King Dorsian, ECL 30 Warrior-Mage

Today it’s another special request; how to buy a rather straightforward, if very high level, d20 character; a 15th level Wizard / 14th level Fighter with a +1 ECL race and absurdly high attributes (which I think were set quite arbitrarily in the original build). Now this isn’t really necessary – Eclipse IS fully back-compatible, so there actually isn’t any actual need to rebuild old characters or convert feats if they’re the way you want them. Still, building a similar character is really pretty easy.

Honestly though, as a build for a twenty-ninth level character, Wizard 15, Fighter 14 (and +1 ECL) is downright terrible. It wasn’t so good even back in it’s day, and since the introduction of classes like the Eldritch Knight or Knight Phantom and Epic Spellcasting it’s gone a long ways downhill by comparison. I expect to have some points left over, and will doubtless be adding some special abilities and upgrades.

On the other hand, this is not going to be a seriously optimized (by the usual standards) epic character either except when it comes to attributes. That’s partially because I want it reasonably playable and partially because Eclipse doesn’t allow a lot of the usual optimization shenanigans; you can’t, for example, dip into four different classes and pick up four differently-named abilities that all add your wisdom modifier into your armor class; in Eclipse those are all forms of Augmented Bonus and you can’t add any single attribute modifier to ANYTHING more than once.

So…

It was not expected that Prince Dorsian would ever go to war. The kingdom was rich, it was at peace with it’s neighbors, and had been stable for generations. Still, he was a royal prince, and so he was trained in bladecraft, in the ways of magic, and even a bit in the disciplines of the mind – even if he mostly dabbled in them all.

And then the Malanchi Guild – an academy of mages located on the great mystical Nexus of Mount Malan – got it wrong. Oh so badly wrong.

The Nexus became a wild gate – a gaping portal opening onto the frigid depths of some long-forgotten infernal plane. Through it poured a demonic horde, creatures of ice that brought frigid winter to the summer, and cold that could kill in a few breaths to the winter.

As the Fimbulwinter spread across the land, defenses fell – and Prince Dorian and what troops he could muster fought to hold back the horde as his people fell back and back. At the last… there were no more refuges to retreat to – and King Dorian conceived a desperate plan. With a few companions he traveled to Mount Malan and there cast himself into the arcane icefire of the gate – taking that power into himself, using it to boost his powers to full mastery of the arcane arts, and using that power (technically multiple uses of Reality Revision) to seal the gate and break the long grip of the ice.

Today King Dorian, known as the “Bloodblade” for the way in which his blows summon allies to his cause when his blade bites deep, stands on the threshold of divinity. After decades of war, and his final victory, only a few challenges remain in the world of his birth – and he is not yet ready to hang up his sword.

King Dorian Bloodblade

The Fire General, Stormbreaker, Hero of the Marches, Guardian of the Realm – and so on…

ECL 30 Epic Warrior-Mage.

Race: Originally Human – but has undergone Rad’Egion Transformation.

Package Deal: Royalty. Provides Adept due to intensive training (in his case Concentration, Diplomacy, Knowledge/Arcana, and his Martial Art) and Major Privileges. On the other hand, it also makes the user a target for assassins and manipulation and arranged marriages, forces him or her to spend a lot of time on politics and diplomacy, and brings along lots of responsibilities. Like all package deals, 0 CP.

Basic Abilities: Str 14, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 14, Wis 12, Cha 12 (32 Point Buy)

• Racial Modifiers: +2 Dex, +2 Int.
• Belt of Magnificence/Absorbed and Transformed: +6 Alchemical Bonus to All Attributes (200,000 GP and 12 CP, using Innate Enchantment (the Absorption variant) and Altering the Bonus Type).
• Belt of Magnificence: +6 Enhancement Bonus to All Attributes (200,000 GP).
• Inherent Bonuses: +5 to all attributes (see why below).
• +7 Int (Level)

Net Abilities: Str 31 (+10), Dex 33 (+11), Con 31 (+10), Int 40 (+15), Wis 29 (+9), Cha 29 (+9). And yes, that IS pretty absurd – even a bit more absurd than the original notion… Magic has advanced much since then!

