Need help with a high-level Arena character

[Zebu]

Greetings and Salutations.  I am trying to design an ECL 20 character for a player versus player arena-type game.  I've never built a character for PvP (or above level 12) before, so this is somewhat difficult.  Any and all advice would be appreciated.
I've read the Cleric Handbook, the "PvP builds" thread in this forum, and I'm working my way through the list of save-or-die spells.  But they seem more geared towards team play (the horror!).  It's so -weird- designing a character who doesn't have "mass" in front of his main spells!

First, house rules:
Stats are based on a 30 point buy.
Character is built with 200,000XP (level 20+10,000) and 760,000gp
Character -must- have ECL 20 when all is said and done.  For this reason, only the first level of LA can be bought off if using an LA+2 template.  But LA buyoff is allowed.
Use fractional saves/BAB.
All official WotC sources/material are allowed except for the following: Spell Compendium, Magic Item Compendium, Mineral Warrior, Anthropomorphic Animals, Anti-magic (and its dependencies and psionic equivalents).  Spell immunity and such are fine, but no anti-magic.
The Leadership feat reduces your ECL cap by 1/4 of the cohort's level.
Hit dice are maximized at all levels.

Next, Arena rules:
Fights are one-one one and last a maximum of 100 rounds.
Characters get 3 rounds before the fight starts to do what they want.  Buffs cast before those three rounds start (i.e., in the morning) only carry into the round if their duration is 12 hours or more.
Your opponent can be defeated by killing them, knocking them out of the ring, getting them to surrender (i.e. Dominate Monster) or otherwise incapacitating them.  This also means that if you leave the arena (i.e. Plane Shift) you forfeit.  Teleporting around the arena is allowed however, as is co-terminus planes within reason (this allows for ghosts, but camping in the Shadow Plane is not allowed).
In between fights there is a one day "rest" and full healing.
The fights are set in one of several random arenas where characters begin anywhere from 40' to 120' apart.  All of the arenas resemble cities and are covered by a non-dispel-able pseudo-daylight spell (in other words, we can see, but vampires don't die automatically).

Special things to note:
The GM has already approved the Saint template for my character.  That right there should tell you something about what he expects characters to be like in this arena.

And...  *wrings hands* Here's my character so far.  When commenting, keep in mind that I have never. made. a. character. at. this. level. before.  That means that I don't recognize common abbreviations for 9th-level spells, I don't know what 'everybody knows...'  Heck, I can't even decide which spells to pick for Greater Spell Immunity.
If you're willing to work with someone like that, great!  Any help would be appreciated, any help at all.
If possible, I'd also like advice on what to do-- that is, what spells to cast in the morning, how best to make use of those three free rounds, etc.  I've started work on that (it's right after the character sheet), but I've got a long way to go.

This is essentially a copy/paste of my character sheet so far; the source citations and explanations are in no way an insult to this forum's intelligence!  Speaking of which, if you mention something outside the SRD, please cite it.  It saves so much time.


-Events that happen before the game:
Study the manual and tome
Cast Renewal Pact
Charge Ring of Counterspells with Greater Dispel Magic
Bond with sword using Ritual of Magic [DMGII, page 234]

Aaron S. Geisel
Human Saint
Cloistered Cleric 4
Ordained Champion 5
Bone Knight 10
Current experience: 10,000-5,000(buyoff)-3168(Ritual of Magic for bond)=1832

Str 27 (20 base+5 inherent+2 Enhancement)
Dex 12 (10 base+2 Enhancement)
Con 18 (14 base+2 template+2 enhancement)
Int 10 (8 base+2 enhancement)
Wis 24 (15 base+2 template+5 inherent+2 enhancement)
Cha 20 (14 base+4 template+2 enhancement)


LET'S CALCULATE FRACTIONAL BAB AND SAVES!  I hope.
4*Cloistered: BAB:0.5 Fort:0.5 Ref:0.33 Will:0.5
5*Champion: BAB:1 Fort:0.5 Ref:0.33 Will:0.5
10*Bone: BAB:0.75 Fort:0.5 Ref:0.33 Will:0.33
CC: BAB2 Fort2+2 Ref4/3 Will2+2
Champ: BAB5 Fort2.5 Ref5/3 Will2.5
Bone: BAB7.5 Fort5 Ref10/3 Will10/3
Total: BAB14.5 Fort11.5 Ref19/3 Will6.5+3+1/3

Hit Points: 4d6 + 5d8 + 5d10 + 19*3(Con)=171
AC 39 (10 base +8 armor +4 shield +1 Dex +5 Deflection +11 Insight)
Touch 27, Flat 38
Init +1 (+1 Dex)
BAB +14.5, Grap +21.5
Speed 20ft (base 30ft, light load, heavy armor)
Fort +16 (+11.5 base +4 Con +0 resistance)
Ref   +7 (+6.33 base +1 Dex +0 resistance)
Will +16 (+8.83 base +7 Wis +0 resistance)

+24 Melee, Longsword with a long name, 1d8+12 17-20/x2 [We all know there are going to be a ton of buffs changing this.  After my spell list is finished and approved, I'll add a "typical attack."  But this is what he gets without any magic.  So glad you've banned antimagic field!]

