Every year, starting now, you gain a level IRL. What is your build?

[Malroth]

Elan Telepath Psion 19 Thrallherd 1, I'd live a life of Debauchery somewhere way off in the boonies.

[TheNivMizzet]

Well theres no GM to tell us to pack our **** in or throw books at us. And since we're mixing Pathfinder and 3.5 it opens so much possibility. I want to get my CL has high as possible, since the only thing to contend with is other casters, and mundanes (Everyone without powers), can eat it.

Str: 8
Dex: 10
Con: 12
Wis: 9
Int: 13+2
Cha: 11

Wizard 5, Ultimate Magus 10, Any 5 (Maybe Fatespinner or Incantatrix)
Taking the following ACFs:
Spontaneous Divination
Specializing in Conjuration, Banning Necromancy and Evocation (Under Pathfinder rules)
Abrupt Jaunt

Craft the magical items needed to bump my int to around 24, every level up stat boost goes into int.. By the age of 40 I can turn into a lich. Taking Eschew Materials is important. Empower and Invisible Spell metamagic, Craft Wonderous Items for item crafting.
At level 20, I'll have Caster Level 27, meaning I can take Epic feats every year after that. Live the life of a shut in, using small enchantment spells to keep things running smooth until I hit around level 11, craft my wonderous headbands in private, and tide over until I hit high levels and start ending conflicts. We've mentioned in the thread before that nuclear attacks are the only way to keep persistant damage but I'm pretty sure divination still works, and we'll have the means to teleport and prevent nukes and such going off.
Power corrupts? Absolutely. It's only a matter of time before someone goes Injustice on us, and I'm pretty sure it'll come down to which side has the most clerics/wizards. Psions are in there too, but I always lump psions/erudites with wizards.

[Quertus]

I have to say, I'm surprised how few people are really munchkining this. In a game, sure, it's obnoxious, but in real life, I fail to see why you'd avoid making yourself too powerful.
Like, I'm the only person who's gone for tainted scholar. Which is infamously broken, and gets around the fact that one's highest starting stat is 13. I'd say it's the taint stuff, but given how many people are wanting to be liches anyway, I doubt that. There's been barely any ur priests, or planar sheperds, or any of the other 'oh God, why?' prcs, either. Some of them do get a lot worse in this situation, true, but a lot of them... don't.

I mean, Tainted Scholar literally makes you go insane. In a game, all those nasty side effects are happening to a fictional character--you don't actually have to experience them. Would you be willing to take a 10% chance that for the rest of your life, whenever you come across a sleeping person, you will immediately attempt to murder them on the spot? That's one of the possible side effects of severe depravity, so if you want to be a Tainted Scholar, those are the dice you're rolling.

I did mention tainted sorcerer and ur priest, plus illithid savant, beholder mage, and home brew. It's hard to get much more... optimized than that. ;) I just don't think I'd like to be most of those. :P

It would be nice if RAW was consistent, and, recognizing that stealing wasn't inherently evil, had made ur priest not inherently evil.

Tainted scholar only updated evil taint, right? So would alternate taint be modeled after tainted scholar, or use the old taint / tainted sorcerer rules? I imagine the 10% chance of murdering people in their sleep is from evil taint, and that the chart for good taint might have things like a 10% chance to give all your worldly possessions away to anyone in need you meet. But this is part of why my build is nebulous, as it will depend on what the results of my experiments / divisions tell me about the nature of the world I / we now live in.

[dhasenan]

I have to say, I'm surprised how few people are really munchkining this.

If getting a level 9 spell slot by level 11 isn't good enough for you, and crafting magic items using only salt for a monetary component doesn't impress, have you considered all the benefits that Ice Assassin can provide?

You use Wish once and it costs 5,000XP. Or you create one Ice Assassin and it can use Wish ten times.

You want to craft a magic item. It costs 50,000XP, which is enough to bump you back to level 3. Ouch! Or you can have your ice assassin do it instead.

But creating ice assassins is a drain (literally). You need to craft a magic item that creates more ice assassins for you. Wait, don't do that! That would be a mistake. Instead, create an ice assassin and have it create that magic item.