The Belt of Magnificence is an item from the Miniatures Handbook that was probably meant to address the woes of characters who depended on many different attributes – and thus were subject to a massive drain on their money (making custom items with very expensive stacked abilities) and/or item slots (buying attribute boosters in sets) just to remain effective. It was a single device that boosted ALL your attributes for a cost of 25,000 gp (+2), 100,000 gp (+4) or 200,000 gp (+6). Unfortunately, with the Magic Item Compendium, it became possible to stack attribute enhancement effects on other items or each other with few problems – making the Belt generally inefficient unless you valued the convenience of noting all your boosting items in the same place. Of course, when you just want to ABSORB a single item… the +6 version does save a few thousand gold pieces even now.

Classically, advancing in alternating levels, this character wound up with a +15 BAB (+5 from the Wizard levels, +10 from the Fighter levels) and a +5 epic attack bonus – and only three attacks. Ergo, buy +15 BAB (90 CP) and another +5 BAB, Corrupted/does not add iterative attacks (20 CP) (110 CP total).

Saves are +9/+4/+4 (Fighter) +5/+5/+9 (Wizard) +4/4/4 (Epic) +0/2/0 (Lightning Reflexes) – for a total of +18/15/17. That’s a total of +50, and (150 CP) spent on Saves. That’s actually kind of silly; there are plenty of other ways to improve saves. I may be trading in a few of those bonuses later on.

Hit Dice are 14d10 (84 CP) + 15d4 (0 CP). This works, but I may wind up getting him a per-die bonus and smaller hit dice; he’d be much better off in the end.

Base Skill Points are 64. I’ll get these from Fast Learner Specialized in Skills (taken at at L0) and 6 purchased (for 12 CP in total). Of course, he also gets skill points for Intelligence Modifiers – which will get a bit complicated, and not just because whether or not you get skill points for an item-enhanced intelligence score has been answered in several different ways. Ergo… +3 (L0-L7), +4 (L8-L15), +7 (L16-L19, includes +4 Inherent), +8 (L20-27, includes +5 Inherent), and +9 (L28-L29). That’s a total of 30 + 32 + 28 + 64 + 18 = 172 Int-based Skill Points, for a grand total of 236 SP.

As a fifteenth level wizard this character got…

• 15’th level wizard spellcasting (210 CP).
• Fast Learner, Specialized in Spells (for +2 Spells/Level, 6 CP).
• Summon Familiar, Scribe Scroll and Three Bonus Feats – Silent Spell, Still Spell, and Combat Casting. In Eclipse that’s Companion (Familiar, 6 CP), Spell Storing (Scrolls, 6 CP), the Easy Metamagical Theorem (6 CP), and Skill Emphasis/Concentration, Specialized for Double Effect in Casting Defensively (3 CP) for a total of (21 CP).

As a fourteenth level fighter this character got…

• Eight fighter Bonus Feats. These were Blind-Fight (6 CP), Cleave (Bonus Attack, 6 CP), Combat Reflexes (Reflex Training, 6 CP), Dodge (Defender, Specialized/Does not Increase with Level, Corrupted/Only versus one opponent at a time, Dodge Bonus, 2 CP), Expertise (BAB and AC, 6 CP), Improved Critical (Bastard Sword, 6 CP), Improved Disarm (Evasive/Disarm, 3 CP, and Specialist/Disarm, 3 CP), and Improved Initiative (6 CP) (Total of 44 CP).
• Proficiency with Light, Medium, and Heavy Armor (15 CP), and Shields (3 CP), as well as All Simple (3 CP) and Martial (6 CP) weapons. I’m going to upgrade that to “And all Exotic” weapons as well (6 CP). Honestly it would be more efficient to drop some of the Armor proficiencies since Dex 29 pretty much says “most armor is counterproductive” – but they’re useful at lower levels.

