3.5 how do you build an edgy cleric?

[Trandir]

Ok one of my players will rejoin the campaign but decided to change her PC since the previous one "wasn't fun to play".

The campaign has a very light tone mostly to get into wacky adventures. And she wants to play a edgy cleric this time around.

And so far we got on our hands a halfling 4th level cleric of Lolth with the destruction and trickery domains. For ability scores eveyone gets point buy 32 and all published material is legal. And she wants some advice to build this thing. But I myself have no idea about how to build a "edgy cleric", any advice?

[Batcathat]

Lots of eyeshadow and emo music?

[Jay R]

Until she can tell you what “edgy” means to her, in D&D terms, we can’t help you.

We can optimize any ability, or any approach, but not until we know what ability or approach we’re supposed to optimize.

[Trandir]

Lots of eyeshadow and emo music?

Right, that will come in handy.


Until she can tell you what “edgy” means to her, in D&D terms, we can’t help you.

We can optimize any ability, or any approach, but not until we know what ability or approach we’re supposed to optimize.

Mmmmh edgy by her means any of the following: inflict magical pain, becoming one with the shadows, using blood to fuel magic, mind controlling people and stealing life force

And while a wizard is probably a better at all of those she wants to be a cleric.

[Maat Mons]

Oh boy! I get to stomp all over someone's character concept!

If you look at the Cleric class in the Player's Handbook, in the Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells section, you'll find this oft-overlooked buzzkill: "If the typical worshipers of a deity include members of a race, a cleric must be of the indicated race to choose that deity as his own. (The god may have occasional worshipers of other races, but not clerics.)"

So no halfling Clerics of Lolth. No non-drow Clerics of Lolth at all.

[Batcathat]

Out of curiosity, why she go for halfling to start with? Seems like the polar opposite of "edgy".

Now that I think about it, a halfling who really tries to be edgy and worships Lloth pretty much against the latter's will could be a pretty funny character but probably not what the player has in mind.

[Trandir]

Oh boy! I get to stomp all over someone's character concept!

If you look at the Cleric class in the Player's Handbook, in the Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells section, you'll find this oft-overlooked buzzkill: "If the typical worshipers of a deity include members of a race, a cleric must be of the indicated race to choose that deity as his own. (The god may have occasional worshipers of other races, but not clerics.)"

So no halfling Clerics of Lolth. No non-drow Clerics of Lolth at all.

Yes I know, and I told my players to ignore that line so Yes halfling Clerics of Lolth.

I am the DM of a goofy adventure and I just want my players to have fun, but I do not know how to build evil clerics unfortunately, and the player doesn't know how to build characters at all so there is that.


Out of curiosity, why she go for halfling to start with? Seems like the polar opposite of "edgy".

Now that I think about it, a halfling who really tries to be edgy and worships Lloth pretty much against the latter's will could be a pretty funny character but probably not what the player has in mind.

Ok. The small synopsis I got is "she fell into the nest of a giant spider got most of his gey matter melted with spider venom and she somehow survived. Now she has gone crazy and worships the "Lady of the Spiders" in hope to appease her".

So far there is nothing else and this makes almost no sense already.

[Vizzerdrix]

Mmm... drow half fiend, half celestial, half vampire cleric. Swap out all cure spells for healing touch and bestow wound. You may need to make stronger versions as the player levels.

Google search for edgy name generators, and kit bash a backstory from the Drizzt books, FF7, and any random Anne Rice novel.


That should cover it. Throw on the dark template if it isn't enough.


EDIT: look up the god Cas in Frostburn. That should be right on the money.

EDIT: I forgot the katana. Can't be an edgy character without a katana.

[Trandir]

Mmm... drow half fiend, half celestial, half vampire cleric. Swap out all cure spells for healing touch and bestow wound. You may need to make stronger versions as the player levels.

Google search for edgy name generators, and kit bash a backstory from the Drizzt books, FF7, and any random Anne Rice novel.


That should cover it. Throw on the dark template if it isn't enough.

The race is halfling but the rest is good to make her edgy.