Spending money on magic items is passé. It helped that we could spend salt on things, but it's still costing us thousands of dollars a month. I like the sound of "free", though. I've got a bunch of ice assassins hanging around with nothing to do for hours per day. They can spend their spells casting Wall of Stone, Stone to Flesh, and Flesh to Salt. Three spells and I have ten thousand gp worth of salt.

[Clistenes]

Wizard 3/Archivist 3/Mystic Theurge 10/Archmage 5/Loremaster 9

I guess I could find a more optimized build, but it isn't as if I was going to try to pick fights. If I gain a level each year, I don't need to go out and hunt for XP.

Those three Archivist levels would delay my access to those sweet, sweet high level Wizard spells, but hey, if I get real magic, I want Remove Disease, Regenerate, Cure Wounds, Resurrection, Reincarnate and all that stuff, because in real life, at the end of the day, keeping my family alive is more important that blowing stuff with fire and lighting.

[Tvtyrant]

If I was really cheesing it I would play a Wizard 18/Chameleon 2 to learn every spell, make myself immortal in one of hundreds of ways, and begin seeding the stars with mankind. Permanent portals between planets and on planets for free trade, post scarcity traps, and flying spell traps of Hallow+Zone of Truth for a lie free humanity.

Permanent Wall of Magma for infinite energy, permanent animate objects for the same reason or for cheap vehicles.

[Quertus]

You don't have a "character sheet" before this. All abilities you gain from class levels are in addition to what you can already do--any existing abilities you have don't need to be included.

Anyway, by RAW, regional languages don't count as bonus languages.

A few clarifying questions...

If we have the equivalent of 10 ranks in speak(language), or the equivalent of any other skill, do we have

• commoner / expert levels sufficient to give us these ranks?
• A racial (individual?) bonus to the skill in question?
• Other?

And how do our existing skills / feats interact with our "character sheet"? Continuing with languages as the example, can we add max ranks at first level to speak language, if our pre-existing self already has 10 languages, or does our pre-existing self limit our max ranks? Languages being a special case, do we learn bonus languages if our character sheet (intelligence) says we should (and we currently only know 1)?

Can we continue to learn things IRL at their normal rate that overlap with our character sheet (languages, craft skills, knowledge skills; exotic weapon proficiencies, mounted combat, etc), or do those become limited by our character sheet?

A few questions that the playground would be able to answer year 1, if not day 1:

• Can we "see" our character sheet? Do we consciously select how to level? I ask in part because I would want my build to be organic, based on what I encounter, and what I learn of the rules of reality.
• To what extent do our "existing abilities" carry over? If I have, "can drink a bottle of Jack and only start to feel it", do I get a "racial" bonus to Fort saves? A bonus to saves vs. poison? Expert levels matching my saves and skills?
• Do prestige classes have their normal prerequisites? Do our real world abilities (skills, feats, saves, BAB) allow us to qualify for prestige classes?
• When we use a cash-earning skill (perform, profession, and maybe craft), what happens? RAW, we get gold pieces (/ SP / CP)...
• All 1st level wizards get Scribe Scroll, and, unlike in 2e, there is no concept of researching how to create items - Item creation feats just give you the knowledge of how to make items. So... do we require specific components to create items - components which may not exist in this world - or can we use anything of appropriate value? This is one of many reasons my build is organic, based on the results of my research.

Part of my build decision was based on the premise that, based on my speakwrite languages skill, apparent fort save, and stats, that I was going to find myself suddenly much... diminished. That I would be going from the equivalent of a "high level" expert (with elite array / point buy / rolled stats) to a 1st-level PC character (with standard array / bad stats). And, therefore, that stubbing my toe (etc) would suddenly hurt a lot more (reduced HD, reduced HP), I'd be much more susceptible to diseases (reduced con, reduced HD, reduced fort saves), etc. And I'd be a cheap drunk. So understanding exactly how our character sheet and the real world interact would be helpful.