Finally, for bonus feats, we had… Alertness (Skill Emphasis/Spot (3 CP) and Skill Emphasis/Listen (3 CP)), Leadership (6 CP), Mobility (lets upgrade and remove the “only versus one opponent at a time” and “does not increase with level” aspects from Defender under Fighter Bonus Feats, 4 CP), Power Attack (Expertise, 6 CP), Quick Draw (Reflex Training, 6 CP), Spring Attack (Split Movement, 6 CP), Weapon Focus/Bastard Sword (+1 BAB, Specialized in Swords, 3 CP), and Weapon Specialization/Bastard Sword (lets upgrade again; Augmented Bonus/Lore of Battle; Adds (Int Mod) to (Str Mod) for the purpose of determining damage in melee combat, Specialized in Swords, 3 CP), at a net cost of (40 CP).

That gives us a grand total of… 727 CP out of the 780 CP (720 CP base +60 CP for Ten Bonus Feats) a level twenty-nine character can be expected to have. If the character has Disadvantages and some Duties (as seems likely, for +68 CP) we’ll have a total of 121 CP left to play with.

That also pretty much takes care of the original build. The original race had a few small bonuses, but by level twenty-nine none of them matter much at all and I’m using a different race anyway.

All right, it’s time to spend those extra character points. Lets take…

“Arcane Imbuement”/Advanced Improved Augmented Bonus: adds (Int Mod) to (Con Mod) when calculating hit points (18 CP) and change to 1d20 at L1 (16 CP) and 28d4’s afterwards (0 CP). That gets him up to an average of 815 HP after those huge attribute boosts. While there’s a point beyond which hit points no longer matter all that much it’s still nice to have a massive pile of them – and getting them this way saves us 50 CP over the base build, leaving us with 157 CP to spend.

Yes, that’s sick – but on Constitution alone he’d still average 380 HP. At this point it doesn’t much matter.

Add +2 levels of Wizard Spellcasting (28 CP). That gets him up to ninth level spells, even if he doesn’t qualify for epic-level shenanigans. With his racial modifiers he gets spells as an 18’th level wizard and a Caster Level of 19. He also gets two additional Metamagical Theorems from his race – lets say Amplify and Persistent.

Let us avoid Epic Spellcasting at all costs. If you stick to the official spells it’s virtually useless, and if you let players build their own spells according to the book’s rules it becomes a disaster in very short order.

Add Streamline, Specialized for Double Effect/Only for the Easy Metamagical Theorem, Corrupted/Only to add Still and Silent automatically (4 CP).

With all his spells Still and Silent without level adjustment he can wear any armor he likes with no trouble. He’s NOT going to be wearing any at this point, but presumably he did earlier in his career. Besides, this is nice if he happens to get grappled.

Lets liven him up a bit… Expand his 17 Specialized Casting Levels to also cover Wilder Powers (17 CP), add 20 levels of the Wilder Progression without Caster Levels (Int-based, 60 CP), buy him access to the Metacreativity Powers (6 CP), and buy him two Extra Powers (Shadow Form and Freedom of Movement, Psionic, 4 CP). That gives him thirteen powers and 493 Power. I’ll pick… L1) Astral Construct and Call to Mind, L2) Body Equilibrium, L3) Ubiquitous Vision, L4) Energy Adaption and Freedom of Movement, Psionic, L5) True Seeing, Psionic, L6) Temporal Acceleration, L7) Energy Wave, L8) Shadow Form and True Metabolism, L9) Assimilate and Reality Revision.

OK, that covers some major weak points. Magic items will cover most of them later on anyway, but it’s always good to have a fallback for things like True Sight and Freedom of Movement and Fast Healing 10 (from True Metabolism) will let him recover his hit points in a reasonable amount of time. Assimilate can boost his attributes a bit more and Temporal Acceleration will let him squeeze in a little spontaneous buffing time – which can be pretty critical for a fighter-mage type.

Spawned of Blood: Opportunist/May opt to manifest an Astral Construct when he scores a critical hit with a sword (6 CP).

Now that one sounds like fun… “As the blood sprays and splatters from the sword’s arc, it shimmers and flows together to become a mighty monster, standing ready to fight by the King’s side!” Sure, astral constructs are nowhere near as useful as high-level monster summonings since they don’t have fun magic like the various fiends and celestial beings do – but they are reasonably good at hitting things.