Medium, Lawful Good
Skill points: 7*6(Cloistered Cleric)+5*2(Ordained Champion)+10*2(Bone Knight)+22*1(Human)+19*1(Nymph's Kiss)=113
Note that all of these modifiers will probably be different in an actual battle because of temporary modifiers.animate dead on target corpse to make it Karrnathi skeleton or zombie; counts against maximum controllable undead.
-Bonecraft Weapon(Ex): Include shards of bone to give a weapon +1d6 damage vs living enemies
-Exoskeleton of Undeath(Ex): Armor fuses permanently to body (removal is fatal); immunity to poison, sleep, paralysis, disease, death, fatigue,

exhaustion, ability damage, ability drain, energy drain, and "death from massive damage."
-Death Strike (Su): Once per day, struck living target must make a Fort save (DC: 10+Bone Knight level+Cha modifier) or die.  "This is a

Necromantic Death effect."
-Medium BAB (+7 over 10 levels), Fort is a good save, Will and Reflex are bad, d10 HD
-2+Int skill points-

Other Traits:
Ritual of Magic-- +1 on caster level checks while carrying the bonded item (his Longsword)


Special
[This is where I'd normally put his mount.  But let's be honest, if I want to spend a full round summoning something during the fight, I'm going to summon a massive Outsider or something, not a skeletal heavy warhorse.]


Equipment: maximum of 760,000gp
 99,600 - Longsword (Breakdown below)
    567 - Bone Armor (breakdown below)
  8,000 - Enhancements to armor spikes
 18,000 - +1 Animated Tower Shield (SRD)
  4,000 - Gauntlets of War (Complete Champion)
  4,000 - Ring of Counterspells (DMG)
107,600 - Ring of Spell-Battle and Protection +5 (Complete Arcane; 67,600+50,000)
 20,000 - Bead of Karma (SRD) [1/day +4 to caster level for 10 minutes]
137,500 - Tome of Understanding +5 (DMG)
137,500 - Manual of Gainful Exercise +5 (DMG)
 60,000 - Ankh of Ascension (Races of Faerun) [+4 to caster level]
 30,000 - Orange Ioun Stone (SRD) [+1 to caster level]
 24,000 - Minor Cloak of Displacement (DMG) [Opponents always have a 20% miss chance]
 25,000 - Daazzix's Vest (DMGII) [+5 to existing spell resistance]
  8,400 - Candle of Invocation (SRD) [+2 levels for four hours.]
 24,500 - Greater Rod of Metamagic:Extend
 25,000 - Belt of Magnificence +2
Total cost: 733,667

Gp left: 26,333gp



Breakdown of weapons and armor:
Sword-- 99,600 gp
Masterwork Longsword [Craft for (15+300)/3=105-- SRD][1d8 19-20/x2 Slashing]
Bone [Add for free to weapons made by Bone Knights] [Adds 1d6 damage when striking a living creature-- Five Nations]
Souldrinking [Costs a +4 Enhancement][Bestows negative level when dealing damage (two if critical hit is scored)-- Book of Vile Darkness]
Sudden Stunning [Costs 2000][After successful melee attacks, wielder can use a swift action so that target must make a reflex save (DC 10+1/2*wielder's level+wielder's Charisma modifier or be stunned for 1d4+1 rounds--Dungeon Master's Guide II]
Greater Dispelling [Costs 79,200, achieved through the Bond so instead it cost 29600gp and 3168XP][After successful melee attacks, 3/day Greater Dispel as a free action-- Player's Guide to Faerun]
Spellblade [Costs 6000] [When targeted with the spell Energy Drain, absorb the spell-- Player's guide to Faerun]
+5 total Enhancement Bonus [50,000gp--SRD]
Full name: +1 Souldrinking Bone Spellblade Longsword of Sudden Stunning and Greater Dispelling
Say that five times fast!

Armor-- 567
Spiked Bone Armor (Masterwork Full Plate) (Crafted for 1700/3=567gp) [+8 AC, max Dex +1, -6 Armor Check Penalty, move reduced from 30' to 20'-- SRD]
Full name: Bone Armor

Armor Spikes--8000 gp
(The basic spikes are purchased above with the full plate)
Defending [costs a +1 enhancement bonus][Allows an enhancement bonus on the weapon to become an unnamed bonus to AC (only enhances the weapon or

AC, not both)-- DMG]
+2 total enhancement bonus [8,000gp--SRD]
Full name: +1 Defending Armor Spikes


When Aaron wakes up in the morning, he takes the following steps:
Burn Candle of Invocation for +2 divine caster level for four hours (so while preparing spells and doing the rest of this list).  So for all of this, his effective caster level is 28.

