Body Builder
by Charis

Class: Warrior, Rogue, Sorc (as subclass of MM)
Tag: BB

Introduction

In seeing the Max possible Str for Warriors and Rogues, I noticed how far from max these classes are typically played.( The Sorcerer at least has the Muscle Mage as a variant that focuses on strength.) The body builder goes wild over +Str, his obsession.

Rules

All lvl up pts must go to STR until it is 80 (or max). Once base STR has reached 90 or is max, full plate is expected to be worn, otherwise the buff look with leather-like armor is used.

For high lvl Body Builder's (lvl 30, Hell diff), modified STR should not drop below 300 for Warriors or 135 for Rogues (305 and 110 are possible with shield, without wpn or jewels, or 425 and 230 with four perfect titans). As long as these mins are kept, you may use extra +tohit or +hp freely (allowing a CC setup or low-med AC high hp).

During item recovery, you can cast spells according to what you were wearing when you died, plus telekinesis. -Light Radius and other 'atypical' items are allowed during recovery. The preferred method is stealth mode, telekinesis, re-equip, and bludgeon.

Items

Any items may be used, but preference to high str requirements, +str weapons, +to hit and +light radius are acceptable.

When a +str or +all shield is found, they say goodbye to two-handed weapons unless its +str is greater than best 1H wpn and shield found.

Bows may be used until strength reaches 40 (War Hammer's req'ment). Muscle Rogues may use Long Battle, Short War, and Long War Bows.

Tip
At medium high levels, the dmg bonus from str will swamp most sword dmg, so a Weird Club of Titans would be a super weapon, doing up to 280 for a lvl 35 Warrior doing a critical hit. (Note: His fists would only do slightly less :)

In normal diff (when you can hit) Civerb's Cudgel will do monstrous damage. "Useless" weapons are also allowed, giving the bodybuilder a chance to show off.

Haste?! If you give up a titans slot for haste, you must not use a +dmg prefix (+to hit only) to insure bulk of damage comes from you, not weapon.

Blood?! Certainly! Given that your hp will likely be rather low. Any prefix.

No -str or -all items are ever allowed.

Jewelry
+All and +str for suffix, with these any prefix is fine.
+To Hit jewels may grudgingly be worn if too many swings are missing.
Also, a SINGLE +hp or +vit item may be worn.

Uniques
No special rules. No -str/-all, +str preferred, +light or +to hit allowed. Nice +str uniques include DSC, Leather of Aut, Messy Rvr (+5all), Overlord's Helm (+20str, +15dex), Gotter, RC, HoS, Shadowhawk (-lr, but +tohit, 5%life), Stormspire and Thundercall. The Grizzly is fun, knocking back what you don't kill in one swing.

One exception is Bloodslayer (-5 all) is allowed for its great dmg potential (like the CC). Being used to being called Fools, the Fool's Crest does NOT count against the one +hp item rule if you wear five or more +15 str items.

Some key ones that squeak in are Dreamflange (+lr), Wizardspike (+tohit), Eaglehorn (LBB, +tohit), Doombringer (+tohit, -5all). Schaefer's hammer is nice in that ALL its damage (apart from lightning) comes from the players muscles. Falcon's Talon is also nice for +tohit and dex with minimal 'from-the-sword' damage. Constricting Ring can be worn, (if you dare with the already low hitpoints), and the ROE's bashing is effectively +to hit, so it is allowed.

No bodybuilder would be caught dead in the feathery Naj's Weenie Plate.

Spells

While spells are allowed, they must not interfere with the building of the body. Hence the following limitation...

Count the number of slots where you get at least +15 to strength, and subtract one. Spells may be used up to that page number in the spellbook.

For example, Rogue with Lord's Sword of Titans, Overlord's Helm, Blessed FP of Giants, Stormshield (only +10) and Obs/Titans may use spells from the first three pages, and might choose Serp/Hvns+11 and Drake/Hvns+12.

Another example would be a young bodybuilder with Warrior's Sword of Power+12, Shield of the Moon, Helm of Might, finds a Serpent's/Power+15 and is delighted to finally be able to cast 'Heal'.

Finally, perhaps a higher level rogue wants MS and SC, and so swaps out SS for a Jade Shield of Power+15, and swaps in a Drag/Stars and a plain Zod. (Actually, with that Zod, could swap sword to wield Dreamflange :)

Quests

1) The *Useless* Streak
Corruption? Irrelevant.
The bodybuilder is as happy with finding a useless item as the BNM is with a corruption item (Well, not quite, but almost.). He will perform a streak, diving as far as possible, wearing *nothing* but the useless weapon. He may kill things, but not cast or drink. When he dies, he will re-equip normal gear and retrieve it. Note that hybrid useless items are fine, and may be used with pride afterwards if successfully retrieved. (Moon or power would be *great* suffix.)

