Opinion on a wannabe superhero character

[El Mule]

So, I made this character with Black Adam in mind. It's not a high power campaign at all but I'd want him to be effective. We start at lvl1:



Human Wizard
Focused Specialist: Conjuration, banned schools: Evocation, Enchantment, Necromancy

Stats
Str 16 - Dex 10 - Con 15 - Int 18 - Wis 10 - Cha 8
(we have a +1 magic tattoo available for 1000gp as an homebrew item, so consider Con as if it was 16 already)

Variants
-Abrupt Jaunt
-Fighter bonus feats instead of Wizard feats

Build lvl 1-10
Wizard 6/Ftr 1/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 2

Feats
1° Wiz - [Bonus] Imp. Initiative; Extend Spell; Spellcasting Prodigy or Sculpt Spell
2° Wiz - /
3° Wiz - Knowledge Devotion
4° Wiz - +1 INT
5° Wiz - [Bonus] Improved Toughness
6° Wiz - Combat Casting
7° Ftr - [Bonus] Close quarte fighting
8° SpSw - +1 INT
9° AbCh - Arcane Strike


He's going to be a battlefield controller mostly, rearranging the battlefield and keeping mobility high with Conjuration spells, but I want him to be able to step into melee when I'm in the mood for cracking skulls manually.
Consider the usual Conj spells a given, grease, clouds, transpositions and so on. I'll have a ton of Conj spells available since it's a Focused Conjurer.
To them, I'm going to add Fist of Stone and Belker Claws for hand to hand battering and the Karmic line of spells to keep foes at bay.
Also, as the comic characters Black Adam and Captain Marvel gain their powers by various aspects of their gods, the character will gain powers by the raw elemental forces - in game, this translates in the "Heart of X" line of spells, step by step from level 3 to 10 he'll unlock these new powers that I plan to extend, they are quite good utility spells and the flavor is perfect.
In the early levels of course I'll manage to be cautious and avoid close combat unless I'm really sure to manage it (and here Abrupt Jaunt greatly helps), then the character is going to enter melee more often, a 0% ASF full plate will help along with the Heart of X spells for goodies, extra HP and fortification/immunity against criticals and sneak attacks.
Only thing I'm not sure about is that I'd like to fight with fists, I don't want to waste feats on IUS so I'll have to find a decent set of spiked gauntlets.
Also, sometimes the character will fall in a state in which he "communes" with the Weave, I'm going to call it something like "the Binding Void". This will turn him into the angry brother of a Terminator, I'll use it in very difficult situations and in these rare occasions I'll use this role playing device to go ballistic and use those overpowered cards I usally avoid (Celerity, Wraithstrike, and so on).

Also, I'm not sure between Spellcasting Prodigy and Sculpt Spell. The former could give me, more or less, an extra (generic) spell per level if I keep my Int high enough, I don't really like scrolls and potions so the more spells I can cast the better it is. The latter is an awesome tool for battlefield control, but I already have Extend and playing at mid-low levels means that I won't be able to squeeze much metamagic in it. I think I could probably replace Sculpt Spell with a lesser rod (that should cost 3.000gp, 3/day is enough imho). Then again, there could be something better than Spellcasting Prodigy, not sure if I should grab Spell Focus (conjuration). There's also Spell Thematics that allows to choose 1 spell per spell level as a "signature" spell and add +1 CL to it, works good with the Heart of X spells to increase duration and secondary effects (like extra HP by Heart of Earth)

[Grayson01]

First off Huge Black Adam fan so love the idea. However I am trying to see how this character will be a DnD version of Teth Adam. What aspects of his powers are you trying to emulate? I see you band Evocation, which from a power stand point makes sense but one of Adam's most proment powers is throwing lightning Blots and Chain lightning and calling Lightning down from the Sky (SHAZAM!!!), so was wondering why you chose to ban that class?

[Grayson01]

Also have you thought about being a Cleric with the right Domains to fill in some of the spells you need?

Add in the Reserve Feats Thunder Clap (So you can do the hand clap shock wave move) and Storm Bolt (For SHAZAM lightning blasting)

Divine Power and R. Might are great for Melee

[El Mule]

You're pretty much right. I started with Black Adam in mind (awesome character!) but then steered due to other ideas and pretty much ended with a generic "superheroic" character.
As you said, a D&D Black Adam would almost surely be a divine metamagic cleric. The magic he uses is granted by Gods and it pretty much sums up in: "extra strong, quick and tough, plus throwing lightning in other people's face".
More or less I want someone who feels "superheroic", without going further into details.

But, since I need him to be effective in my game, I made this changes: he's going to be very similar to Black Adam from a role play point of view, but will have his own powers.
Without evocation it's hard to find good Electricity spells and Clap of Thunder would need Orb of Sound, which is a lvl 4 spell that I'd need to keep there just for the feat to work.
Anyway, here what I came up with: first, I need him to be an arcane caster, for mobility and battlefield control. As a superhero, I grouped his main powers in macro areas:



-magic (of course) granted by both extensive study and innate talent, this is THE signature power. He is going to have a dual set of spells: utility+buffs for those times I want to enter melee; battlefield control+usual Conjurer stuff for everyday action. After a couple of levels I'm going to prepare both sets. For his "full caster" mode I took inspiration by Dr Fate, he's really the prototype of the caster, but tougher, similar Egyptian theme to Black Adam also.
His daily transformation (Shazam style) is going to progress step by step while I unlock the new "Heart of X" spells, and the peak is going to be at level 10, when I'll be able to Extend all the spells I need for all day or almost all day.
Which means Heart of Air/Water/Earth/Fire + Greater Enlarge Person + Disobedience: +10 Jump checks, +10ft fly speed, swim speed, water breathing, +5 Escape Artist, +8 to resist trip/bull rush/overrun, +2xCL HP, +10ft land speed, Fire Resistance 20, Feather Fall/Freedom of Movement (!)/Stoneskin/Fire Shield as swift actions, Immunity to critical hits and sneak attacks, Immunity to compulsions, Large size.
I know, nothing special, but hell I like the concept.

-matter and density manipulation: many of his spells fall into this power, I came up with this since another of my favorite heroes is the Vision and at first I couldn't decide between an Adam-like or a Vision-like character. Density manipulation mostly comes in play with touch attacks, it's the "phasing" thing like phasing an arm, put it inside of someone's body and then solidify it. Also, some of his teleporting powers are consequence of density manipulation, like Abrupt Jaunt.

-nervous system charge: this doesn't come from the character's innate magic talent (mostly), but from his studies on anatomy along with his military tactical training. He has a degree of control on his own nervous system, the main use is to have a better reaction time. More or less, this is the role play reason behind Improved Initiative and an excuse for all immediate and swift spells I'm going to cast, in particular Nerveskitter, Karmic Aura, Wraithstrike and Celerity, you get the idea. Also, some other spells might be tied to this power (like Stoneskin for example, I'll just role the DR to be a side effect of his pain sensors being shut down to shrug off blows).

-great physical conditioning: Str 16, Cos 16, mostly. Improved Toughness at lvl 5, good Fortitude (especially since from level 6). Will have to find a way for low Reflex saves, tho, the Insightful Reflexes feat might be useful here.

-genius level intellect: well, self explicative.

-master strategist: explains Knowledge Devotion, the character is well versed in every possible branch of study but most of his knowledge is used to improve combat effectiveness.



This is more or less everything, I wanted to gave him a superheroic feel, it's going to be hard with these premises but at least the game we play is not particularly optimized (I'd say, little to no optimization).
Also, from a visual point of view, I could use Spell Thematics (with "lightning" as a theme).