playable 1-40 PvM (less effective than pure wiz, especially from level 14-22 or so).
Punchy was always fond of his haste spells, caffeine, and cocaine when he was in wizard school. Despite what his instructors told him about conserving his spells for the best moment, he'd always blast away and use up his spells during the first few rounds of combat. One particularly cruel student gave him the moniker "Punchy" after seeing him swinging away with his bare fists after running out of spells.
At this occasion, Punchy thought to himself, "Some day! Some day, I'll show those foolish wizards."
Despite being a poor student, Punchy had a laser sharp focus that he devoted to the things that interested him. Punchy failed out of his evocation classes, yet excelled in necromancy. Some of his interests were puzzling to his peers. Nobody could grasp why Punchy was so interested in first aid.
Punchy also stayed up late in the academy's conjuration lab studying extraplanar creates and especially the undead samples that were available there. Eventually these "interests" became obsessions and Punchy grew far behind his peers. Eventually he was asked to leave the wizard academy.
It was not until many years later that Punchy's abilities were known to the other wizards. At the 20 year reunion for the wizard academy, a grand battle emerged from a small argument between the evokers and the necromancers and conjurors. The evocation wizards were adament that the power of direct damage spells was superiour to the feeble summons of the necromancers and conjurors. To prove the point the necromancers summoned hoards of skeletons and the conjurors even more extraplanar beasts and several hundred black blades and sentient swords.
Soon this mass summoning grew out of hand. Not everyone was wise enough to cast protection from evil. The Balors were smart enough to command the lesser summons around and the necromancers and conjurors lost control of their minions. The evocation wizards blasted away and were able to thin the ranks of summoned monsters, but soon their cones of cold, chain lightning and even the immense power of their hellballs were all spent. The entire academy was still filled up with nasty summoned creatures (the creatures were summoning more creatures). Even the Mass death effects from the illusionists and necromancers could not control wave after wave of summons. Soon all the spells were spent. Most of the wizards were huddled in a closet protected by greater sanctuary. They were unable to rest due to the hoards of creatures.
At this moment, Punchy smiled to himself. He, of course was one of the necromancers that had started the argument. But, the consequences of that little bit of goading had far exceeded his expectations. The nearsightedness of a group of wizards with substandard wisdom was truly a sight to behold.
Punchy cast his damage reduction spells, mestil's acid sheath, death armor, elemental shield, protection from spells, endurance, cat's grace, mind blank, and owl's wisdom. Then he called out to the monsters, "Over here!" and proceeded to attack them with his bare hands. Hoards of monsters pummelled Punchy, but his epic warding held strong and the monsters fell quickly against his acid sheath. He took some damage, but when this happened, he'd heal himself right back to full health. Soon only spellcasting monsters and archers remained. Punchy rounded them into groups and wailed them all away. The remaining undead were removed by empowered undead to death. Punchy was able to clean up all the monsters without having to rest.
Punchy the Lich (wizard 29/palemaster 10/monk 1)
gnome, lawful neutral
str 6 dex 8 con 18 wis 12 int 18 cha 8
1. wiz: toughness 2. wiz 3. wiz: extend spell 4. wiz: +int 5. wiz: spell focus (necromancy) 6. wiz: empower spell 7. wiz 8. wiz: +int 9. wiz: greater spell focus (necromancy) 10. wiz: greater spell focus (illusion) 11. wiz 12. wiz: skill focus (heal), +int 13. pm 14. pm 15. pm: spell penetration 16. pm: +int 17. pm 18. pm: greater spell penetration 19. pm 20. pm: +int 21. wiz: great int 1 22. wiz 23. wiz: great int 2 24. wiz: great int 3, +int 25. pm 26. pm 27. wiz: great int 4 28. wiz: +int 29. wiz 30. wiz: great int 5, great int 6 31. wiz 32. wiz: +int 33. wiz: epic warding, great int 7 34. wiz 35. wiz 36. wiz: epic spell focus (necromancy), epic spell focus (illusion), +int 37. wiz 38. wiz 39. wiz: epic skill focus (heal), great int 8 40. monk: +int
str 6 dex 8 con 18 wis 12 int 36 cha 8
key skills 43 heal 43 concentration (depends on final class) 42 spellcraft 40 tumble extra skills can go to listen, move silently, hide, appraise, lore, etc... you'll have lots of skills to spend.
heal power: 43 base 10 epic focus 3 focus 7 (24 wis with items/buffs) 10 heal kit +10 1-20 roll --------- 74-93 hps
max hps 116 wiz 60 pm 13 deathless vigor 400 con (30 con with items/buffs) 40 toughness --------- 629 (389 with no con items)
weird/wail dc 10 base 9 spell 19 int (48 int with items/buffs) 6 epic spell focus -------- 44
casts as a lvl 33 wizard when penetrating sr.
saves: buffed is with stat buffs + protection from alignment. vs spells includes spellcraft bonus and protection from spells spell.
fort: 24 base, 32 buffed, 50 vs spells reflex: 15 base, 23 buffed, 41 vs spells will: 25 base, 33 buffed, 51 vs spells
This build is based off what I heard about Dodoune2's "Sid" build.
Basically the idea is to be a crit immune casting wizard. For high level play, your direct damage spells don't scale with monster hps (this varies depending on the world). So instead Punchy focuses on insta-kill spells and damage shields. He is good at self healing and is crit immune so he can take a lot of punishment, while dealing out tons of damage via his shield spells.
You can alternatively take rogue (different skills, lock picking, umd, etc...), cleric (to use heal scrolls if available) or fighter (one feat) at lvl 40. I chose monk for evasion to protect from reflex nuke spells and since it fit well with the above story.
Don't bother with this build for worlds with crit immunity items or abundant full heal potions. In those kind of places, you're better off doing a straight wizard.
Edited By griphook on 10/30/05 20:46
Great story. Reminds me of The Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters. Truly an entertaining read _________________ Favorite PW's: Hall of the Worlds, Higher Ground, World of Iniquity.