[Saintheart]

Make their god the Lord of Blades? He seems pretty edgy.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/014/959/Screenshot_116.png

[ATHATH]

Nosomatic Chiurgeon is a halfling-only PrC that specializes in Inflict spells and diseases (and requires a non-Good alignment as a prerequisite). Sadly, the Inflict spells are all really, really bad, but Mastery of Day and Night and some of the Draconic Prophesy fights might be able to kind of sort of help with that (or you could just focus on the diseases). NC is usually used for invocation-using builds that can use the Inflict spells from it at-will, but normal casters (like Clerics) can also have their casting progression advanced by it.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

First of all, use the Dark Creature template from ToM with the +1 LA already bought off (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm). Or use Lolth-Touched in MMIV, which super-helps with the ability scores. Or pivot to worshipping Vecna and use Vecna-Blooded in MMV.

Use the Master of Spiders ACF in DotU p57-58, which allows her to rebuke/command vermin instead of undead but it can still be used to power divine feats. When using that against spiders she gets +4 to her effective level, which at 4th level allows her to start with something as powerful as a large monstrous spider. You can command up to your effective Cleric level in HD of commanded minions, so 8 HD worth of various spiders. A large monstrous spider is 4 HD, a medium monstrous spider is 2 HD, or a spider swarm is 2 HD. So a large monstrous spider that she rides on, and two spider swarms?

She should take Craft: Poisonmaking from CV, and I'd even use Cloistered Cleric for more skill points, and replace the bonus knowledge domain with knowledge devotion.

Clerics aren't very good at dealing damage with spells directly, they're better at buffing themselves and using weapons to deal damage. She could use DMM: Persistent Cloud of Knives (PH2) starting out, and then DMM: Persistent Ice Axe once she gets 3rd level spells. You could make it so using a poisoned knife as the material component for Cloud of Knives make each of those deliver the same poison? Be sure to start with a Reliquary Holy Symbol and eventually get a Nightstick (or multiple if they'll stack).

[ATHATH]

You can also look into some necromancy builds:
http://minmaxforum.com/index.php?topic=2733.0
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?444597-The-Necromancer-Handbook

You might also want to look at Corrupt spells, which include such lovely things as Lahm's Finger Darts and Love's Pain.

[Ramza00]

Right, that will come in handy.



Mmmmh edgy by her means any of the following: inflict magical pain, becoming one with the shadows, using blood to fuel magic, mind controlling people and stealing life force

And while a wizard is probably a better at all of those she wants to be a cleric.

Deeper Darkness and Ebon Eyes is easy for a cleric. Cast Deeper Darkness on a dagger or other item (lasts days per level) and then cover that item up blocking line of effect until you reveal the item. Ebon Eyes lasts 10 mins per level and you can rod of extend lesser / pearl of power it for cheap thus you can easily make it all day. Darkness plus ability to see in darkness is like invisibility that you can attack in with no saving throw. A buff that works via being an enemy debuff.

There are similar spells with snow that are actually better since less creatures will have abilities to see snow, but there is also a cleric spell in frostburn that allows you to see through snow.

[Jay R]

My primary thought is that an edgy character built by a DM who doesn’t really know how to build an edgy character, played by a player who also doesn’t know how to build one is not likely to succeed. My best advice is for you to homebrew a Spider or Necromancy domain.

Do what you can for the player, but I’m skeptical that it can work.


Out of curiosity, why she go for halfling to start with? Seems like the polar opposite of "edgy".

You are aware that you’re posting to to the website that publishes *The Order of the Stick*, right?

[Maat Mons]

You think Belkar's edgy? He's just a standard murder-hobo.

If you want to be edgy you need a tragic backstory. Like being haunted by the ghost of your father who, by the way, killed your brother when you were young. Or having been driven out of your homeland dissipate not having done anything wrong. Maybe your mother died when you were little, and you grew up poor and exploited, forced into a life of crime to survive. Or your very own twin brother wants nothing more than to destroy your life.

It doesn't hurt to have a pet raven either.

[Trandir]

My primary thought is that an edgy character built by a DM who doesn’t really know how to build an edgy character, played by a player who also doesn’t know how to build one is not likely to succeed. My best advice is for you to homebrew a Spider or Necromancy domain.

Do what you can for the player, but I’m skeptical that it can work.


Well neither me or the player know how to build an edgy character but that's why I am asking for help here. If the character sheet is filled then playing the actual character would be rather easy. But I just now realise that most of the choices have already been made.

