So, I'm starting this thread to talk about, and maybe get some help with, a wizard named carmen vespa, a wizard whose mastered combat, and a form of magic that can't be dispelled, counter spelled, or stopped by anti magic fields.
Some of you may recognise this from a previous thread about making a wizard without a level in a casting class, found here:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...-casting-class

For those who don't know, Carmen is made with levels in sunsoul monk, battle master fighter, and eventually a few levels in rogue, ranger, and paladin. His monk abilities, and fighter maneuvers have been reflavored as spells. He delivers these spells via his highly intricate atlatl(reskinned longbow) which also works as his "wand" for the few actual cantrips he knows. In game he's actually a wizard, and uses a ritual book as his in game spell book.

What I'm wanting to talk about, and need help with, is his backstory. Not so much the actual story(or I would have sent this to tawmis) but stuff like how he figured out his strange spell casting, how it works, and stuff like that.
What I have so far is that he wrote his mages school thesis paper on a theory he had long been brewing about the potential for spells drawing magic from within your body itself, instead of a pool of natural magic like a sorcerer, or the weave like a wizard(or even a god or ideal like divine casters). Carmen, a very optimistic and intelegent young wizard, failed to graduate because of this ambitious thesis.
Because while he was poised for the academies highest awards, and his theories were sound, magic such as this, unblockable and immune to antimagic fields, was so ridiculous that he completely failed his thesis. Which he needed to graduate. Carmen left the academy ashamed, and spent a good long while doing odd jobs woth the magic he had, at the time a good amount, and surviving.
Eventually though, his old theory called to him, so he packed his bags, liquidated all his assets, and set off.
Somewhere on what would be a 25 year long journey, the young mage found something that proved his theory correct. This new form of magic was taxing, and required great physical fitness, and self control to use. It also requires muscle memory to remember spells, limiting the number one Could actually learn, and the level of such spells.

Because of the martial requirements of this new art, Carmen picked up several martial skills, and many strange tribal traditions. Now, nearly 25 years after he left, a much more reserved, much changed Carmen returns to the land of his birth. In the moddle of its assault by demons and undead.(Carmen is my back up character for a campaign where I personalky seem to be cursed to lose 1 character every 2 level ups. Only 1 other person has lost a character. And that one was a normal squishy wizard)
So, that's Carmen. I've embraced the joking muscle wizard suggestion more than I expected, and at some point he just might done full plate and go super punchy caster on some demons, if he gets pushed far enough. But he mostly stays unarmored, and retains a vast knowledge base(rogue dip is for arcana expertise).
What I need help with is deciding how exactly he casts. Is it completely physical, like a muscle wizard, and his fitness fuels spells? Or is it some sort of ancient magic dwelling deep in the material plane itself? Keep in mind he will eventually get a few actual cantrips which can be dispelled, and that my DM will let me fluff an atlatl darts I use a maneuver on as a spell. Also, I'm not gonna emphasize his martial prowess a ton, so it'll be there as something of a side effect, not his main shtick. (He'll also act all panicked when out of manuvers and yell "I'm outta spells!" Just like a normal wizard! *chuckles*)