And something that we probably wouldn't just know, but I have to ask anyway - do we only "die of old age" per our character sheet, or do we now have a "duel mortality", where we die if our "real world" body would wear out, or if we pass the D&D old age limits?

[Troacctid]

A few clarifying questions...

If we have the equivalent of 10 ranks in speak(language), or the equivalent of any other skill, do we have

• commoner / expert levels sufficient to give us these ranks?
• A racial (individual?) bonus to the skill in question?
• Other?

And how do our existing skills / feats interact with our "character sheet"?

You don't have any skill ranks before you gain your level. You just do the thing however well you do it. Skill ranks are added on top of that.

Continuing with languages as the example, can we add max ranks at first level to speak language, if our pre-existing self already has 10 languages, or does our pre-existing self limit our max ranks?

Speak Language doesn't use ranks, so there's actually no maximum for it. A 1st level Human Bard with 10 Intelligence could learn 28 languages if she wanted.

Languages being a special case, do we learn bonus languages if our character sheet (intelligence) says we should (and we currently only know 1)?

You get as many bonus languages as your Intelligence entitles you to, on top of whatever languages you already know.

Can we continue to learn things IRL at their normal rate that overlap with our character sheet (languages, craft skills, knowledge skills; exotic weapon proficiencies, mounted combat, etc), or do those become limited by our character sheet?

Yes you can.

Can we "see" our character sheet? Do we consciously select how to level? I ask in part because I would want my build to be organic, based on what I encounter, and what I learn of the rules of reality.

When you level up, you make all decisions you would make if you were leveling up a D&D character.

To what extent do our "existing abilities" carry over? If I have, "can drink a bottle of Jack and only start to feel it", do I get a "racial" bonus to Fort saves? A bonus to saves vs. poison? Expert levels matching my saves and skills?

That would be akin to what the FATE system calls an "Aspect."

Do prestige classes have their normal prerequisites? Do our real world abilities (skills, feats, saves, BAB) allow us to qualify for prestige classes?

You have to qualify using your character sheet stats.

When we use a cash-earning skill (perform, profession, and maybe craft), what happens? RAW, we get gold pieces (/ SP / CP)...

You gain the equivalent amount of the local currency.

All 1st level wizards get Scribe Scroll, and, unlike in 2e, there is no concept of researching how to create items - Item creation feats just give you the knowledge of how to make items. So... do we require specific components to create items - components which may not exist in this world - or can we use anything of appropriate value? This is one of many reasons my build is organic, based on the results of my research.

You use valuable materials. I dunno.

And something that we probably wouldn't just know, but I have to ask anyway - do we only "die of old age" per our character sheet, or do we now have a "duel mortality", where we die if our "real world" body would wear out, or if we pass the D&D old age limits?

You'll find out when you do or do not die of old age.

[Jack_Simth]

You don't have any skill ranks before you gain your level. You just do the thing however well you do it. Skill ranks are added on top of that.

Well, that changes how I'd allocate my skill ranks slightly. Not by too terribly much, though.

[Telok]

I pretty much understood it as gesalting your real self with a D&D character build. That's partly why I went with a psion focused on self enhancement, environmental manipulation, skill boosts, and utility. It avoids any questionable TO issues that could turn out to be detrimental and isn't reliant on saves or SR penetration or other such issues in case of conflict.

Even avoiding optional sidebar rules and the worst of the dsyfunctional stuff there isn't much you can't acheive as long as you don't go and get yourself killed. But I'd be cautious about assuming things like the ability to make a +3 computer by conjuring several tons of salt or anything else that hasn't been well and truely nailed down by now. I'd expect savage bard into ur-priest into mystic theurge to work, but I'd like divinatory confirmation before assuming how sanctum spell worked or the existence of a specific demon.

Thats part of the reason I included room for a couple of luck feats and access to things like Moment of Prescience and Astral Seed. Real life isn't very accepting of effortless retraining or coming back next week with a new character.

[gooddragon1]

I'd just go into some prestige class that's going to make sure I don't die of old age. If I also lose most of my flesh, that's ok.

How much is most of your flesh? Would you be willing to part with other things? How many?