All that remains to choose are the lv 1 and 3 feats and some edgy 1st and 2nd level spells, and maybe 1 magic item to pick with the 5.400 gp from the wbl gold.

And I would try to avoid homebreweing, even tho domains are probably one of the safest things to homebrew. But that's a non issue since the domains have already been picked

[Particle_Man]

A few more ideas:

a) Ruathar is a prestige class that does not cost spellcasting levels but could explain you being a “drow friend”.

b) Alternatively, clerics of Wee Jas are pretty edgy (LN clerics use the inflict light wounds/control undead side of the force, and I think mind control is part of the spell list of one of her domains, and Death is another domain of hers) and there is a nice prestige class for them called Ruby Knight Vindicator to get some shadow teleportation abilities. How committed is the player to Lolth in particular?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Well neither me or the player know how to build an edgy character but that's why I am asking for help here. If the character sheet is filled then playing the actual character would be rather easy. But I just now realise that most of the choices have already been made.

All that remains to choose are the lv 1 and 3 feats and some edgy 1st and 2nd level spells, and maybe 1 magic item to pick with the 5.400 gp from the wbl gold.

And I would try to avoid homebreweing, even tho domains are probably one of the safest things to homebrew. But that's a non issue since the domains have already been picked

My previous advice still stands, pick and choose what looks good from it.

Of course take two flaws (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (more here) for two extra feats. Strongheart Halfling in FRCS trades the +1 bonus on all saving throws with a bonus feat, and also changes some of the skill bonuses. So instead of two feats, you've got five to pick. Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, DMM: Persist, Extra Turning, and maybe Trickery Devotion, since there's no initiate feat for Lolth that I'm able to find. Mercantile Background in PGtF is also a strong choice.

Reliquary Holy Symbol (1,000 gp)
Anklet of Translocation (1,400 gp)
Masterwork Heavy Darkwood Shield (257 gp)
Some kind of armor (varies)
Melee weapon (varies)
Holy Symbols
Poison making supplies!
Poisons made from milking monstrous spider minions.

[Rebel7284]

Shadowcraft Mage can be pretty edgy and can give a ton of power too. You are wrapped in shadows, making illusions into reality.

Edit: the adaptation section talks about non-gnome entry

[hamishspence]

If you look at the Cleric class in the Player's Handbook, in the Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells section, you'll find this oft-overlooked buzzkill: "If the typical worshipers of a deity include members of a race, a cleric must be of the indicated race to choose that deity as his own. (The god may have occasional worshipers of other races, but not clerics.)"


Depending on the pantheon, that may be fudgeable. According to Deities & Demigods, the "typical worshippers" of Thor include dwarfs - but that doesn't mean that only dwarfs can be clerics of Thor. Quite apart from the fact that, in this case:


Yes I know, and I told my players to ignore that line so Yes halfling Clerics of Lolth.


the DM has already chosen to fudge it.

[Batcathat]

You are aware that you’re posting to to the website that publishes *The Order of the Stick*, right?

Right, but isn't Belkar being a murderous psycho despite being a halfling kind of the joke?

It's not that a halfling couldn't be an edgy character, it's just that I wouldn't expect it to be the first choice of someone who thinks "Oooh, let's make something really edgy!"

[hamishspence]

They have their own subrace in BOVD - the Jerren, which are at the high end of the "edgy" scale.

[tiercel]

Go with Defiant (Planar Handbook)? Is it edgy enough to be an atheist in a campaign setting where gods literally exist and grant magical powers to their most devout worshipers?

(Granted, the Athar don’t believe the gods don’t exist so much as that they aren’t really gods, just really powerful hucksters who don’t deserve veneration.)

[Uncle Pine]

Heartache is a nice edgy spell from BoVD which doubles as a save-or-die as long as the target is in coup de grace range of one of your ally - and it's only 1st level! Extend it and you can even CdG the guy yourself.

Out of curiosity though, wouldn't an edgy cleric normally be polar opposite to the light-hearted theme of the campaign?

[Trandir]

Heartache is a nice edgy spell from BoVD which doubles as a save-or-die as long as the target is in coup de grace range of one of your ally - and it's only 1st level! Extend it and you can even CdG the guy yourself.