Mighty Hysteria, Specialized and Corrupted/only applies to summoning Astral Constructs . He may spend +8 Power which does not count against the normal spending limit when summoning an Astral Construct to double it’s hit points, BAB, damage, saves, and number of special abilities as well as providing it with a +6 Armor bonus (4 CP)

OK; that makes an astral construct big enough to actually matter (a little anyway) in Epic Combat. It still won’t last very long, but so what? A round or two can make quite a difference in high level d20 fights.

Improved Superior Focused Imbuement (Bastard Sword), Specialized/requires twenty-four hours to attune to a new sword, sword must be at least +1 already to accept the power (which does override whatever “plus” based enchantment it has) (12 CP). This provides him with a +15 effective total for his epic weapon – in this case +6 Enhancement with Blessed (Auto-confirms criticals, +1), Defending (+1), Holy (+2), Spell Storing x2 (+2), Collision (+5 damage, +2), and Undead Bane (+1).

Yes, this gets nasty. It also saves a LOT of money and means that getting your weapon sundered is an annoyance, rather than a personal tragedy.

Improved Superior Focused Imbuement (Clothing), Specialized/requires twenty-four hours to attune a new set of clothes, which must be masterwork and of kingly quality to accept the power (12 CP). Ergo Clothing +1 Armor (from 0, +1), Energy Immunity x3 (+2 x 3, 3/day become immune to any one energy form for one minute as an immediate action), Ghost Ward (+1, adds enhancement bonus to touch AC), Heavy Fortification (+5), Psychic (+2).

Honestly, if you can add armor enhancements to padded armor made for a tiny creature – which basically amounts to making a suit out of cobwebs – I see no reason why you can’t put them on normal clothing, which can quite reasonably be described as “armor” so light that it has no actual combat effect at all…

Extra Limbs (Arms), Specialized and Corrupted/psychic constructs, only functions to allow the user to hold/wield four items at the same time; they cannot be used for skills, self-support, and other purposes (2 CP).

I could just get him a continuous Alter Self ability and a Disguise spell and he could play as a many-armed Hindu god without looking strange – but I like this better.

Those saves are a bit awkward; ergo, reduce the bases to +15/+15/+15 (saving fifteen CP) and buy Hard to Take Out: Luck with +8 Bonus Uses, Specialized in Saving Throws (9 CP). Being able to reroll or “Take 20″ on a save eight times a day is better than a high base; with Luck you can be SURE of making a vital save when you need it. Besides… I’ll be raising those bases with some inherent bonuses later on anyway.

He’s a ruler. Lets get him Dominion (6 CP) and Path of the Pharaoh / Manipulation (6 CP) – which does indeed put him on the path of Godhood. In fact, it would only take another 12 CP invested in that path to make him one quite officially. Dominion is useful in other ways as well – but to maintain that, he’s going to have to spend a good deal of time actually running his country.

That Vest of the Archmagi (down in equipment) is SO useful that it can do with being absorbed too! That’s (6 CP).

That leaves 2 CP. I’ll get him a couple of extra skill points (2 CP).

OK, we’ve spent our extra character points. This still isn’t especially overpowered for an epic level spellcaster, but it IS considerably more effective than it was. The ability to kick in Temporal Acceleration and get several spells or powers running right off the bat is expensive, but will go a long ways towards keeping him functional in any major confrontation.

Equipment:

In theory, his equipment allowance is 4,300,000 GP. So, OK; HERE is where we REALLY break things. The first item on the purchase list is three Rods of Excellent Magic (Epic Item): Each provides a block of 2000 XP to use in casting a spell with an XP component once per day. (1,950,000 GP).

This… is expensive. On the other hand, with three of them – and effectively four hands to hold them in – Dorian can now cast Wish once a day at no XP cost. He can even chain them (“I wish that the effects of my next Wish would be delayed until…” – is an “add metamagic” (Delay) spell effect which is well within the capabilities of a Wish; that means that it will take him nine days per +5 inherent bonus instead of five – but who cares?). For that matter, magical items, or improvements on items, that cost less than 12,500 GP can simply be wished into existence, since 1000 XP is left over to pay additional costs. If he wants to wish for money… he can get 25,000 GP per day. I suspect that the original authors assumed that characters couldn’t use the rods this way because they only had two hands. I also suspect that they forgot about Alter Self.