If your answer to all of these questions is yes, boy howdy do I have a deal for you!

[Troacctid]

I pretty much understood it as gesalting your real self with a D&D character build.

That's a good way to look at it, although your real self isn't necessarily represented accurately by a D&D build—for example, your real-life salary might not be the same as what you could get from a Profession check.

[Hazrond]

Ok, i would be a straight lvl 20 Mesmerist VMC Bard with Craft Wondrous Item and Leadership, as well as Spell Focus (Enchantment) and Greater Spell Focus (Enchantment), i would put my 13 into charisma and i only need 3 level up boosts to that to bring me up to 16 for my highest level spells somewhere around 12-13th level i would use my utterly broken enchantment abilities to gain ahold of some solid cash, then use this money to craft a Memoir and become a Psychic Lich so as to prevent the need to worry about death. After that i can literally just do whatever i want (which will likely consist of controlling someone with cash and using them to pay for my video game addiction, and maybe occasionally doing something fun to spice things up) i will also have a large group of friends and followers from leadership to keep me company so loneliness wouldn't be an issue, all in all i think i will be pretty good

Around the time i am crafting my Memoir, my DCs should be roughly 18-19 at a minimum, more if i have some extra charisma, also my target will be taking a -3 penalty, meaning that for most average people the saving throw is nearly impossible. Also upon reaching level 20 i will be able to have ALOT of fun with Rule Minds (Unwitting Ally indeed...)

[Vizzerdrix]

I'd like to say full caster, but I know I don't have the stats for that. Not all the way to 9s, at least. I think I could manage 4s or 5s in time, so I'd have to work with that.

That means I'd have to take classes that rip off other lists. Archaivist, StP Erudite, UA spellcaster, and Mystic Ranger. Factotum into Chameleon could work as well.

I think i would end up going SotAO Mystic Ranger 5/ Chameleon 10/ Mystic Ranger 5. My irl stats would be a bit strained but I think I could manage It. Then the only thing left would be getting my 3 ferrets counted as my familiars (I will need to get one back from the dead, and ideally also change them into mustival guardinals), and getting access to a form of unaging as soon as I could for a few members of the ole family. After that, I would just mimic some of the plans here to make cash. I think I will go hash a full build out, just to see where I can go with it.

[Florian]

Lol!

Going by the age table, my class spread will look like this: Human Commoner 4/Fighter 2/Expert 10
My feats would look something like this: Betrayer, EWP: Firearms, Persuasive, Point-Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Skill Focus: Craft (x2), Skill Focus (Profession (x2)
(I did my tour of duty)

So I´m looking forward to some additional levels of Expert before I enter the epic class of "Retiree"....

[Clistenes]

I'd like to say full caster, but I know I don't have the stats for that. Not all the way to 9s, at least. I think I could manage 4s or 5s in time, so I'd have to work with that.

Take into account that you would get age bonuses too, so if you put all your bonus ability point into your main casting ability, and add the age bonuses, you could probably reach high enough stats: +5 due to character advancement plus +3 due to advanced age, plus +1 for every four epic levels; if you live 30 years and reach old age, you would gain +10 ability points... at which point you make yourself young again and live forever because you are an epic full caster and you can do whatever you want...

[ekarney]

So pre-class levels I'd say at the moment I have:
Human. (Whichever jackass was in charge of this messed up. I could be flying right now, or actually be able to see further than the end of my nose in the dark,)
Flaws: Inattentive. and either Unreactive or Murky-eyed. Unless all 3 are allowed. But I don't think I have that many feats at the moment.
Trait: Polite. Or Torpid. I think my IRL character sheet might be illegible.

Anyway, I'll just go Archivist until I qualify for Rimefire Witch. Then I'll take that until I'm a fey. I get mad casting and I can be immortal.

[Jack_Simth]

Take into account that you would get age bonuses too, so if you put all your bonus ability point into your main casting ability, and add the age bonuses, you could probably reach high enough stats: +5 due to character advancement plus +3 due to advanced age, plus +1 for every four epic levels; if you live 30 years and reach old age, you would gain +10 ability points... at which point you make yourself young again and live forever because you are an epic full caster and you can do whatever you want...