Out of curiosity though, wouldn't an edgy cleric normally be polar opposite to the light-hearted theme of the campaign?

Nice one. Thanks for the spell, I guess I could just dump the BoVD to her and say "here everything there is edgy, have fun".

Truth be told the campaign is not light-hearted, it's just not that serious. At 4th level they are going around investigating a bard murderer who leaves the corpses horribly disfigured around the town.

[Uncle Pine]

Keep in mind that an edgy [insert class] character can also benefit from a premium edgy background: you can watch from 0:00 to 0:40 of this video (https://youtu.be/4FX_2UevHbE) for some inspiration.

[Maat Mons]

When she picked Destruction and Trickery, did she actually know what all of her domain options were?

According to Faiths an Pantheons, Lolth's domains are Chaos, Darkness, Destruction, Drow, Evil, Spider, and Trickery. Dragon 323 add Envy, Lust, and Pride. The Envy, Lust, and Pride domains were later reprinted in Spell Compendium, but without any indication of which deities offer them. (For that matter, so were the Darkness, Drow, and Spider domains.)

If she wants to be able to rebuke spiders, the spider domain could set her up with that without having to give up Rebuke Undead. Though it would of course be valid to take the ACF for rebuking vermin so you can save your domain pick for something better.

Or, I guess you could take the ACF for rebuking vermin and the Spider domain for rebuking spiders, for twice as many rebuked spiders.

The Pride domain has a pretty nice granted power. Envy would be a good choice for that ACF that lets you cast your domain spells spontenously. Trickery isn't a bad choice for that ACF either.

A Cleric with the Darkness and Spider domains feels pretty angsty. Moreso that a Cleric with the Destruction and Trickery domains. Destroying things is fun. Tricking people is fun. How could a Cleric of destruction and trickery ever not be happy?

If she's had her brain mostly melted, the feat Deformity (Madness) might be thematic. It's definitely powerful. Complete immunity to all mind-affecting effects. But it's kind of rough on Clerics, since it gives -4 Wis. If you let her have Dynamic Priest, it could be workable. Though her save DCs would suck.

[liquidformat]

Lichloved is a pretty 'edgy' feat if only for the feat description.

Mother Cyst feat and its accompanying spells seem to make sense for 'edgy' cleric

Sacrificial Mastery and torture rules in BoVD seem to make sense too

If you want to flip the concept on its head you could go Monk 2/Thug sneak attack Fighter 1/Cancer Mage 1 and be a halfling 'priest' of Lolth. That might be comical since lolth isn't acknowledging the halfling as a cleric but the halfling is proselytizing for Lolth and condemning all races except for Drow in the name of Lolth, and spreading pestilence to cleanse the world.

[Ramza00]

If she's had her brain mostly melted, the feat Deformity (Madness) might be thematic. It's definitely powerful. Complete immunity to all mind-affecting effects. But it's kind of rough on Clerics, since it gives -4 Wis. If you let her have Dynamic Priest, it could be workable. Though her save DCs would suck.

This is mixing setting books but.

Keen Intellect (Int to Will Saves, Wis Skills are now Int Skills)
Academic Priest (Int to max Cleric Spells and Bonus Spells, but not Save DCs)
Willing Deformity (prerequisite feat)
Deformity Madness (Immunity to Mind Affecting, -4 to Wisdom but who cares since Int powers Will Save and Wisdom Skills, once every minute add half your character level to your Will Saving Throws as an Immediate Action.)

Add in Cloistered Cleric and now you are playing a mad scientist who is researching his way through the divine madness which is reality.

[liquidformat]

This is mixing setting books but.

Keen Intellect (Int to Will Saves, Wis Skills are now Int Skills)
Academic Priest (Int to max Cleric Spells and Bonus Spells, but not Save DCs)
Willing Deformity (prerequisite feat)
Deformity Madness (Immunity to Mind Affecting, -4 to Wisdom but who cares since Int powers Will Save and Wisdom Skills, once every minute add half your character level to your Will Saving Throws as an Immediate Action.)

Add in Cloistered Cleric and now you are playing a mad scientist who is researching his way through the divine madness which is reality.

or you know be an archivist and then you can ignore academic priest at least...