For that matter, he can also get some other inherent bonuses (per The Practical Enchanter) – +20 Movement, +3 Feats (just to be quick… these go to absorbing the three Rods, so they can’t be disjoined or taken away), +4 on each save, and +6 on each of six skills. At this point though that’s really just lagniappe. The fact that he can now afford pretty much anything non-epic that he wants is the real kicker.

Item Slots:

• Head: Circlet (Coronet) of Rapid Casting (Magic Item Compendium 86, 15,000 GP) 3 Charges/Day, spend 1/2/3 to cast a spell of up to level 2/3/4. Honestly, there are some other things that could go in this slot, but this one is pretty convenient.
• Face: Hathran Sunglasses (Mask) of True Seeing (Unapproachable East, 75,000 GP). Yes, I see him looking a lot like Morpheus in The Matrix – albeit with much better clothing and a lot of jewelry and such.
• Throat: Amulet of Natural Armor +5 (DMG, 50,000 GP). Yeah. Gotta have it. Still, since this can be combined with another item, lets throw in a Scarab of Invulnerability (Magic Item Compendium, 132, 40,000 GP).
• Shoulders: Pheonix Cloak (Magic Item Compendium 210, 50,000 GP). Flight, perfect maneuverability, at ground movement rate.
• Torso: Shirt of the Moon (Magic Item Compendium 135, 15,000 GP), DR 3/Silver.
• Arms: Shao-Lin Bracers (As per a Monks Belt, DMG 248, 13,000 GP).
• Body: Robe of Mysterious Conjuration (Magic Item Compendium 130, 10,000 GP) 3/Day turn a prepared spell into a Monster Summoning spell. Since we can add another common function here, we’ll throw in +5 Deflection Bonus to AC (50,000 GP).
• Hands: Gloves of the Balanced Hand (Magic Item Compendium 105, 8000 GP, grant two-weapon fighting feat).
• Waist: Belt of Battle (Magic Item Compendium 73, 12,000 GP): +2 Competence to Initiative, 3 charges/day spent as swift actions, spend 1/2/3 for an extra move/standard/full action.
• Feet: Boots of Speed (DMG 250, 10,000 GP): Haste self for ten rounds/day.
• Ring: Universal (Fire, Cold, Electricity, Acid, Sonic) Energy Resistance, Greater (30 Points) (Epic Item, 308,000 GP). This would actually be cheaper to get by adding the effect to items in other slots, and would save a ring slot – but this is more convenient to write.
• Ring: Freedom of Action (40,000 GP).

Primary Weapons:

• Stormbreaker: (Aurorem, Book of Exalted Deeds, can be repaired in a round if broken, +4000 GP) Hand Crossbow +1, Psychic +2, Quick Loading +2, Distance +1 (72,000 GP), with 200 +1 Spell Storing Bolts (In theory 32,000 GP, in practice he just wishes for more when he needs them). I considered adding “Split” (+3) to this – but that was just too much. (76,000 GP in total). Quite gratuitously, I say that this looks like a gun.

His most commonly loaded spells include:

• The Godfire Palm: A Fireball variant: 20′ radius burst of any standard energy type that will not affect the caster – but it’s a touch attack, with target: creature touched and no range (L3).
• Greater Scorching Ray: May produce up to five rays at caster level 19+ and may be discharged as a standard touch attack with Target: Creature Touched or as a set of rays (L3).
• Dispel Magic, Hideous Laughter, and Vampiric Touch have their place as well. Sure he can only load fifty at a time – but shall we say 30 Godfire Palms (6 of each major energy type), and five of each of the others?

Now yes, with Haste and Rapid Shot (in a Martial Art) this will let him fire off five shots in a round – 50d6 worth of energy balls or (potentially) 100d6 worth of Greater Scorching Rays to a single target. Split would have doubled that. Now, OK; these are separate attacks, and thus won’t do much (or sometimes anything at all) to creatures with good Energy Resistance – but it’s quite enough to run off minor problems. What do you want from a hand crossbow?