Cast Magic Vestment on his armor.  +5 enhancement bonus.
Cast Magic Vestment on his shield.  +5 enhancement bonus.
Cast Greater Magic Weapon on his sword.  +5 enhancement bonus.
Cast Greater Magic Weapon on his armor spikes.  +5 enhancement bonus.
Cast Superior Resistance on himself.  +6 resistance to all saves.
Cast Energy Immunity: Sonic on himself.
Cast Energy Immunity: Fire on himself.

During preparation rounds:
Round 2:
Standard Action: Cast Sonorous Hum (Savage Species)
Move Action: Channel Polymorph Any Object (SRD, Trickery) into sword
Swift Action: Spontaneously cast Divine Power (SRD) on self

Round 3:
Full-round action: Using Divine Metamagic:Twin Spell and the Greater Rod of Metamagic:Extend, cast Twin Extended Summon Elemental Monolith (Complete Arcane).  Summon a fire and an air monolith.  (or would earth be better?)

[The_Mad_Linguist]

Honestly, your candle of invocation could be better spent by gating in a solar and having it use its own clerical spellcasting upon you.


You are going to need a laundry list of defensive spells, but chief among them are
-Death Ward
-Mind Blank
-True Seeing

In addition, while your numbers are a lot better than those of lower level characters, they're still missing a certain... qualitative advantage.  For example, mirror image is a low level spell, but it gives a miss chance that doesn't give two shits about your opponent's attack bonus.  Given that persistant wraithstrike (which makes all melee attacks touch attacks) isn't outside the limits of what can be expected, you should consider finding more things like that that let you say "no, just no" to your opponents.  The Shadow Cloak from Drow of the Underdark is a good example - for a trivial cost you can just teleport away from somebody on their turn a few times a day. 

Bunko's Bargain basement is a decent resource for good item suggestions.

If you have complete champion handy, turn to the affiliations section and check out the "knowledge affiliation" ability.  It's a fort save, but it's a fort save that can turn off your opponent's greatest ability.  Does the wizard like casting spells?  Not anymore he doesn't.

[Zebu]

Really?  I'd looked over the gating ability, but it seems like me not being able to cast 9th-level spells is a pretty harsh price to pay for whatever I gate in.  I mean, if I use the candle I can prepare Gate myself, right?

Death Ward-- I looked at that, but this guy's a Bone Knight-- he's already immune to energy drain, energy damage, death effects/spells, and negative energy.  What does Death Ward do that I don't have as a class feature?

Mind Blank definitely looks good, but I was thinking a Sublime Revelry would be even better (and a cleric spell).  Unless I use Substitute Domain or something to get the Protection Domain, too, I'd have to buy it as a scroll, yes?

True Seeing-- Yes, I'll need that.  Is there a way to get its duration up to twelve hours (other than Persistent Spell), or will I need to cast it in the starting rounds?

I looked over Bunko's-- a lot of the stuff (like rings of sustenance) didn't seem to apply in an arena, but it pointed out the candle to me, which alone is pretty good.  None of them seemed to have that "no, just no" feel to them.

I don't have Drow of the Underdark, but I'll run it through the mailing list.  The cloak sounds really good-- the one I'm wearing right now just gives a persistent 20% miss chance.  Any other suggestions like that?  That a Cleric can cast, I mean?

I do have Complete Champion.  On the affiliations... wow!  I'll have to ask the DM about him collecting some of those one-time bonuses before the game starts, but if it does...  does "negate a single ability" really mean that you can decide a spellcaster can't cast unless they make the Fort save?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

I do have Complete Champion.  On the affiliations... wow!  I'll have to ask the DM about him collecting some of those one-time bonuses before the game starts, but if it does...  does "negate a single ability" really mean that you can decide a spellcaster can't cast unless they make the Fort save?

Note that you an only have one kind of affiliation active each day.  So you can't have the +2 strength running and still want to have knowledge affiliation available.  There's also a gp cost in donations.

And, yeah, spellcasting is a single ability.  You have to make the knowledge DC that they have it, but that should be a trivial knowledge(local).  It's supernatural, so it takes a standard action, but it's a quite nice save-or-suck.

Casting gate yourself costs xp.  Using the candle doesn't... and you have enough money to buy a couple if need be.

Deathward is indeed superfluous. 

If you can get "craft contingent spell", do so.  Going firster is better.