2) The Showoff
Wearing only a useless weapon (and optionally his favorite shield), and +l.r. gear, the body builder enters the church and hopes to make it through and kill Diablo. He may drink potions and cast 'heal', but no other spells or trips to town.

3) Tornado Quest
This is a coop quest for a team of four body builders, muscle mages, Barbarians, and/or Vikings/Executioners. To be eligible, a Warrior must be capable of doing at least 150 pts dmg with their best possible hit (incl. critical), ie, enough to kill a Black Knight in one good swing. Rogues/Sorcs must be able to stun even with minimum damage. Other variants BESIDES these melee specialists may join _if_ they can do 200 pts dmg on their best swing (crit Warrior, CC rogue, etc.), and agree not to cast spells.

The *only* spells allowed are heal, heal other, golem and resurrect. The goal is to do a *full* clear of Normal Hell (though NM or Hell may be possible for some) in less than ** 40 minutes **. They may split up, leave someone behind as 'the cleaner' once stairs are found, or remain together as a wall of death.

NO return to town! Fill up with pots, buy and bring res scrolls. No restart in town, or the player must leave. Once Diablo's lair is open you get an extra 5 mins to gather gear from town, and ID.

Successful participants are called Gale, Tornado, *Devastator* for Normal, NM, Hell.

4) Trio of Upmanship
A coop quest for a warrior, rogue and sorcerer. On mixed levels, the warrior takes *all* melee opponents, the rogue all projectile monsters (witches, spitters, magma, archers) and the sorcerer takes on all mage-types and area-spell attackers (lightning and fire demons). On a level where the opponents are all the same mode, the other two may chill out or switch their own attack modes, in a show of one-upmanship. (e.g. *everyone* breaks out a bow on triple witch levels, or whacking things on knight/drake levels). Town trips are allowed.

The players have some friendly competition with their partners by trying to be the one who dies the least. (PK's count as death for PK'er, not for the one who died!)

Comments/Tips

"Offense, not Defense!"

Warrior
Good news: At higher lvls your dmg will be lethal.
Bad news: At lower lvls, that +str won't give much +dmg.
Good news: You don't need to block well if you kill quickly.
Bad news: You can never kill witches and archers fast enough.
Good news: Wear five high strength items and find a nice Drag/Titans and you can telekill. Consider a combo with the Constricting Ring, two +mana/+hvns15 jewels, and nice blood wpn.

Rogue
Good news: At higher levels you'll be the ONLY BodyBuilder that can block worth a darn.
Bad news: You have to survive til then, putting point after point into strength while your dex lags behind. (tough!)
Good news: With no gold, or a single gold, you can go CC setup :)
Bad news: No wiz jewels (you didn't want those anyway, right?!)
Good news: Stormshield, giving +10 str and fast block is legal
Bad news: It's not one of those magic '+15 str' items
Good news: You'll have more hp than sorc and more mana than warrior
Bad news: your hit points and mana points will be equally poor

Sorcerer
For the Muscle Mage who specializes in Body Building the focus is on pure, raw damage rather than blocking or hit points.

Good news: a MMBB can have up to 220 STR, at lvl 30 having a whopping 66 pts (enough to stun) _bonus_, or with a KSoTitans over 100 pts.
Bad news: if you focus THAT much on str, you will have 129 hit points and Mana Shield illegal to cast in normal difficulty, and only 85 dex.
Legal workaround: read MS _scroll_ and let that useless mana ball about triple your damage-taking potential.
Good news: getting enough str for full plate should be no stretch, and HoS or nice Blood sword may even be an option.
Bad news: I truly pity your puny hit points in H/H.
Good news: Fill up 5 slots with +15 or more STR, and you can cast MS, SC and a Golem buddy in H/H. Or you can go for a CC setup, ignoring hp and dex, for a swing in the 200 point range. More good news - you can use one hp item, as well as the Fool's Crest, so carry that extra hat and some Whale Mail, if you can fill out all the other slots with +15 str/all items.
Bad news: low lvl MMBB's will have a rough time, but if you've read this far, you want a challenge, right?!

Coop and multiclass
Partners extremely well, and can be multiclass with, Muscle Mages, Vikings, Executioners, and other melee types.

AMZBB? Should work fine, with +1vit/+4str for many early lvls. SNOBBB? DSC, SS, FC/Gotter, Shadowhawk or a number of weapons, Titan Amu could give a Warrior 340 STR. Similar to the mods for SNOB-MM, I would allow perfect +str/+all rings to be worn, since neither the Bleeder or RoRegha is allowed.
MAR-BB? Seems great, since they rely on themselves, not dmg of weapon