• Grimward: An Aurorem (BoED, +4000 GP) Manople (1d6, Crit 19-20/x2, Slashing or Piercing, +1 Shield bonus to AC, may be given both weapon and shield enchantments). Defensive: +1, Arrow Deflection (DMG, +2), Psychic (MIC, +2), Ghost Ward (MIC, +1) (36,000 GP), Called (+2000 GP), Heraldic Crest of Glory (Heroes of Battle, +1 Morale Bonus to Weapon Damage, Heroism 3/Day, +11,000 GP). Offensive: +1, Warning (+5 Insight Bonus to Initiative when wielded, +1) (8000 GP), Spellblade x2 (Dispel Magic and Greater Dispel Magic, +12,000 GP), Everbright (Immune to acid and Rusting, Flash 1/day, +2000 GP) . (Net cost: 75,000 GP).

The Manople turns up in Sandstorm, and is one of very few official 3.5 weapons that comes with a Shield bonus (the only other I can find being a Weapon of the Celestial Host) and is – as far as I know – the only one which can explicitly be enhanced with defensive effects like a shield. On the other hand it’s still a weapon – and so is compatible with a Monk’s Belt. That will be important later.

• Darkharrow: An Aurorem (BoED) Gauntlet +1, Defending (+1), Psychic (+2), Parrying (+1 Insight Bonus to AC and Saves, +2) (72,000 GP), and Everbright (Immune to acid and Rusting, Flash 1/day, +2000 GP). Intelligent: Int 19, Wis 19 Cha 10, 120 ft. darkvision, blindsense, and hearing, speech and telepathy, can read all languages and read magic (15,000 GP). Faerie Fire 3/Day (1100 GP), Spot +14 (5000 GP), Major Image 1/Day (5400 GP), Cure Moderate Wounds (2d8+3 on wielder 3/Day (6500 GP), Haste Owner 3/Day (16,000 GP), Magic Circle at Will (16.000 GP), and Continuous Detect Scrying Effect (10,000 GP), Chaotic Good. (Net 150,000 GP).

Yes, gauntlets are pretty much impossible to take away – and you do not have to be using a Defending weapon to have it defend you, you simply have to have it in your hand… Besides, a high-end sapient weapon makes a GREAT sentry for you – and can use it’s abilities on it’s own, which saves you from having to spend your actions activating them.

• Firestorm: Aurorem (BoED, +4000 GP) Fireshaped (DMG II, +800 GP, +1 damage versus cold types, appears flaming when wielded) Bastard Sword (Katana): +1, Metalline (+2) (18,000 GP) Everbright (Immune to acid and Rusting, Flash 1/day, +2000 GP) Sizing (+5000 GP, allowing him to keep an extra as a charm on a chain around his wrist)

He actually has three of these, for a total of (90,000 GP) just in case one gets broken. He usually uses them two-handed because his psychic hands can wield Grimward and Darkharrow, but occasionally switches to one-handed so he can use Stormbreaker in his other hand when he needs to switch weapons quickly or when he wants to use a metamagic rod. The Enhancement bonus won’t stack with his Imbuement (and I wouldn’t let most other enhancements do it either) – but stuff that affects the sword itself seems reasonable enough.

• Backup Weapon: Luck Blade (No Wishes) (DMG , 22,000 GP) +2 short sword that gives a +1 luck bonus to saves and lets you reroll any roll that you have just made once per day. That’s just HANDY.

Crystals (MIC): Greater Truedeath Crystal (+1d6 versus undead, Ghost Touch, may sneak attack and critical against undead, 10,000 GP), Greater Energy Assault (Electrical, +1d6 electrical, those struck are dazzled for one round, 6000 GP), Greater Demolition Crystal (+1d6 versus Constructs, weapon treated as Adamantine versus Constructs, can Critical and Sneak Attack Constructs, 6000 GP), and Fiendslayer Crystal (+1d6 versus evil outsiders, weapon is treated as being good-aligned, a critical hit keeps an evil outsider from teleporting for a round).

