legends
GOAL Referred to as a demigod of the Freljord, Anivia represents the cycle of life, death, and rebirth and the seasons as part of that concept. She wields the full power of winter and when mankind first came to the Freljord, she guided them in surviving within the frigid landscape. Taking the form of an immense bird made of ice, Anivia is classified as a battlemage with some support qualities. Her passive ability is Rebirth, which causes her to turn into an egg upon death that resurrects after a short time. Right off the bat, I’ll say that this will be the hardest ability to emulate. Her first ability is Flash Frost where she launches a massive chunk of ice that she can detonate to stun targets. Crystallize creates a wall of ice and Frostbite strikes a target with freezing wind that deals greater damage to targets hit by Flash Frost or Glacial Storm. Finally, her ultimate is Glacial Storm, which summons a storm of ice and snow in an area.
LEVEL 1 This was a fun one to work my head around and it naturally starts with the ABCs – ancestry, background, and class. For ancestry, we look to strix to get an avian base to work with while using undine as our heritage. This allows us to be able to swim, which doesn’t seem like it makes much sense, but we can pick up Rimesoul as our ancestry feat, tying us to the element of cold and giving us resistance to it. As a strix, we receive an automatic boost to Dexterity and will then receive a free boost to Intelligence.
Obviously, we can’t make Anivia a god, but we can take the blessed background to get a bit of that feeling. This gives us a boost to Wisdom and another free boost that we’ll take to Intelligence. We gain Lore with a subject related to our deity or something appropriate, so for this, I’d probably go for Freljord Lore though it could be changed to something more appropriate for the setting. Instead of becoming trained in another skill or receiving a skill feat, we receive guidance as a divine innate spell.
I wanted to take sorcerer for this build. The whole idea of having innate power really suited Anivia’s divine nature, but for some reason, Paizo is scared of giving non-fire elemental damage. I was looking at the elemental bloodline, but it’s bludgeoning damage for every element except fire, which is dumb. Instead, I will once again go with witch for this class and we’ll be taking the winter patron. As a witch, we receive an automatic boost to Intelligence, and then we get our four free boosts that will go to Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom (Str 10, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 10). Our patron makes us automatically trained in Nature and we will choose to also become trained in Acrobatics, Arcana, Crafting, Diplomacy, Religion, Society, and Survival. We also receive the clinging ice hex cantrip and the gust of wind 1st-level spell from our patron, which grants us access to the primal spell list and the cold focused spells it has.
Known Spells: Cantrips – dancing lights, detect magic, disrupt undead, electric arc, know direction, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read aura, stabilize, tanglefoot; 1st – chilling spray, create water, gust of wind, heal, mending, snowball
LEVEL 2 As an inhabitant of the frozen Freljord, Anivia will take Terrain Expertise – Arctic as her first skill feat, giving her a bonus on Survival checks while in arctic environments. For our class feat, we pick up Basic Lesson and pick the Lesson of the Elements to gain another focus point, the elemental betrayal hex, and the hydraulic push spell. This is going to enhance the damage of our elemental spells, and I like to think of this as a magic penetration item for Anivia.
Gear: dull grey aeon stone
Known Spells: 1st – hydraulic push, purify food and drink, pass without trace
LEVEL 3 Our first skill increase goes to Acrobatics to gain the expert proficiency in it, which is gonna be helpful down the line. We’re a little fragile as a caster, so Toughness is always a good feat to take.
Gear: +1 staff, dull grey aeon stone, ring of discretion
Known Spells: 2nd – endure elements, rime slick
LEVEL 4 Anivia should have a regal atmosphere given her identity as a demigod in her home game, so we’ll pick up Courtly Graces as her skill feat, allowing her to use Society to Make an Impression on or Impersonate a noble. As a giant bird of prey made out of ice, Anivia has some gnarly talons, so we’ll pick up Eldritch Nails for our class feat, giving us magical talons that deal 1d6, but unfortunately don’t have the finesse trait. We will be able to transmit hexes with these claws, which would be fun to do when we find ourselves in a melee situation.
Gear: dusty rose prism aeon stone, +1 staff, brooch of shielding, dull grey aeon stone
Known Spells: 2nd – enlarge, obscuring mist
LEVEL 5 Our four ability boosts will increase our Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma (Str 10, Dex 16, Con 12, Int 19, Wis 16, Cha 12), making us a little more dexterous and mentally capable. To make use of our Courtly Graces feat, we’ll increase Society to expert proficiency. While there aren’t a lot of ways she makes use of it in-game, Anivia can fly so we’re going to work towards that with our ancestry feats, starting off with Fledgling Flight. This lets us fly through the air for very short bursts, but it improves our flight down the line.