Also that you start with the nonelite array of 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8 in this scenario, and can arrange it as you see fit. Note that Epic levels probably don't fly here, as the OP specified a cap of 20 (feats thereafter). Drop the 13 into a primary casting stat, put level boosts there, and as long as you don't die before then (and your agelessness doesn't come online before then, assuming you go that route), you'll eventually be able to cast your 9ths (13 base + 5 level up +1 middle age = 19; if Pathfinder, that's 13 +2 racial (Humans get a selectable +2 ability score bonus in Pathfinder) +5 level up = 20, no need for middle age).

[Bad Wolf]

I'd say Sorcerer 8/Binder 2//Anima Mage 10.

[Karmea]

Str 8, Dex 9, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 11 with Wedded to History(survivor or wanderer). Aging sucks.

As for class, I'd probably go with a StP (favoured discipline) Erudite 9/Mindbender 1/Slayer 10 or an Archivist 5/Divine Oracle 3/Sacred Exorcist 1/Contemplative 1/Dweomerkeeper 10.

Protect myself against others, keep low profile and generally enjoy the immortal life, helping people subtly where I can. Maybe time travel a bit. If things get too heated, move away to my demiplane(s) with my friends and family. I don't care for world domination, seems like way too much work for too little benefit.

[Morphic tide]

Dread Necro 20, for Lichdom and awesome powers of killing everything living. Also to make my encounters for level 21. Feats would be focused on item creation, to make magical armor for my squishy and brittle minions. Then, when I go lich, I'll start the research into Ghoul/Wight/Shadow freaks to start taking over the world with nigh unstopable infinite energy. Or Artificer 20 to make an item that gets the endless crafting XP to make the item that gets me infinite Wishes, which I then use to Wish to become a Warforged, then for one more level some way, probably summoning CR appropriate encounters, to get Epic feats and that Artificer 21 goodness. Make EVAs, 40K Titans and magitech spaceships for the LOLs, Summon a god or two for a curbstomping, and overrun all the afterlives with a big helping of Humanity **** YEA-SCIENCE style. Or do both, Artificer first for a head start on the crafting, then Dread Necro to get the power needed to make most Gods piss themselves. Epic magic AND Artifacts? About as close to Pun Pun as I'll get.

[digiman619]

Monk of the Four Winds 20. Enjoy mortality, suckers!

[Svata]

And you enjoy Monktality.

[Clistenes]

Dread Necro 20, for Lichdom and awesome powers of killing everything living. Also to make my encounters for level 21. Feats would be focused on item creation, to make magical armor for my squishy and brittle minions. Then, when I go lich, I'll start the research into Ghoul/Wight/Shadow freaks to start taking over the world with nigh unstopable infinite energy. Or Artificer 20 to make an item that gets the endless crafting XP to make the item that gets me infinite Wishes, which I then use to Wish to become a Warforged, then for one more level some way, probably summoning CR appropriate encounters, to get Epic feats and that Artificer 21 goodness. Make EVAs, 40K Titans and magitech spaceships for the LOLs, Summon a god or two for a curbstomping, and overrun all the afterlives with a big helping of Humanity **** YEA-SCIENCE style. Or do both, Artificer first for a head start on the crafting, then Dread Necro to get the power needed to make most Gods piss themselves. Epic magic AND Artifacts? About as close to Pun Pun as I'll get.

The question is, why would you want to do that? If you take 20 levels of Wizard, you can literally do anything and have anything you wish. Infinite money, eternal youth, your own demiplane, Simulacrum servants, you can use Magecraft and Fabricate to produce any non-magical stuff with a snap of your fingers... All that without bothering anybody, you can be richest than all the other people in the world combined without stepping out of you house save to gather raw materials. And if you want to do some tourism, you have Teleport and Plane Shift.

Conquering the world with an undead army wouldn't procure you anything a Wizard couldn't have with a snap of his fingers. The only reason to do it would be for fun, because you enjoy torturing people and perpetrating genocide in a global scale.