[Jay R]

Part of the problem is that "edgy" is not really descriptive. It just means someone on the edge of something you expect her to be in the center of. It could mean the neutral good PC in a party of paladins, or the True Neutral in a Good party, or the Chaotic in the Lawful party, or the Evil character in the Neutral party. Or many other things not tied to alignment, like the hidden rogue in a party of stalwart fighters. Try to get her to define exactly what kind of "edgy" she wants, or you are likely to create a correctly edgy character that doesn't fulfill what she really wants.



Right, but isn't Belkar being a murderous psycho despite being a halfling kind of the joke?

Well, it certainly leads to many jokes.

He's a halfling, he's supposed to be jolly. Why isn't he jolly? WHY ISN'T HE JOLLY? (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0435.html)

But he's still an example that halflings aren't inherently excluded from the deep end of the alignment pool (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0645.html), which includes many different styles of "edgy".



It's not that a halfling couldn't be an edgy character, it's just that I wouldn't expect it to be the first choice of someone who thinks "Oooh, let's make something really edgy!"

To the extent that edgy means anything at all (an open question), it means "different from those around her". An edgy halfling should be someone different from most halflings -- which is exactly what she's trying to do.

[Trandir]

Part of the problem is that "edgy" is not really descriptive. It just means someone on the edge of something you expect her to be in the center of. It could mean the neutral good PC in a party of paladins, or the True Neutral in a Good party, or the Chaotic in the Lawful party, or the Evil character in the Neutral party. Or many other things not tied to alignment, like the hidden rogue in a party of stalwart fighters. Try to get her to define exactly what kind of "edgy" she wants, or you are likely to create a correctly edgy character that doesn't fulfill what she really wants.




Well, it certainly leads to many jokes.

He's a halfling, he's supposed to be jolly. Why isn't he jolly? WHY ISN'T HE JOLLY? (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0435.html)

But he's still an example that halflings aren't inherently excluded from the deep end of the alignment pool (https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0645.html), which includes many different styles of "edgy".




To the extent that edgy means anything at all (an open question), it means "different from those around her". An edgy halfling should be someone different from most halflings -- which is exactly what she's trying to do.

According to her being edgy by means doing any of the following whenever possible: inflict magical pain, becoming one with the shadows, using blood to fuel magic, mind controlling people and stealing life force.

[Ramza00]

or you know be an archivist and then you can ignore academic priest at least...

Depends on your style of play.

Archivist has 1 less spell per level since it has no domain spell slot and also has Wisdom for its Bonus Spells (which Academic Priest fixes and makes Int.)
Cloistered Cleric would have 6+Int Skill Points, Archivist has 2+Int Skill Points.

There are pros and cons for each route, thus it is a subjective personal choice of what you want to play. Want every cleric spell accessible within 10 minutes for you keep a spell slot open go with Cleric, if you want something similar with Archivist you have to track down those spells via quests or hope your DM makes it easy to do magic marks and swap spells with other classes which do not have prayerbooks.

[nedz]

Lots of eyeshadow and emo music?

Trickery domain gives Disguise Self - so that's the make-up sorted.

As to edgy: well how about using Rebuke Undead to power Healing Devotion instead of casting those boring old curing spells ?

Ed:
Looking at this again - we still have too many options

Inflict magical pain, becoming one with the shadows, mind controlling people.
Beguiler ?


Inflict magical pain, becoming one with the shadows, stealing life force.
Necromancer ?

[ShurikVch]

inflict magical pain
Profane Agony feat

Spells:
Angry Ache (Book of Vile Darkness)
Blade of Pain and Fear (Spell Compendium)
Circle of Nausea (Book of Vile Darkness)
Slash Tongue (Book of Vile Darkness)
Symbol of Pain
Wall of Pain (Shining South)
Wrack (Spell Compendium)



becoming one with the shadows
Feats:
Blend Into Shadows (Drow of the Underdark)
Fade Into Darkness (Drow of the Underdark)
(To satisfy the "Darkness" prerequisite, take the Innate Spell (Darkness) feat)



using blood to fuel magic
Bane of Infidels PrC (Masters of the Wild): have such CFs as Sacrifice, Major Sacrifice, and Mass Sacrifice