Gear: +1 striking fundamental rune, dusty rose prism aeon stone, coyote cloak, brooch of shielding, ring of discretion, dull grey aeon stone
Known Spells: 3rd – curse of lost time, remove disease
LEVEL 6 Taking advantage of our Courtly Graces, we’ll pick up Connections so that we can call in favors in certain areas to gain a benefit. For our class feat, we’ll be sticking with witch and taking Greater Lesson to get the Lesson of Snow, which gives us the personal blizzard hex and the wall of wind spell. The former doesn’t seem terribly powerful to me, but it deals persistent damage and can be sustained, which is handy.
Gear: +1 explorer’s clothing, +1 striking fundamental rune, cloak of repute, dusty rose prism aeon stone, brooch of shielding, hand of the mage
Known Spells: 3rd – crashing wave, haste, wall of wind
LEVEL 7 We’re now able to get skills to master and the first to receive that honor will be our Acrobatics skill. We’ll also pick up Incredible Initiative as our general feat to increase the chances of us acting earlier in combat and slinging spells before the enemies get a chance to smack us.
Gear: staff of evocation, +1 explorer’s clothing, snowshoes of the long trek, +1 striking fundamental rune, dusty rose prism aeon stone, coyote cloak
Known Spells: 4th – freedom of movement, ice storm
LEVEL 8 I think Acrobatics needs some more skill feats, but it does have some real solid ones such as Kip Up, a skill feat that allows us to stand up from prone as a single action. Anivia’s Flash Frost has a pretty long range and we’ll try to capture that idea a little bit with Reach Spell, a metamagic feat that allows Anivia to spend an action to extend the range of her next spell.
Gear: boots of bounding, primeval mistletoe, staff of evocation, +1 explorer’s clothing, cloak of repute, +1 striking fundamental rune
Known Spells: 4th – aerial form, fly
LEVEL 9 This time we’ll increase Nature to expert proficiency with our skill increase, and then pick up the Juvenile Flight ancestry feat so that we gain the ability to Fly for ten minutes. Normally, our fly Speed is only equal to our land Speed, but because we took Fledgling Flight earlier, we get +10 feet to our fly Speed.
Gear: +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, bag of holding (type II), staff of evocation, snowshoes of the long trek, +1 striking fundamental rune
Known Spells: 5th – banishment, cone of cold
LEVEL 10 Our ability boosts will increase Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma (Str 12, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 20, Wis 16, Cha 14). This increase to Intelligence will give us another language, not that we don’t already have a bunch, and make us trained in Athletics. Our master proficiency in Acrobatics is gonna pay off a little bit here as we pick up Aerobatics Mastery. With this feat, we gain a bonus to Maneuver in Flight. We also gain our final lesson, a Major Lesson. The Lesson of the Frozen Queen gives us the glacial heart hex, which can completely freeze a creature like her Frostbite. It also gives us wall of ice as a known spell, which is a perfect fit for Crystallize.
Gear: eyes of the eagle, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, cold weapon rune, boots of bounding, staff of evocation, +1 striking fundamental rune
Known Spells: 5th – chameleon coat, death ward, wall of ice
LEVEL 11 Another skill increase sees Nature reach master proficiency. As mentioned, Anivia’s Rebirth is something I don’t think we’re quite going to get, but Diehard makes it a little bit harder to put her down for good, so we’ll pick that up as a general feat.
Gear: +2 striking fundamental rune, eyes of the eagle, greater coyote cloak, +1 resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of bounding, bag of holding (type II)
Known Spells: 6th – dragon form, field of life
LEVEL 12 With our master proficiency in Nature, we’ll take Consult the Spirits, which feels appropriate to a quasi-divine creature of the seasons, allowing her to speak to them to get hints to a problem. To help recoup focus points, since we have a decent array of focus spells, we’ll take Hex Focus so that we can regain two focus points whenever we Refocus.
Gear: +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, +2 striking fundamental rune, greater staff of evocation, eyes of the eagle, cold weapon rune, rod of wonder
Known Spells: 6th – scintillating safeguard, true seeing
LEVEL 13 Another skill increase to Society increases it to master proficiency. We’ll also take Fully Flighted so that we can now fly without restriction. We’ll get that speed boost from Fledgling Flight to this, so we’re set with a fly Speed of 35 feet.
Gear: +2 greater striking fundamental rune, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, bag of holding (type III), greater staff of evocation, eyes of the eagle, greater coyote cloak
Known Spells: 7th – eclipse burst, energy aegis
LEVEL 14 To make better use of our Contacts feat, we’ll take Quick Contacts so that we can spend a day to build up contacts that we can call upon when we get to a new settlement. Going along with the quickness of this level, we grab Quickened Casting. This is another metamagic feat that we can use once per day to reduce the number of actions needed to cast a spell, letting us chain multiple spells together in a round.