Slotless Items:

• Vest of the Archmagi (MIC 145, 200,000 GP): +8 armor bonus to AC as per Bracers of Armor, +5 resistance bonus on saving throws, +2 enhancement bonus on caster level checks made to overcome spell resistance, Recall a cast arcane spell of up to level nine as a swift action three times per day, spend a prepared arcane spell as a swift action to heal (5 x Spell Level) points of damage to yourself with no limit on usage. Absorbed.
• Belt of Magnificence (200,000 GP). +6 Bonus to All Attributes. Absorbed and converted to Alchemical Bonuses.
• Metamagic Rods: Enlarge (Greater, 24,500 GP), Extend (Greater, 24,500 GP), Empower (Greater, 73,000 GP), Maximize (Greater, 121,500 GP), Reach (Greater, 73,000 GP), Sculpting (Greater, 24,500 GP), Quicken (Lesser, 35,000), and Energy Substitution (two for each energy type, Lesser and Greater, 108,000 GP).

Why learn more metamagic when you can simply use what you need? Keeping them in a Handy Haversack makes getting them out a free action, he has a spare hand, and he has Still Spell on everything.

• Handy Haversack (DMG 2000 GP)
• Sphere of Awakening (Magic Item Compendium 186, 1800 GP) Swift action to awaken all allies within 60′. User and all allies are immune to fatigue, exhaustion, and sleep effects for 10 minutes.
• Survival Pouch (Magic Item Compendium 187, 3300 GP) 5/day, you can pull out one of the following: trail rations, 2 gallons of water in a waterskin, tent plus two bedrolls, 50′ rope, shovel, campfire/8 torches, composite shortbow with 20 arrows in a quiver, or a mule with bit/bridle/saddle/saddlebags. Items last for eight hours or until used up.
• Horn of Plenty (DMG, 12,000 GP) 1/Day create Heroes Feast for 12.
• Runestaff of Passage (75,000 GP). Lets him trade in prepared spells for various transport and teleportation effects.
• Rod of Fortification (The Practical Enchanter, 264,000 GP). Basically builds, maintains, or refurbishes structures. Why travel with no castle?
• Bottomless Gray Bag of Tricks (technically as per ten Bags of Tricks – 100 animals a week, at a cost of 9000 GP. In practice, unlimited.

This is primarily used to provide victim creatures for his Assimilate power (Spend 17 Power as a standard action, gain 20d6 temporary hit points and +4 to each ability score for one hour. Yes, that makes him even more absurd, but it is a ninth level effect and most of those are a bit absurd).

• Stone of Good Luck (DMG, 20,000 GP): +1 luck bonus on saving throws, ability checks, and skill checks.
• Ioun Stones: Orange (+1 Caster/Manifester Level, 30,000 GP), Clear (Sustains owner without food or water, 4000 GP), Iridescent (Sustains owner without Air, 18,000 GP), Pale Green (+1 competence bonus on attack rolls, saves, skill checks, and ability checks, 30,000 GP).
• Phantom Mill (The Practical Enchanter, 2000 GP): Keeps a lot of Unseen Servants around. As a king, he’s used to being waited on.

OK, that’s quite enough. I’ll see if I can’t add all of that up to produce a usable stat block for the next segment – but I think the point has been made. There’s no sharp dividing line where a high-level character suddenly becomes absurd (although for this particular one it would be acquiring those Rods; still, without them… he could afford all that magic anyway, as well as +5 tomes, since that would free up nearly two million gold pieces) – but sooner or later they do. In practice, if you just don’t want to give up a beloved character, they can probably retire to pure role-playing and investigative scenarios and handle any combat by narrative. If you just want to pile up bonuses… well, that can be amusing too, but I suspect that most game masters will get tired of it fairly quickly.

Honestly… if you handled the rest of the world realistically (normal people being level zero, one, or two, with only the greatest mortal experts and heroes reaching level four or five) then you could pretty readily stat out an awful lot of classical gods at around level twelve to fifteen and still neatly cover everything they were described as doing – albeit possibly by throwing in Action Hero/Stunts to cover the occasional mighty creative act during the creation of the world.

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