Creating Zultan Kulle from Diablo

[FalseKing]

Recently had a player ask me advice on how to make this particular character as a build. He's a large fan of video games and such and has recently begun learning the ways of casters rapidly and wants some ideas on how to make a build designed to create a character like Zultan Kulle form Diablo 3. I went to the sites where it discussed his powers and I know for one some things aren't absolutely able to transfer over, but I was just wondering what the best way to recreate him would be, a build plan and if possible at the request of the player how to try and recreate his attempted ritual with the Black soulstone.

[Vhaidara]

Well, Lich into Demilich fits Zultan pretty much to a key, IIRC.

[Psyren]

I'd say Dry Lich. Demilich doesn't fit as well because he needed his body to be reassembled before he could access all his magic.

[Leviting]

Well, Kulle only is seen using like four, maybe five abilities:
1. Slow Time
2. That useless energy twister spell
3. Opening locked doors
4. That aoe rock rain
5. Making the horadric constructs.

[A_S]

2. That useless energy twister spell
I died to this way more than any of his other abilities :( .

[Psyren]

He can also teleport around and definitely has the Sandform spell judging by the Horadric journal you find about their first attempt to kill him.

[FalseKing]

Hmmm, from what I've seen I would say that he definitely did have a variety of different spells and such that makes it hard to peg down a particular type of focus in his magic. But judging from my guess here is what we have in forms of what we have to work with.
1. Is still in a state of life even after the death of his body (THus he has some form of a contingent spell system or he has his separate required materials as his phylactery: Blood, Head, and body.)
2. Has a particularly high amount of magic and is quite skilled with necromancy (Given the massive number of Undead and constructs that he used as guardians for his archives)
3. Has specific magics related particularly with Deserts (In cases of his use of the twister spell and other magical abilities based on Sand and such)
4. Has access to a particular spell I cannot remember but was something in which where one replaces their heart with a soulgem containing the soul of a creature, but in his case he had adapted it into a higher level epic spell to contain even more powerful beings in mass to be kept within in order to grant him intensive powers.

Hypothesis: Zultan is most likely to be a wizard who, through a few tricks of feats, prestige out into a walker of the wastes into lichdom and then most likely became an archmage (Explaining his phenomenal magical power in D&D mechanics) And most likely has his first epic spell focused on a ritual of infusing the powers of powerful outsiders into himself.

Are there any additional notes or disagreements with this hypothesis, any helpful incites intot he matters or even the actual name for the spell I spoke of, it was briefly mentioned by my DM back when I ran a wizard who tried to steal the powers of Elminster.

[Leviting]

I died to this way more than any of his other abilities :( .

well... It's useless for me as a wizard (And I only use arcane skills!)