[Venom3053000]

Sorcerer

Who has the time to sit around for 8 hours to get spells?

And having less spells then a wizard doesn't matter when there are only so many spells you need as a nonadventurer

[Jack_Simth]

Sorcerer

Who has the time to sit around for 8 hours to get spells?

It's a difference of only 45 minutes. The Wizard needs 8 hours of rest +1 hour of spellbook time. The Sorcerer needs 8 hours of rest + 15 minutes of concentration.

[Morphic tide]

The question is, why would you want to do that? If you take 20 levels of Wizard, you can literally do anything and have anything you wish. Infinite money, eternal youth, your own demiplane, Simulacrum servants, you can use Magecraft and Fabricate to produce any non-magical stuff with a snap of your fingers... All that without bothering anybody, you can be richest than all the other people in the world combined without stepping out of you house save to gather raw materials. And if you want to do some tourism, you have Teleport and Plane Shift.

Conquering the world with an undead army wouldn't procure you anything a Wizard couldn't have with a snap of his fingers. The only reason to do it would be for fun, because you enjoy torturing people and perpetrating genocide in a global scale.

Artificer does not require a source of the spells you get, and can get Divine magic. And more importantly, Artificer's are able to get back crafting XP, so I could build up the crafting XP for an item to get endless crafting XP somewhere around level 15. Then I make the Ring of Unlimited Wishes for unlimited power. Followed by Wishing for CR appropriate encounters of cannon fodder to blast with Maximized Empowered Disintegrates. And I don't spend my feats on item crafting, so I can use them for crafting XP reduction. The end result is that I can make magic items for about 50% base XP cost and use them reliably, leading to such grand @$$loads of item creation that I get several levels ahead on WBL over Wizards. As to how the grand cost rediction happens, make it locked to Chaotic Good Warforged Artificers, which gets the XP and GP cost to around 50% of normal, and requires 4 extra UMD checks to make use of for those who aren't in all those categories. Make scrolls of Gate to get XP gains quickly, though Wizards can get access to this, and generally make yourself better than Wizards at item making. The big advantage is not needing anyone else to get spells from, the one thing about Wizards, Archivists and StP Erudites everyone is ignoring. As for the undead army, it's taking over the world with cheap labor and unstoppable troops, the cheap labor being the main goal, as the undead need no food, water, sleep or air and these things can wipe their @$$ with most military units today. After all, a Wizard can still only be in one place at a time without 9th level spells, so an army is something they still need. And Dread Necromancers know ALL their spells available, again, Wizards, Archivists and StP Erudites need to learn their spells from outside sources or spend weeks making them themselves

[Jack_Simth]

Artificer does not require a source of the spells you get, and can get Divine magic. And more importantly, Artificer's are able to get back crafting XP, so I could build up the crafting XP for an item to get endless crafting XP somewhere around level 15. Then I make the Ring of Unlimited Wishes for unlimited power. Followed by Wishing for CR appropriate encounters of cannon fodder to blast with Maximized Empowered Disintegrates. And I don't spend my feats on item crafting, so I can use them for crafting XP reduction. The end result is that I can make magic items for about 50% base XP cost and use them reliably, leading to such grand @$$loads of item creation that I get several levels ahead on WBL over Wizards. As to how the grand cost rediction happens, make it locked to Chaotic Good Warforged Artificers, which gets the XP and GP cost to around 50% of normal, and requires 4 extra UMD checks to make use of for those who aren't in all those categories. Make scrolls of Gate to get XP gains quickly, though Wizards can get access to this, and generally make yourself better than Wizards at item making. The big advantage is not needing anyone else to get spells from, the one thing about Wizards, Archivists and StP Erudites everyone is ignoring. As for the undead army, it's taking over the world with cheap labor and unstoppable troops, the cheap labor being the main goal, as the undead need no food, water, sleep or air and these things can wipe their @$$ with most military units today. After all, a Wizard can still only be in one place at a time without 9th level spells, so an army is something they still need. And Dread Necromancers know ALL their spells available, again, Wizards, Archivists and StP Erudites need to learn their spells from outside sources or spend weeks making them themselves