Gear: bag of holding (type IV), pink rhomboid aeon stone, +2 greater striking fundamental rune, +2 resilient explorer’s clothing, greater staff of evocation, daredevil boots
Known Spells: 7th – plane shift, regenerate
LEVEL 15 These ability boosts will go to Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Charisma (Str 14, Dex 19, Con 12, Int 21, Wis 16, Cha 16). A skill increase to Acrobatics gets it to legendary proficiency and gives us a greater bonus from Aerobatics Mastery. I’m taking Feather Step for the pun alone. I’m not budging from this position.
Gear: +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, spell-storing weapon rune, boots of speed, +2 greater striking fundamental rune, bag of holding (type III), greater goggles of night
Known Spells: 8th – moment of renewal, polar ray
LEVEL 16 It might seem a bit late to take this, but we can take Natural Medicine so that Anivia can treat the wounds of creatures with her Nature skill. This feels appropriate for a deity of rebirth and renewal. A lot of Anivia’s hexes require concentration, so we’ll take Effortless Concentration, which lets us Sustain a Spell as a free action at the start of our turn.
Gear: greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of the snowfields (5th-level), boots of speed, +2 greater striking fundamental rune, pink rhomboid aeon stone
Known Spells: 8th – deluge, punishing winds
LEVEL 17 We’re also able to get Nature up to legendary proficiency with this skill increase. Our final ancestry feat will be Ancestor’s Transformation that lets us cast a 5th-level aerial form to turn into a Large bird, getting us an appearance akin to Anivia’s appearance from the game.
Gear: +3 greater striking fundamental rune, greater frost weapon rune, dragonscale amulet, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, boots of speed, spell-storing weapon rune
Known Spells: 9th – disjunction, storm of vengeance
LEVEL 18 With Natural Medicine and our new choice of the Battle Medicine skill feat, we can use Nature to Treat Wounds in the midst of combat. Continuing with the thought that we’ll be using our hexes a lot, we’ll pick up Hex Wellspring so that we can regain 3 focus points whenever we Refocus.
Gear: diadem of intellect, +3 greater striking fundamental rune, orange prism aeon stone, greater frost weapon rune, +2 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of the snowfields (5th-level)
Known Spells: 9th – shapechange, upheaval
LEVEL 19 The final skill increase we receive will go towards Survival, getting it to expert proficiency so that we can help guide people trying to survive in our harsh environment. With Incredible Investiture as our general feat, we can wield even more invested magical items than usual.
Gear: +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, diadem of intellect, greater cloak of the bat, +3 greater striking fundamental rune, greater frost weapon rune, dragonscale amulet
Known Spells: 10th – cataclysm, revival
LEVEL 20 These final ability boosts go towards Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence (Str 16, Dex 20, Con 14, Int 22, Wis 16, Cha 16). This final increase to Intelligence gets us another language and makes us trained in Intimidation. To help with the idea that Anivia once guided the humans that first showed up in the Freljord, we’ll take the Forager skill feat so that Anivia can acquire food for her friends. Hex Master allows us to have multiple hexes going on at once, so we can do stuff like stack betrayal of the elements with glacial heart.
Gear: pale orange rhomboid aeon stone, +3 greater resilient explorer’s clothing, wand of the snowfields (7th-level), diadem of intellect, +3 greater striking fundamental rune, orange prism aeon stone
Known Spells: 9th – implosion, massacre
CONCLUSION Anivia is a cold turkey who wields powerful ice magic. We managed to capture the most of Anivia’s abilities, mainly through the variety of spells, but Rebirth was one that we missed out on. I was hoping that breath of life could work for it but she can’t target herself with it, so I had to skip out on that. The pale orange rhomboid aeon stone helps with the idea, but we get it so late. Overall, I’m happy with this build, taking a strange character such as Anivia and figuring out a way to build her in Pathfinder.
Be sure to lemme know what you think of the build. Does it work? Does it represent the character? Would you ever use it? What other characters should I build?
If you want to join in on the discussion of these builds and the ones I do for monsters or just hang out with a bunch of fellow TTRPG nerd, check out the Discord server. We also have a Twitter where we try to post teasers and the like that just managed to hit 500 followers! I've got myself a nice little list set up with some exciting characters on it that'll let me explore the LOAG a bit, and next week will be a character from Magic the Gathering - specifically, the Lorwyn block.
Have a Fantastic Friday!
Commenti