| Douglas Muir 406 |
Okay, so Wally the Wizard really wants to become a Diabolist. Wally is LN but he really, really wants access to the forbidden lore of Hell. So much so that he's willing to sell his soul for it.
So, plain vanilla human, 15 point build: Str 8 Con 12 Dex 13 Int 17 Wis 10 Cha 14. Right off the bat he specializes in Conjuration (Infernal Binder), with opposing schools Necromancy and Illusion. The party doesn't have a face, so Wally takes a thrush familiar. After some discussion, the DM agrees to allow Wally to take the Damned story feat at character creation, so his two starter feats are Damned and Noble Scion (Scion of Lore), which gives +1 to all Knowledge skills that have at least one rank. [Let's pause here and note that Wally is supposed to be a good and fun build, not a meticulously optimized one.] He takes the Wicked Leader trait and, I don't know, whatever trait gives a bump to Knowledge (Planes). (Wally is all about the knowledge.) Starter spells are Burning Hands, Mage Armor, Summon Monster I, and Sleep.
Wiz1 Damned, Noble Scion
Wiz2
Wiz3 Spell Focus: Conjuration
At 3rd level Wally takes Web and Glitterdust, two fine conjuration spells.
Wiz 4 +1 Int
Wiz 5 Extend Spell, Spell Penetration
Possibly Wally is getting a little ahead of himself, but he's a bit of an eager beaver. -- So now he's ready to try becoming a Diabolist! At great expense, he purchases a scroll of Planar Binding, and prepares to summon... a lemure! Oooh, he just barely makes his roll (80%). Does the lemure save? 1d20 ⇒ 8 Nope! Wally will surely be able to win the opposed Cha check; he's provided the lemure with the appropriate gifts (don't ask), and he has 9 attempts at +7 on the die. So, ta da, he's a Diabolist!
Wally is now Damned (though he still hasn't fulfilled his story feat). That night, an imp companion flutters in his window. Wally names him Buddy.
Diab 1/Wiz 5 Imp companion, Infernal charisma +2
Diab 2/Wiz 5 Boon Companion, Hellfire admixture
For the next couple of levels, Wally is going to let his imp companion do a lot of the fighting for him. (Probably it's imp companions, because they're going to die a lot. That's too bad, but they don't cost anything to replace, so Buddy is rapidly succeeded by Buddies II, III, and IV.) Beast shaped into a deinonychus with pounce, the imp companion can actually do a very respectable amount of damage.
One of Wally's 4th level spells will be Cone of Cold, because he can swap in Hellfire for a fast admixture, especially against good-aligned opponents. Around this time he's going to start seriously investing in magic items, picking up stat-boosting items and eyeing an Orb of Foul Abaddon.
Diab 3/Wiz 5 +1 Int, Augment Summoning, Heresy +2.
Wally is going to spend a month researching the names of devils. His Knowledge (Planes) is now +8 ranks +5 Int +3 class +3 Infernal Binder +1 scion +2 Heresy for +22; he needs a 25 to discover the name of a lesser devil. Does he? 1d20 ⇒ 4 Yesssss. The DM decides that Wally has obtained the name of a barbazu devil.
Meanwhile, he's acquiring a mix of blasts, mass buffs, and utility spells. Augment Summoning means that he's throwing a lot of summon monsters to charge into battle alongside Buddy V.
Diab 4/Wiz 5 Infernal Charisma +2, Craft wand
Buddy VI is going to retire from combat soon, so Wally is going to prepare a backup role for it as a wand platform.
And now, FINALLY Wally is ready to begin his career as a real, no-kidding devil conjurer! He takes Lesser Planar Binding as a 5th level spell (he's long since acquired Magic Circle) and casts. Because Wally knows its name, the Barbazu is at -5 on its Will save to resist the spell, and -5 on the opposed Cha check, so it really has no chance: in a trice it's summoned and bound, and Wally has his first devilish servant. Bob the Barbazu will be Wally's bodyguard and muscle going forward; when his time runs out, Wally has his name, so he just calls him and binds him again. If Bob has an opinion about this, Wally doesn't want to hear it.
Diab 5/Wiz 5 Hellish Soul
Wally no longer need fear death -- for now. He now spends another month in the library. But this time he's researching the name of a *specific* devil. The DC for that is 20 + the devil's HD, so 30. Wally now has +10 ranks +6 Int +3 class +3 Infernal Binder +1 scion +2 Heresy for +25. He succeeds!
Meanwhile, Wally is cranking up the conjuring circle. (His Knowledge [Planes] is now high enough that he no longer needs to take 20.) He now has a brute squadron of half a dozen bearded devils at all times, and usually a nasty little accuser devil hanging around invisibly and going scouting. Research costs money, so in addition to the usual adventurer stuff he picks up some extra cash by (for instance) conjuring a fire elemental to burn down an inconvenient block of slum housing. Wally's alignment is beginning to slip south, but as far as he's concerned he's an advanced researcher who's on his way to tenure. The local good temples and paladins are starting to be vaguely aware that something is going on.
Diab 6/Wiz 5 Infernal Transport, Leadership
Wally takes an apprentice... a lower level wizard who can cast utility spells for him. And then he summons the osyluth whose name he has obtained. Not to serve him! Not this time, anyway. No, he offers to swear a binding contract to never use the name again, if the osyluth will just return with a phistophilus (contract) devil.
And so, at last, Wally has his pact with Hell. Presumably it involves access to forbidden secrets; maybe he gets to plane shift to the libraries of hell. In any event, his Damned feat is fulfilled and he gets all the benefits thereof.
Wally cracks his knuckles. Between the feat, the trait, and buffs and whatnot, he has little trouble pumping his Cha up to +10 for nondevils and +14 for devils. With assistance from his apprentice and Buddy VII, he can get +28 or +30 on checks to research true names. And he now has access to creatures of up to 12 HD: a whole multiverse of outsiders, almost none of whom will be able to resist him. Everything up until now has been finger exercises.
Watch out, world.
-- Thoughts?
Doug M.
| MiniGM |
I am not a specialist on prepared casters...still learning. But can i just say, that in our WotW i want Wally as a cohort!
It seems to make great sense. I hope Wally doesn't know any Paladins