Spells with "blood" in the material components:
Bladebane (Unapproachable East)
Demonic Blood Infusion (Ghostwalk WE)
Extract Gift (Fiendish Codex I)
Fire In the Blood (Heroes of Horror)
Masochism (Book of Vile Darkness)
Sadism (Book of Vile Darkness)
Stone Trap (Shining South)
Utterdark (Book of Vile Darkness)
Zone of Respite (Spell Compendium)

Also, while not, exactly, "blood", there is Eldritch Corruption feat in the Heroes of Horror



mind controlling people
Well, there are enough such spells:
Command / Greater Command
Enthrall
Geas/quest / Familial Geas (Heroes of Horror)
Remorseless Charm (Champions of Ruin)
Symbol of Persuasion

For feats, take Commanding and Puppet Master (both are from Dragon #312)

Finally, there is "Mentalist" ACF (in the Even More Magic & Mayhem), which - among other things - replaces Rebuke Undead with Rebuke Humanoid



and stealing life force
Spells:
Death Knell
Consumptive Field
Greater Consumptive Field

Feats:
Life Leech (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/spelltouchedFeats.htm#lifeLeech)
Profane Lifeleech (Libris Mortis)

[Feantar]

Oh boy! I get to stomp all over someone's character concept!

If you look at the Cleric class in the Player's Handbook, in the Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells section, you'll find this oft-overlooked buzzkill: "If the typical worshipers of a deity include members of a race, a cleric must be of the indicated race to choose that deity as his own. (The god may have occasional worshipers of other races, but not clerics.)"

So no halfling Clerics of Lolth. No non-drow Clerics of Lolth at all.

Surprisingly, Drow are a subrace, not a race. So you ccan have an non-drow cleric of Llolth, as long as they are an elf. RAW, that is.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

According to her being edgy by means doing any of the following whenever possible: inflict magical pain, becoming one with the shadows, using blood to fuel magic, mind controlling people and stealing life force.

I'll agree that the Profane Agony feat in DotU covers inflicting magical pain. It's even compatible with the Master of Spiders ACF I recommended. I'd say delivering poison runs hand in hand with this goal, making spider minions and Craft: Poisonmaking top choices.

Get a necklace with a small pendant made from wood or bone, put Unguent of Timelessness on it. Hire an NPC spellcaster to put Extended Deeper Darkness on it, Heightened to 4th level so it beats any Daylight cast at its default level, at a caster level 20th. That normally lasts 40 days, but the unguent makes every day's passage of time take an entire year for the item that's cast on, making it last 40 years. You remember those weird girls in middle school who liked to chew on their necklace? She can hold the pendant in her mouth to block the darkness effect, but 'drop' it as a free action by spitting it out to suddenly plunge the are into darkness. If you don't like the unguent shenanigans she can just cast it herself every few days once she's high enough level and use a Lesser Rod of Extend on it. Cast Ebon Eyes or take the Baator domain in SC to be able to see in magical darkness.

There are a few ways I can think of to accomplish blood magic, such as the Tainted Scholar in HoH and Blood Magus in CA, both of which are arcane-only. There's Maho-Tsukai in OA, which became Tainted Sorcerer (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/taint.htm#taintedPrestigeClasses) in UA, which is the predecessor to Tainted Scholar as described in its adaptation section, stating the designers wanted to combine Tainted Sorcerer and Loremaster for a forbidden dark knowledge theme. Given the source of the Tainted Scholar's design, you could make a divine version that combines Tainted Sorcerer and some abilities from a fitting divine prestige class.

Mind controlling is mostly enchantment spells which Clerics are lacking in. Stealing life force may be animating the dead or creating incorporeal undead from fallen foes, or using Vampiric Touch or Empathic Transfer, Hostile or even something like Magic Jar. I'd say going Cleric 3/ Ardent 1 straight into Psychic Theurge (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040925b) (or a Tainted Sorcerer version of Psychic Theurge) is the way to go. Get the Corruption and Madness mantle for the mind-stuff and Pain and Suffering mantle for the magical pain stuff plus stealing life force. That first level of Ardent needs to be taken at 3rd level, at which you also get Practiced Manifester so you can pick 2nd level powers. Be sure to use Substitute Powers (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070629a) to pick up additional powers that are fitting for the mantles chosen. A second Aredent level gets another mantle, that could be Deception or Destruction or Light and Darkness or Mental Power, there are plenty that fit the character.