Collegiate Wizard, Complete Arcane page 181: Start with 6+Int first level spells, gain 4 spells/level without research. That really is plenty of spells known all by itself for most purposes, and past a point it's a fairly straightforward matter to get access to a Tome of Ancient Lore (Magic Item Compendium page 189) and there's a little known clause as part of Replacing and Copying Spellbooks that lets you write a prepared spell into your spellbook: "If she already has a particular spell prepared, she can write it directly into a new book at a cost of 100 gp per page (as noted in Writing a New Spell into a Spellbook, above). The process wipes the prepared spell from her mind, just as casting it would. If she does not have the spell prepared, she can prepare it from a borrowed spellbook and then write it into a new book."

Also... you really didn't answer Clistenes's question: "why would you want to do that?" While yes, an Artificer can make magic items more easily, and a Dread Necromancer can raise an army more easily... what's the point? The Artificer has to fetch crafting materials and spend days on each spell they "cast" later. The wizard needs to wait an extra few levels, but is expending much less effort than is the Artificer.

Let's do a comparative example: You'd like to sleep in a Magnificient Mansion every night (or day, if you're a nightowl). Ignoring shenanigans (which the Wizard can do better - there's a build to get 9th level spells on a 1st level wizard), a Magnificent Mansion is a 7th level spell, so requires Wizard-13 or Artificer-11. But the catch is "every night". The Artificer-11 making a scroll for it is looking at a market price of 2,275 gp; normally, that'd be a 3-day craft. Trouble is, it'll only last 22 hours. Exceptional Artisan reduces the base time by 25%, but that still only gets you down to two days if you're lucky. You're going to want a few dedicated wights to do the actual crafting... oh yes, and you're burning XP and GP each night. If you're allowed fully custom items, then you're fine... on that command-word 7th level spell at caster level 13 for a base price of 163,800 gp market that'll take you a decent chunk of a year to craft, plus the time to gather the materials, and the hit on your crafting reserve. The wizard just casts the spell every night once he's got it. It's no special effort, and costs him nothing more than the spell known and some nice silverware. What have you gained, really?

Consider the Dread Necromancer. Yes, you get a (usually presumed) free phylactery at 20th, can make higher-quality undead, and have a slightly better control pool. But again: What does it really get you? Take, say, 16th level. 13 base Charisma per the rules of this game, +4 level up, maybe a crafted +6 Cloak of Charisma (not that you have the required spells on your list as a Dread Necromancer), and let's say +2 from race or age; that'll put you at a Charisma of 25. Other than the Planar Binding spells (which you can't really use because you don't have Magic Circle or Dimensional Anchor) and False Life, you've got no "comfort" effects. You're stuck with the mundane. Yes, you can have ... what, 176 HD of undead in your control pool, and another 16 in your Rebuke pool? Meanwhile, the modern world has man-portable weaponry that'll take down tanks, and you're burning gems for each minion. You're not taking over a country with those things unless you're doing something very mass-murdery, like making a Wight, Rebuking it under your control, and then setting it loose on a population so that you can control the spawn indirectly... and that's the sort of infection that would quite possibly draw nuclear fire to cauterize (and it's also very, very fragile, as you've got 'keystone' wights all over the place that - if they die - remove your control of the spawn underneath them). Even if you do control a small country that way... what have you gotten, really, that a Wizard couldn't have picked up at 7th via a few castings of Dominate Person on an existing ruler?

[Forrestfire]

Egoist Psion 20, with the Minor Change Shape ACF and Wedded to History. I'd play it safe and have the shapeshifting to improve my day to day life until I hit a point where I could take Expanded Knowledge to get psychic reformation, then potentially genesis and astral seed (if the Astral Plane exists at all). Otherwise, safety, security, and quality of life as much as I can, followed by trying to make the world a better place without being corrupted by power.

[EyethatBinds]

I'm almost to middle aged for my race, so I'll pick Barbarian. Magic doesn't exist in this campaign setting, so I should pick something with no supernatural abilities. The HP boost would mean I could probably get hit by a bus and shake it off.